ONONDAGA COUNTY – Perhaps no high school baseball team in Central New York was more ready to return from its COVID-19-enforced exile than Westhill, for good reason.
For the last time the Warriors were on the field in June 2019, it had to deal with the pain of a 14-inning defeat to Skaneateles in an epochal Section III Class B championship game at Onondaga Community College.
Nearly two years later, baseball was back, and so were the Warriors, making an emphatic opening statement last Saturday as it shut out its neighbors from Bishop Ludden 15-0.
Ludden, who had lost its opener 6-2 to Cazenovia the day before, had to watch as Westhill got going with a three-run second inning and erupted for eight runs in the top of the third, tacking on three more runs in the fourth.
Ten different Warriors picked up at least one hit as Jake Zawadzki led the way with four RBIs. Brady Richardson drove in a pair of runs as he, along with Zawadzki, Aidan Ryan, Mike Madigan and James Hunt, each scored twice.
Solvay, who won the 2018 sectional Class B title and reached the state final four that year, also began on Saturday and also flourished at the plate while pounding Altmar-Parish-Williamstown 19-4.
Contrast this with what happened to West Genesee in its season opener at Baldwinsville, where a tremendous pitching performance by Nick Jessen was squandered late in a 2-1 loss to the Bees.
Jessen allowed just one hit in his first six innings of work and accumulated eight strikeouts. The Wildcats had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when Daniel Davis singled and drove home Jessen.
Combined, B’ville pitchers Chris AuClair and Gavin Miller kept the game 1-0 until the bottom of the seventh, when it loaded the bases and, with hits by Dean Welch and Kal Girard off Jessen and reliever Ryan Klementowski, produced the tying and winning runs.
