Even with all the ups and downs it faced early this season, the West Genesee baseball team gained major momentum from its long 11-innning, 4-3 win over Christian Brothers Academy on April 22 at the Onondaga Community College complex.
Then, at the start of a three-game series against the combined Syracuse City squad last Monday afternoon, the Wildcats kept it going, though it didn’t need any extra frames this time around as it won by a 9-2 margin.
Expanding on a 1-0 lead, WG scored three runs in the top of the fourth inning. Then it added a run in the sixth and put things away with a four-run outburst in the seventh inning, with Mike Bonacci earning three of his team’s 12 hits and scoring twice.
Chris Peer singled, tripled and drove in two runs, with Dan Purcell (whose 11th-inning single beat CBA) and Brian VanBeveren each matching that two-RBI total. Will Haag added an RBI as Connor Macko got two hits and scored twice. Liam Barry earned the win in 2 2/3 innings of relief after Dylan Steinman started and went 3 2/3 innings.
Syracuse got even on Wednesday, beating the Wildcats 5-1 in Camillus as pitcher Jacob Sardino held WG to two hits in six strong innings. Sardino got all the run support he needed when Syracuse netted four runs in the top of the third, the key blow Jon Vazquez’s two-run double. The Wildcats scored its only run in the bottom of the fourth.
The final game of this series took place Thursday night at NBT Bank Stadium. WG led 4-0, but surrendered that lead when Syracuse scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth to tie it.
Ultimately, it went to the eighth inning, where the Wildcats broke out for five runs and went on to win the game and the series, 9-5. Matt Kot went four-for-four, including a triple, scoring twice and adding an RBI as Winn and Tyler Gould also scored two runs. Haag doubled, singled and drove in two runs. VanBeveren and Bonacci also had RBIs.
Less than 24 hours later, WG played again – and won again, outscoring Auburn 15-7, so it had won three of four going into a big series this week against Liverpool, who already owns sweeps of Syracuse and Fayetteville-Manlius.
Before it went back to challenge the CNY Counties League titans, the West Genesee softball team, who shared the no. 30 spot in the first state Class AA rankings of the spring, struck for a big non-league win last Monday afternoon by knocking off defending Section III Class A champion Jamesville-DeWitt 6-2.
A quick 1-0 deficit vanished when WG scored three runs in the bottom of the first off J-D pitcher Shayna Myshrall. That was enough offense, as it turned out, but the Wildcats added a run in the fourth and two runs in the fifth to pull clear.
Katie Drogo doubled twice, singled, scored two runs and earned an RBI. Olivia Pontello added a double and two RBIs as Abbey Van Horn also drove in a pair of runs. Mya Case had two hits and two runs scored as Emily Winton contributed an RBI. Deanna Shackleton pitched a complete game, holding J-D’s potent lineup to six hits.
WG would see last Tuesday’s game at unbeaten, defending Section III Class AA champion Liverpool postponed until May 16. But the Wildcats would host Central Square on Wednesday and see its bats go quiet in a 6-1 loss to the Redhawks.
In the bottom of the second, the Wildcats, down 1-0, pushed across a run as Maddy Lux drove home Grace Schnorr. That was all Central Square pitcher Abby House would allow, though, as she limited WG to four hits, and the Redhawks chased pitcher Kayla Hoover in the fifth during a decisive five-run rally.
Then, on Thursday, WG dropped another 6-1 decision, this one to Cicero-North Syracuse, who scored twice in the first inning and four more times in the fourth inning to chase Deanna Shackleton as Janelle Walters paced the Northstars with three hits and two RBIs.
On the Wildcats’ side, Case got two hits and Winton scored her team’s lone run in the bottom of the third, but overall WG had just five hits off C-NS pitcher Ariana Corasaniti, who pitched a complete game.
