A strong enough record in the OHSL Liberty American division would end up sending the Marcellus baseball team to the Section III Class B playoffs. What it did once it got there was anyone’s guess.
The Mustangs all but locked up that post-season bid in last Monday’s game against Jordan-Elbridge, which required a seventh-inning comeback to pull out a 5-3 victory over the Eagles.
J-E had struck for two runs in the bottom of the second off Jake Schettine, and with Zach Pangaro rolling along in his mound stint, the Eagles maintained that 2-0 edge until the sixth, when Marcellus earned its first rund.
Pangaro was three outs from victory when, in the top of the seventh, Marcellus wore him down, ultimately producing four runs against Pangaro and reliever George Richardson for a 5-2 lead. J-E tried to answer with a run in the bottom of the seventh, but Tyler Manthey, relieving Schettine, got the final outs.
Marcellus despite just four hits, but it played error-free defense, in contrast to the Eagles’ five errors. Schettine had one of those hits and drove in two runs, with John Houser and Matt Spicer adding one RBI apiece. Richardson, Jonah Patrick and Geoff Lippa drove in J-E’s runs.
It got tougher for Marcellus when it hosted rival Skaneateles 24 hours later, and its bats were kept quiet in a 6-1 loss to the Lakers, shut out until the bottom of the seventh, when Houser’s double scored Schettine.
Before that, though, Skaneateles pitcher Jake Reed kept the Mustangs off the board, his complete-game effort including three strikeouts. Meanwhile, Manthey also went the full route, giving up a run in the first inning and two runs in the third before a three-run seventh inning increased the Lakers’ margin.
J-E, still hanging on the brink of post-season qualification, had a non-league game at Fulton on Thursday afternoon, where it lost, 4-0, all of the Red Raiders’ runs coming in the first two innings as it scored three times in the bottom of the first and again in the second.
Between them, pitchers Zach Fabrize and Jordan Osborn would keep Fulton off the board the rest of the way. Still, the Eagles’ bats were kept quiet as Red Raiders pitcher Charles Alton held them to four hits, one each by Fabrize, Osborn, Richarsdon and Lippa.
So it all hinged on the Eagles having to beat Phoenix on Saturday afternoon – and J-E lost, 2-0, to the Firebirds, who got single runs in the first and sixth innings to overcome strong pitching from Pangaro, who struck out five and gave up seven hits.
For its part, J-E had six hits, but kept squandering chances to score against Phoenix pitcher Jon Schmidt, whose shutout included three strikeouts. Brad Dietz and Luke Schlachter drove in the Firebirds’ runs.
Bishop Ludden began its late-season push at Bishop Grimes last Tuesday, but the Cobras pushed back, beating the Gaelic Knights 11-2 as it chased starting pitcher Ian Quinn during a six-run third inning after building a 2-0 edge an inning earlier.
Meanwhile, Ludden couldn’t get on the board against Grimes pitcher Trevor Pokines until single runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Jason Hoffman and Matt McGinn scored those runs as Skyler Gashi led the Cobras, going four-for-four at the plate and earning four RBIs.
Then came a 12-5 defeat to Westhill and, on Saturday, the Gaelic Knights fell to Cortland 4-2, all of the runs coming in the fourth inning. Austin Hoyt and Matt Hosek each earned run-scoring hits in the top of the fourth to give Ludden the lead.
Quinn, who had tossed a shutout to that point, gave that up when the Purple Tigers netted its four runs in the bottom of the fourth, two of them driven home on James Lane’s single. The pitching trio of Zach Travis, Jake Woods and Dan Steve blanked Ludden the rest of the way as Dan McGarvey did a strong job relieving Quinn on the Gaelic Knights’ side.
On the same day that J-E lost to Phoenix, Marcellus met those same Firebirds and took a 10-9, eight-inning defeat despite an eight-run fourth inning.
The Mustangs were unable to hold an 8-1 lead. Phoenix answered those eight runs with four runs of its own in the bottom of the fourth to get back in it, and then scored twice in the fifth and, after Marcellus made it 9-7, twice more in the seventh before winning it an inning later.
Chris Torell hit a home run for the Mustangs as he and Matt Shoemaker both drove in three runs. Mike Kent, Matt Spicer and Kevin Brown had one RBI apiece, but Marcellus saw its record fall to 7-13.
Still, the Mustangs, unlike Ludden or J-E, made it into the sectional tournament, doing so as a no. 12 seed that would visit no. 5 seed General Brown in Tuesday’s opening round, hoping to advance to Thursday’s quarterfinal in Adams against no. 4 seed South Jefferson.
