By the time they met up last Sunday afternoon, the Jamesville-DeWitt and Christian Brothers Academy baseball teams had experienced plenty of turbulence this spring, but the Red Rams had overcome its early struggles to rise to no. 20 in the state Class A rankings and sport a 10-game win streak.
And even with ace Jack Sheridan on the mound, the Brothers couldn’t halt the J-D momentum as the Rams, thanks to a big sixth inning capped by a big blast from Ian Crawford, prevailed by a score of 8-2.
Sheridan and Bryce Moore both drove in runs off Rams starter Dylan McGee to produce a 2-1 CBA lead through three innings. From there, though, McGee blanked the Brothers and waited for help from the bats.
It came in the top of the sixth, when J-D chased Sheridan and, with the bases loaded, produced the decisive blow when Crawford, with bases loaded, drilled one over the fence for a grand slam.
That was more than enough for the Rams as Casey Kretsch worked the last 1 2/3 innings in relief of McGee. Kretsch also drove in two runs as Luke Smith and Andrew LeClair earned one RBI apiece. Matt Cappelletti scored a pair of runs as Nate Burns led CBA with three hits.
J-D began this productive week last Monday by blanking Mexico 12-0. McGee pitched six shutout innings, notching 12 strikeouts and holding the Tigers to four hits.
Meanwhile, the Rams, hinting at what it would do against CBA, jumped all over Mexico with seven runs in the second inning and four runs an inning later. Cappelletti went three-for-four with two doubles and three RBIs, while LeClair drove in two runs. Kretsch and Pat Cramer also had two-hit outings as Scottie O’Bryan scored twice.
While the league wins were nice, J-D’s 6-3 victory over defending Section III Class A champion Vernon-Verona-Sherrill carried larger ramifications, signaling that the Rams were ready to contend for a title again.
In the top of the third inning, J-D, trailing 1-0, struck for three runs, two of them coming home on Cappelletti’s double. The Red Devils tied it, 3-3, but in the sixth inning J-D moved back in front thanks to a VVS error, and McGee’s two-run single in the seventh provided a further cushion.
Will Havens pitched five solid innings for the Rams, striking out four and holding the Red Devils to five hits. Then Kretsch took over, blanking VVS in his two innings of work and capping it off with a double play to snuff out one last rally.
J-D won another non-league decision over New Hartford on Friday afternoon, though it took nine innings to subdue the Spartans 10-7.
Twice, the Rams had the lead, at 5-1 in the third inning and 7-5 in the fourth inning. Both times, New Hartford rallied to tie it, getting even, 7-7, and keeping it that way until the top of the ninth, when J-D put together a three-run rally and made it stick as Kretsch got the final three outs after pitching stints from Sean Hlywa and Josh Kowalczyk.
At the plate, the Rams had nine hits to New Hartford’s 12, but made better use of them. Kretsch drove in three runs and Cramer got two RBIs as they, along with LeClair, notched two hits apiece. Cramer scored three runs as Cappelletti added an RBI.
To start its week, CBA had gone to Homer and lost, 8-5, to the Trojans, who notched runs in each of the first five innings off pitchers Dom Spinoso and James McGlynn to erase the Brothers’ early 3-0 lead. Sheridan, in defeat, did earn an RBI, with Burns, Jack Lester and Brian McCann scoring runs.
Off until Thursday, CBA used that rest to regroup – and found its pop at the plate again in a 13-5 win over Mexico, which featured the Brothers scoring three runs in the first inning and four runs in the top of the fourth to break a 3-3 tie and pull ahead for good.
Adding six runs in the last two innings to get away, CBA saw Moore double and earn four RBIs and Sheridan hit a home run on his way to three RBIs. Eric Little added two hits as he and William Ierlan both drove in two runs. Spinoso and Mike McCully, who shared pitching duties with Sheridan, had one RBI apiece.
Scheduled to play two games against Utica Proctor Saturday at Murnane Field, CBA only got in one of them due to weather, but lost that game to the Raiders 9-1.
Just after its brief foray into the state Class A rankings, East Syracuse Minoa would stumble a bit, dropping back-to-back shutouts. An 8-0 defeat to CBA on May 7 was followed, two days later, by a trip to Fulton where, again, the Spartans were kept off the board and lost, 7-0, to the Red Raiders.
ESM did manage six hits off Fulton pitcher Bryce Guernsey, two of them by Nick Castrello, but couldn’t capitalize on them as Guernsey notched 13 strikeouts and got helped by his team getting to Spartans starter Shane Krawec for four runs in the second inning and three more in the fifth and sixth innings. Adam Baldwin (two hits, two RBIs) and Koda LaBeef (two hits, two runs scored) paced the Red Raiders.
More frustration followed in Wednesday’s 8-4 defeat to Cortland, a game that was 3-2 in ESM’s favor until the bottom of the sixth, when the Purple Tigers loaded the bases and Noah Barber belted a grand slam off pitcher Tom Ghika.
Prior to that, Castrello had driven in a pair of runs, with Zach Grevelding adding an RBI, but the Spartans only had four hits against Cortland hurler Dan Steve, who picked up eight strikeouts.
Even in a non-league game against Cicero-North Syracuse on Thursday, the Spartans could not pull out of its slide, suffering yet another shutout in a 12-0 loss to the Northstars, who used five runs in the second inning and six runs in the top of the fifth to do most of the damage. ESM committed four errors as Ryan Seburn took the loss.
But the Spartans did beat Marcellus 6-2 on Saturday, scoring three runs in the first and fifth innings to get all the offense it needed.
Colin Williams went three-for-three, with two RBIs, while Castrello got two hits, scored twice and drove in a pair of runs. Grevelding added an RBI as Jimmy Griffin pitched five innings, giving up just four hits in relief before Williams went the last two innings in relief.
