While their softball counterparts made an inspired run through the Section III Class C playoffs, Bishop Grimes was trying to make a run on the baseball side, too, rising from its own no. 6 seed in the sectional Class B bracket.
It all started in last Tuesday’s opening round, when the Cobras held off no. 11 seed South Jefferson in a 9-6 decision.
It didn’t start out well, the Spartans leading 3-0 and 4-2 in the first two inning, but Grimes answering each time, using a three-run rally in the bottom of the second to move in front for good and adding three more runs in the next two innings to build an 8-4 edge.
Johnny Wike, Trevor Pokines, Shawn Gashi and Austin DiRiezno each got two hits for Grimes, with Wike adding a pair of RBIs and scoring twice. Adam Dominic, Chris Mancuso and Jim Perra joined DiRienzo and Gashi in the RBI column as Perra, following his rough start on the mound, lasted five innings to earn the win, with Jack Rotondo working in relief.
Grimes now met no. 3 seed Lowville in Thursday’s Class B quarterfinal, and despite the long road trip and unfamiliar opponent, the Cobras stepped up again and, with one big inning and strong pitching from Trevor Pokines, eliminated the Red Raiders 5-1.
All the help that Pokines needed came in the top of the second inning. Grimes chased Lowville starter Jordan Arthur by scoring all five of its runs, the biggest blow Mancuso’s two-run double. Pokines, Shawn Gashi and Skyler Gashi also had RBIs in this pivotal rally.
Now it was up to Pokines to protect that lead. For six innings, Pokines kept the Red Raiders off the board, striking out eight and overcoming five hits and four walks with error-free defense. When Lowville did score in the bottom of the seventh on Matt Fayle’s RBI double, Rotondo came in to record the last two outs to end it.
An even bigger challenge awaited Grimes in Saturday’s Class B semifinal at Onondaga Community College, the Cobras facing no. 2 seed Holland Patent, who was riding a 17-game win streak and was no. 8 in the latest state Class B rankings.
Try as it could, the Cobras could not get on the board in a 4-0 defeat to the Golden Knights, stymied by HP pitcher Nico Ramos, who held Grimes to five hits and struck out seven.
Rotondo started and kept it 0-0 until the bottom of the second, when the Golden Knights’ Jordan Brown tripled and scored on a throwing error, with Steve McGahey’s bunt plating Devin Franco moments later.
An inning later, HP made it 3-0 when Ramos doubled home Jared Fisher, and in the fifth, Jordan Dziekan doubled and raced home when Kinsey Williams bunted and Grimes committed another error.
Meanwhile, the Cobras kept getting chances. A fourth-inning rally got squashed when the Golden Knights pulled off a rare 1-3-6-3 double play. DiRienzo doubled in the fifth and moved to third on a passed ball, but Ramos stranded him.
Finally, in the seventh, Dominic led off with a single, and Wike reached base when he got hit. Yet with two on and nobody out, the Cobras again were unable to capitalize, and HP had its 18th win in a row.
Grimes’ season ended with a 15-8 record, which was quite impressive given that it had lost nine seniors from the 2014 squad to graduation and got moved up from Class C to B. This success will serve as both a confidence-builder and a motivating factor to do better in 2016.
