CENTRAL NEW YORK – Resilient, tough and pulling off clutch hits and plays just when it needed them, the Onondaga Babe Ruth 16-18 All-Star team rallied from two defeats in its first three games to capture the 16-18 Babe Ruth World Series in Mobile, Alabama.
The Onondaga team, composed of high school and college players from across Central New York, capped off its unlikely run when it defeated the host team from Mobile 6-5 in Saturday’s championship game.
Just getting there, though, was as extraordinary as the final itself.
One of 10 teams in the field, Onondaga would go through four games of group play in the National division in as many days, attempting to be one of three sides in that group to advance to the elimination round.
It started well on July 31 with a 2-0 shutout over Mid-County Texas. Aiden Shea (Marcellus) drove in both runs and Auburn’s Jake Sanders pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings.
All that went right turned around the next day, Aug. 1, as Onondaga absorbed a 10-1 loss to Bakersfield, California. What hurt Onondaga was not Bakersfield’s bats, but its own gloves as it committed six errors.
Up against Cape Cod (Massachusetts) next in a game that stretched over two days due to weather, Onondaga lost again, 6-3, leaving it in a must-win situation in its last pool play game against Oregon.
Here, though no one could have known it at the time, the championship run began.
A combination of terrific pitching and timely hits helped Onondaga blank Oregon 3-0. On the mound, Sanders (five innings) and Beaver River’s Tyler Kensey (two innings of relief) returned and, between them, surrendered just five hits.
It was still 0-0, though, until the sixth inning, when Onondaga scored all of its runs, two of them on a hit from Cazenovia’s Patrick Linck and another driven in by Kensey.
At 2-2, Onondaga found its way into the first round of elimination games on Thursday, where it would face the Midwest Plains champions from Indiana – and win, 3-1, to advance to the semifinals.
Shearer had much to do with it, pitching six solid innings while holding Indiana to two hits while getting five strikeouts. Kensey then worked a scoreless seventh inning for the save, having already earned an RBI at the plate with Bishop Grimes’ Joe Wike and Westhill’s Jake Zawadzki also driving in runs.
Now came a rematch Friday with Bakersfield, who had finished atop the National division. And it turned into an all-around masterpiece put together by West Genesee’s Ryan Klementowski.
Starting on the mound, Klementowski kept California’s bats quiet for six innings, allowing just one hit and one walk, only to have California prove just as stingy, the game remaining scoreless going into the seventh.
In the top of the seventh, Westhill’s Geoff Daniul reached third base, and Klementowski was at the plate. On a ground ball, Daniul raced home – and barely beat the throw.
A perfect seventh inning thrown by Klementowski meant a 1-0 Onondaga victory and a chance to upend the hosts from Mobile in Saturday’s title game.
Mobile struck for three runs in the first inning after Onondaga scored first, but the visitors fought back, tied it 4-4 and then, in the top of the sixth, moved out in front with a pair of runs.
Jim Scherer (Marcellus) and Dan Davis (West Genesee) had pitched so far, but it was Sanders tasked with getting the final outs in the seventh, and Mobile quickly put the tying runs on base with one out.
Then Bishop Grimes’ Ryan Murphy made the most memorable play of the tournament, jumping at the wall to make a catch on what could have been a game-tying extra-base hit, at least.
Instead, just one run scored, and Sanders, after fraying more nerves by loading the bases with a pair of walks, induced a game-ending groundout.
Davis garnered tournament MVP honors as East Syracuse Minoa’s Josh Gilkey and Marcellus’ Aidan Shea were All-Tournament selections. It was the second time Onondaga had captured the 16-18 Babe Ruth World Series, having also done so in 2012.