Four members of the Baldwinsville boys tennis team would make serious runs during last week’s Section III state qualifying tournament, held at SUNY-Cortland.
Since the top three doubles players (and top three singles players) advanced to this weekend’s state tournament at the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, the stakes were high for Chris Dotto and Nick Walker, as it was for fellow Bees Scott Ferrari and Mason Soeder.
For their opening-round match, Dotto and Walker faced familiar league rivals, but that familiarity led to success as they beat Liverpool’s Evan Maestri and Evan Vogue 6-4, 6-1, only to run into Cooperstown’s tandem of Tyler Bertram and Pierce Snyder in the quarterfinals.
They were tied in the first set before Bertram and Snyder pulled it out 7-5. Dotto and Walker evened it up by winning the second set 6-3, but ran out of steam in the final set, allowing Bertram and Snyder to claim a 6-2 decision.
In that same half of the bracket, Ferrari and Soeder got out of the opening round with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Seth Brewster and Jayson Decker. The quarterfinal against Fayetteville-Manlius rivals James DeSorbo and Vince Sorrrentino went three sets, with the two sides splitting 6-4 sets before a final set where Ferrari and Soeder struggled in a 6-1 defeat.
DeSorbo and Sorrentino went on to a third-place finish, while Bertram and Snyder took second place. Each were going to the state tournament along with the doubles champions, Jamesville-DeWitt’s Robert Dotterer and Peter Hatton, plus singles players Nate Romig (Cazenovia), Taran Judge (F-M) and Scott Minnoe (Auburn).
On that same day, Baldwinsville girls golfer Emma Brushingham was her team’s lone representative in the Section III tournament at Kanon Valley in Oneida.
Brushingham had a 58 on the back nine and 63 on the front nine for a total of 121. It took a 92 to earn one of the nine qualifying berths in this week’s state tournament at Long Island’s Bethpage State Park, and Auburn’s Lindsay May, a two-time individual state champion, won here, too, with a 77, seven shots ahead of Fayetteville-Manlius’ Madison Kingsley.
