Given their precarious records and the question of whether each of them would be able to play a full schedule, the Fayetteville-Manlius baseball and softball teams greeted, with enthusiasm, the news that Section III would open its playoffs to all teams, regardless of their regular-season records.
As it resumed action following a series of postponements, the F-M baseball team held a 4-7 record, which promptly got worse last Tuesday when it went to Syracuse and took a 4-1 defeat.
Syracuse had beaten Baldwinsville twice the week before and, carrying that momentum, used single runs in the third and fifth innings to gain a 2-0 lead. When Mitch Seabury’s single drove home Elliot Baker in the top of the sixth to cut it to 2-1, Syracuse countered with a pair of insurance runs.
Colin Sommers took the loss, striking out seven and limiting Syracuse to four hits, but hurt by three errors from the Hornets. Nadia Diaz drove in two of Syracuse’s four runs, with RBIs also going to Pat Burke and Anthony Cangemi.
The second game of the F-M-Syracuse series took place Thursday and the Hornets got even with a 15-5 victory, scoring in every inning except the third as it started out with four runs in the top of the first and peaked again with five runs in the sixth inning.
Of the 11 hits, four came from Sommers, who earned a pair of RBIs as Jacob Rhea drove in four runs. Kyle Walters walked four times and scored five runs as he and Gary Smith matched Sommers’ two-RBI output and Jack Grifo got three RBIs. Josh Egnaczyk doubled and drove in a run as Seabury also contributed an RBI.
In between these contests, the Hornets wrapped up its three-game series with Cicero-North Syracuse, having spilt the first two a week earlier. Despite an advantageous situation, F-M still lost, 6-1, to the Northstars.
Both of the top C-NS pitchers, Chris Cramer and Luke Dziados, had pitched the previous two days in back-to-back shutouts of Liverpool, but the Hornets weren’t spared as the Northstars’ Justin DelVecchio limited F-M to two hits, one each by Sommers and Smith, who drove in Egnaczyk with his team’s lone run in the fourth inning.
Meanwhile, Christian Maloney took his turn on the mound for the Hornets, and C-NS got to him for single runs in the first two innings and three runs in the third to break it open. Joe Brisson, with three hits and two RBIs, led the Northstars as Connor Stanton added a single, double and RBI.
Meanwhile, the F-M softball team was coming off a wild 14-13 defeat to Baldwinsville on May 4, and could not bounce back in last Tuesday’s game against Fulton, taking a 13-4 defeat to the Red Raiders.
All of Fulton’s runs were scored in the first three innings, capped by a six-run third as Sarah Rice led with two doubles, a single and four RBIs. F-M could only manage two-run rallies in the fourth and seventh innings as Sara Arthur and Alex Monasefsky each got two hits, with Emily Gryzcka, Sarah Vaccaro and Madelyn Goskoski earning one RBI apiece.
On Wednesday, F-M lost again, 7-0, to Whitesboro, held to just two hits by Warriors pitcher Caitlin Reilly as Gryczka and Monasfesky picked up those hits. Olivia Simone, Madison Cieslak (two hits each) and Carina Haden (two RBIs) led the Whitesboro attack as Vaccaro pitched and took the loss.
Then, on Friday, the Hornets ran up against three-time defending sectional Class AA champion Liverpool, and actually took a 4-2 lead in the top of the fourth inning as Sara Arthur’s two-run double keyed the rally, while Emma RRobinson and Caroline Muller also drove in runs.
Accustomed to comebacks (it twice rallied from six-run deficits to beat C-NS this season), the Warriors did so here, too, getting four runs of its own in the bottom of the fourth and going on to hand the Hornets a 9-4 defeat as Dana Egan got three RBIs and Jenna Wike drove in two runs.
