Only one venue, and one tournament, would settle the season-long battle between Baldwinsville and Fayetteville-Manlius for Section III Class AA boys golf supremacy.
Due to a 197-200 defeat to the Hornets at Woodcrest Golf Club last Monday afternoon, the Bees ended up splitting its pair of regular-season matches with the Hornets, and the close nature of each of those contests meant that very little separated the two sides.
Yet while F-M finished atop the CNY Counties League regular-season standings, B’ville would get a chance to grab the most important prize on Wednesday at Radisson Greens, when the sectional AA tournament took place. Many of the Bees’ players have taken rounds at nearby Radisson, giving them a potential advantage.
But it was at Timber Banks that B’ville won over F-M 195-203 on Sept. 1. The Hornets had not lost since, and the Bees, due to an early-season defeat to Cicero-North Syracuse Blue, arrived at Woodcrest with the same 8-1 record as F-M did, making this a potential regular-season league championship showdown.
And it did not disappoint.
Despite windy conditions, B’ville’s Ryan Fecco nearly matched par and, with a nine-hole score of 37, tied F-M’s Kyle Gilroy for top individual honors. Gilroy’s teammate, Jason Coleman, was third with a 38, while Tim Garraffo’s 39 matched that of the Hornets’ John Cacchio.
With Matt Shipman netting a 40 and two other B’ville golfers, Maxwell Dec and Carson Hayes, finishing at 42, F-M needed a combined 85 total from its fourth and fifth finishers. It did three better, with Tim Zapisek landing a 40 and Colin Sommers notching a 43 to clinch the victory.
Just 24 hours later, the Bees were back at Timber Banks – and got back to a winning form, topping the Syracuse City team 192-238.
Garraffo, in particular, was hot, shooting a two-under-par 34 as part of a B’ville sweep of the top five positions. Fecco earned a 38, with Dan Reiser, Mike George and Will Molina each posting 40 to top Syracuse’s top individual, Jonathan Kinane, who had a 41.
This eventful week continued Wednesday when B’ville found out that F-M had lost to Cicero-North Syracuse Blue at Northern Pines, meaning that, if it beat Liverpool Friday, it would still share the regular-season league title.
Fired up to get it done, the Bees went to Liverpool Country Club and accomplished what it wanted, topping the Warriors 196-214 as Dec led all individuals with a 37 in wet, windy conditions.
Fecco shot a 39, the same as Liverpool’s Spencer Baum, but Garraffo, Matt Shipman and Dan Reiser each had rounds of 40, beating all of the other Liverpool golfers, whose best total was a 42 from Brandon Exner.
When F-M defeated West Genesee on that same day, the Bees and Hornets ended up sharing the CNYCL regular-season title, though both knew that what was at stake at Radisson, both on a team and individual basis, meant much more.
