What the series schedule did for the Baldwinsville baseball team was offer a reprieve before the tough games of May loomed.
Swept by defending Section III Class AA champion Cicero-North Syracuse the week before, the Bees now turned to a series against Syracuse City, who had not won any of its games in three attempts against Liverpool and West Genesee.
And B’ville beat Syracuse, too, starting with last Monday’s 11-3 decision where all of the runs the Bees needed came in a four-run first inning off Adam Douglas. Despite this, the game never felt safe because the Bees went cold and only led, 5-2, before batting around for six runs in the top of the seventh.
Carson Hayes singled, doubled and earned a pair of RBIs to lead B’ville at the plate. Cam Williams also drove in two runs as David Cerqua, Billy Clifford and Keenan Nellis each had one RBI. Anthony May walked, singled and scored a team-best three runs.
Ace pitcher Cody Kaestle went six innings, giving up just four hits, but walking five while earning six strikeouts. Jarrod Williams worked the seventh inning in relief.
Rain pushed the second game between B’ville and Syracuse to Wednesday, but the Bees still had to face highly-touted left-hander Jeff Belge, and its struggles against Belge could not quite be overcome despite a furious late rally in a 9-8 defeat.
Dozens of Major League Baseball scouts were on hand to watch Belge, and he lasted four innings, but struck out 10 in his stint and limited B’ville to a single hit. When he exited in the fifth, Syracuse had an 8-1 lead, mostly on the basis of a six-run second inning.
An exchange of runs made it 9-2 when B’ville broke out for six runs in the bottom of the sixth, though it wasn’t quite able to catch up as it was shut out in the bottom of the seventh. May, with a double and three RBIs, led the late charge as Alex Robinson and Zach Bush also drove in runs. Bush and Cerqua each scored twice.
In the series finale on Thursday, B’ville, without having to worry about Belge on the mound, rolled past Syracuse 10-2, though it still needed to break out of a 2-2 tie with a third-inning run before breaking out with seven runs in the top of the fourth.
Nick Borek pitched a complete game, limiting Syrause to two hits and one walk while recording eight strikeouts. May, Cerqua and Clifford led the Bees’ attack, each notching a pair of hits and scoring twice. Williams doubled and drove in two runs, while May and Clifford had one RBI apiece and Bush scored two runs.
Having climbed back to the .500 mark (5-5) midway through its regular season, B’ville made up another of the early-season postponement with Fayetteville-Manlius on Friday afternoon and earned, perhaps, its most important win of the season, rallying late to knock off the Hornets 8-7.
F-M appeared to take control with a five-run second inning, and still led, 6-1, going to the bottom of the fifth. But B’ville got to Hornets starter Kyle Walters for five runs, two of them coming home on Cilfford’s double.
They exchanged runs in the sixth to make it 7-7. Then, in the bottom of the seventh, May doubled off Anthony Nucerino, who had relieved Walters and had hurt the Bees with a double, triple and four RBIs. With Clifford up again, May took off for third, drawing a throw that went to the outfield and allowed May to race home with the winning run.
The double was May’s third hit of the game as he matched Clifford’s two-RBI output. Bush, Robinson and Jarrod Williams also drove in runs. Cameron Morrissey pitched 5 1/3 innings before Kaestle and Nate Valentine helped out in relief.
With a 6-5 record, B’ville would take aim at Liverpool this week, the Warriors sitting atop the CNY Counties League after sweeps of Syracuse and West Genesee and a split of two games with second-place Cicero-North Syracuse.
