For its last series of the season, the Fayetteville-Manlius baseball team would take on a long-time rival, West Genesee, doing so in many different venues and looking for some kind of positive result – but never finding it, the results ultimately keeping the Hornets out of the post-season.
Their series began last Monday night at Onondaga Community College’s turf field, where the Hornets had lost a Section III Class AA semifinal to those same Wildcats a year ago.
Here, though, it wasn’t as close, F-M falling by a 15-3 margin in a game where it was tied, 1-1, before WG took charge with three runs in the third inning and added seven runs an inning later.
Five different Hornets – Peter Miller, Colin Sommers, Mitch Hoalcraft, Josh Loeffler and Kyle Walters – had pitching stints. Combined, they gave up 10 hits and eight walks, with Mike Bonacci walking three times for WG and finishing with three RBIs. Walters had two hits and an RBi off Wildcats pitcher Kyle Korzeniewski.
While that hurt, the Hornets’ 8-7 defeat to West Genesee a day later hurt more because F-M had a great opportunity to spoil the Wildcats’ Senior Day festivities, but could not do so.
The Hornets erased WG’s early 3-0 lead by scoring four runs in the top of the third. Though it quickly gave up that advantage thanks to three Wildcats runs in the bottom of the third, F-M scored twice in the fourth to tie it, 6-6, and then inched ahead with another run two innings later.
Entering the bottom of the sixth, the Hornets were up 7-6, but the Wildcats tied it in that frame and, after Anthony Nucerino relieved Colin Green, won it when Marshall Winn singled, moved to third on a throwing error and then dashed home with the tie-breaking run when Matt Frazee singled through the drawn-in infield, capping off a day where he had three hits and four RBIs.
Sommers and Jackson Delmarsh both doubled and drove in two runs to pace F-M’s attack. Hoalcraft, Walters and Sean Putnam also had two-hit outings as Hoalcraft and Putnam got one RBI apiece.
F-M bounced back from this disappointment long enough to beat the combined Syracuse City team by a 5-2 margin on Wednesday afternoon before Thursday’s series finale, where it tried to avoid getting swept by West Genesee – but could not do so.
The Wildcats prevailed, 12-5, striking for five runs in the first inning before the Hornets tied it, 5-5, in the bottom of the third, with Putnam and Walters each producing two-run singles and Sommers adding an RBI.
That tie didn’t hold, though, as WG regained the lead, 7-5, in the top of the fourth and then got away in the top of the seventh with another five-run rally. Sommers took the loss as, for the Wildcats, Winn and Brian VanBeveren each had three RBIs.
On Friday, F-M lost again, falling to Baldwinsville 5-3 in a game where it led, 2-1, thanks to a pair of third-inning runs before the Bees took charge with four runs in the bottom of the third. Tyler Powell, pitching four innings, took the loss as Truman drove in a pair of runs and Nucerino finished with two hits.
At the start of its last week of the regular season, Bishop Grimes hosted Bishop Ludden, and a combination of Trevor Pokines’ strong pitching and a stronger effort at the plate led to an 11-2 victory over the Gaelic Knights.
Pokines blanked Ludden through the first four innings, eventually going the route as he gave up just four hits and two walks, striking out four. Meanwhile, Grimes took the lead with two runs in the second inning and chased Gaelic Knights starter Ian Quinn as it batted around in the bottom of the third, scoring six times.
Of the Cobras’ 14 hits, four were by Skyler Gashi, who doubled, singled three times and drove in four runs. Shawn Gashi added a double, single and two RBIs, with Pokines scoring twice and netting two hits as he and Matt Vonden Steinen had one RBI apiece. Camden Ciotoli doubled and scored a pair of runs.
In a non-league game Thursday against East Syracuse Minoa, Grimes was bent on claiming neighborhood bragging rights – and did so, working hard to pull out a 5-3 victory over the Spartans.
Falling behind 2-0 in the top of the first on Nick Castrello’s two-run double, the Cobras quickly recovered, scoring all of its runs in the first three innings, capped by a three-run rally in the bottom of the second. Johnny Wike had two hits, two runs scored and an RBI to lead that push.
Chris Mancuso, who also had an RBI, pitched most of the way, limiting ESM to five hits in six innings while striking out seven to overcome four walks. Castrello drove in another run in the fifth, but Mancuso didn’t allow anything more, and Wike worked the seventh inning for the save.
Unlike F-M, Grimes did make its way to the sectional playoffs, doing so as the no. 9 seed in Class B. If the Cobras beat no. 8 seed Clinton in Tuesday’s opening round, it would take a shot at top seed Solvay in Thursday’s quarterfinals.
