At least through the early part of the season, the Baldwinsville boys tennis team managed to keep up with Fayetteville-Manlius, each of them sporting undefeated marks in the CNY Counties League and awaiting a head-to-head showdown on the court.
That came on Saturday afternoon, amid cool and cloudy conditions, and the Bees, like all of the Hornets’ previous opponents in 2017, found itself unable to get on the board as it took a 7-0 defeat – but at least some of the matches proved quite competitive.
In first singles, B’ville’s Antonio Marsallo played two tough sets, but lost to F-M’s Jeremy Zhang 6-4, 6-4. David Rush nearly grabbed the first set in a 7-5, 6-1 defeat to David Fernando, while Max Funicello fell to Tom Miro 6-1, 6-2.
Anthony Pompo and Alex Shaban got in the closest doubles match, a 6-4, 6-2 defeat to Ravi and Rohan Dhawan. Scott Ferrari and Sam Damato lost to Chris Lansing and Taran Judge 6-0, 6-0, with Isiah Demoski and Ryan Shirk falling to Nolan Chiles and Joe Farella 6-2, 6-1. Kyle Robinson and Alex Taylor had a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Dilan Judge and Richard Wang.
Two days earlier, the Bees swept past Syracuse East 7-0, only dropping one game in three singles matches. Marsallo and Shaban each had 6-0, 6-0 wins over, respectively, Mike O’Neil and Zidon Mealy, with Funicello beating Kevin Parham 6-0, 6-1.
One of the doubles matches went to three sets, but Pompo and Rush won it for B’ville, topping Nick Lozaponi and Be Aung 6-4, 3-6, 6-1. Otherwise, the teams of Ferrari- Damato, Demoski-Shirk and Robinson-Taylor lost just four games in six total sets.
The Bees have to wait until May 9 before taking another shot at F-M. Prior to that, there’s a full week of matches against league foes Cicero-North Syracuse, Liverpool and West Genesee.
