Determined it end its four-decade wait for a Section III championship, the West Genesee baseball team got the toughest opening assignment possible.
Just as in 2016, the Wildcats would play three-game series, one per week (weather permitting), against CNY Counties League foes, and the first of those series was against two-time defending sectional champion Cicero-North Syracuse.
The first two games didn’t go well, with the Wildcats taking a 6-4 defeat at home and a 5-2 defeat at the Gillette Road complex. But it avoided a sweep last Thursday in a spectacular manner as Marshall Winn and James Randall combined to no-hit the Northstars in a 2-0 victory.
Winn got the start, and for five innings he quieted the C-NS bats. Just three reached base – two by walk, one by a hit batsman – while Winn recorded six strikeouts. It remained 0-0, though, until WG poked across a run against Northstars pitcher Justin DelVecchio.
Another run followed in the sixth. By then, Randall had taken over, and he finished off the no-hitter, only giving up one walk in his two-inning stint. Winn helped him by getting two hits, including a double, and scoring both runs when driven in by Tyler Gould and Will Haag.
The opening game last Monday saw C-NS jump out of the gate, battering WG starting pitcher Billy O’Brien for four runs in the top of the first. Though O’Brien settled down, the Northstars tacked on a run in the fourth and another in the sixth off reliever Kevin Donohue. Brendan Reilly, with three hits, led the attack as Dylan Frawley earned a pair of RBIs.
C-NS Right-hander Chris Cramer went six innings, surrendering five hits, but nothing more than a single. Cramer got help when C-NS twice pulled off double plays to thwart Wildcat threats in the fourth and sixth innings, which proved important.
Jim Christian relieved Cramer in the bottom of the seventh, and gave up two runs on Winn’s two-out single, but bore down to strike out Liam Barry, the possible tying run, to end it.
Two days later, at the Gillette Road complex, the two sides met again, and another poor start hurt the Wildcats. Here, C-NS got all of its runs in the first three innings off Barry, capped by Connor Stanton’s three-run home run in the bottom of the third.
Trailing 5-0, WG would get scoreless relief from Keith Hagen and Dylan Steinman the rest of the way, and did net single runs in the fourth and sixth innings, each of them scored by Brian VanBeveren as he finished with three of his team’s seven hits and Winn got credit for an RBI.
Still, the Northstars held on as ace Luke Dziados struck out seven in his five-inning start, not quite imagining that, a day later, his solid effort would get overshadowed by the no-hit response from Winn
West Genesee’s softball team, carrying its own championship ambitions, had to endure a handful of rainouts before finally getting underway last Wednesday against Fayetteville-Manlius, but the wait was worth it as the Wildcats blanked the Hornets 7-0.
The game broke open in the bottom of the fourth when WG, up 1-0, got to F-M pitcher Sarah Vaccaro for five runs. Another run followed in the fifth as Kaylee Shackleton and Mya Case got two RBIs apiece, with Emily Winton, Grace Schnorr and Teagan Dow also driving in runs.
Shackleton pitched a complete game, surrendering six hits, but keeping F-M off the board thanks to strong defense and solid control as she only walked two Hornet batters while recording a pair of strikeouts.
Things were a bit more lopsided on Thursday, when WG piled up runs in 33-3 romp over Utica Proctor. The lead was already 8-1 when the Wildcats scored seven runs in the third inning, followed by nine-run outbursts in the fourth and fifth innings before things ended due to the mercy rule.
Case and Olivia Pontello both finished with four hits and four RBIs, Case doubling twice and Abbey VanHorn also driving in four runs. Winton scored five runs and drove in three others as Shackleton and Katie Drogo had two RBIs apiece. Schnorr, Dow, Olivia Davoli, Elle Lazore and Cheyenne Lappan also earned RBIs.
