What happened at the start of the West Genesee baseball team’s three-game series against Fayetteville-Manlius would make the Wildcats spend the rest of the week trying to recover.
That’s because, in last Monday’s series opener at F-M, WG took a three-run lead to the bottom of the seventh inning, but squandered it and then fell, 5-4, to the Hornets in 10 innings.
This game had three distinct parts. It began as a standoff, with the Hornets falling behind 1-0 in the first inning but tying it an inning later, and then, over the next three innings, neither side could break the 1-1 deadlock as pitchers Brian Hartnett (for WG) and Christian Maloney (for F-M) had control.
But in the top of the sixth, the Wildcats knocked out Maloney during a three-run rally. By this point, Mike Bonacci, Marshall Winn, Tyler Gould and Dan Purcell had each earned an RBI, with Bonacci and Matt Kot earning two hits apiece.
Kyle Walters took over for the Hornets on the mound, and while he stopped the rally, it looked in vain as WG still led, 4-1, going to the bottom of the seventh, with
But then F-M came to life when pinch-hitter Kip Hellings drew a lead-off walk. Five straight singles followed against relievers Liam Barry and Billy O’Brien, the last of them from Steve Laurie that drove home the tying run, though WG did keep the winning run from crossing the plate and forced extra innings.
Walters threw three more scoreless innings, and was finally rewarded in the bottom of the 10th when F-M loaded the bases and Mitch Seabury legged out an infield hit to bring the decisive run home.
That momentum carried over into the second game Tuesday in Camillus, where WG honored its seniors, but could not get them a home win as it fell it to F-M 3-1.
For four innings, James Randall matched zeroes with Hornets pitcher Peter Miller, but in the top of the fifth F-M grabbed a 3-0 lead, chasing Randall as Walters’ two-run single was the big blow. Kot singled and scored in the sixth, but that was all the Wildcats could get against Miller, who limited them to five hits.
Before the series with F-M ended, the Wildcats ventured to Liverpool last Wednesday and took a 10-6 defeat to the Warriors, who used a seven-run second inning to erase WG’s early 2-0 advantage.
Tyler Gould, with two hits, and Tim Winn, with two RBIs, paced the Wildcats at the plate. Joe Comins, Dan Purcell and Chris Bonacci had one RBI apiece. For Liverpool, Zach Scannell hit a home run as he finished with three RBIs and Jacob Sisto drove in two runs.
Weather pushed the final game of the series with F-M until Friday afternoon, and it was here that the Wildcats finally got the best of the Hornets, prevailing 6-3 as it notched a run in the third inning and broke it open with five runs in the top of the third to go up 6-0.
Purcell had two RBIs to pace WG’s balanced attack as Kot, Gould and Joe Comins had one RBI apiece. Marshall Winn pitched five innings, keeping F-M off the board until the fifth as three relievers – O’Brien, Keith Hagen and Tim Winn – combined to get the final six outs.
On Saturday, WG followed up by beating Utica Proctor 8-3, getting all the runs it needed in a four-run first inning, but adding single tallies in the third and fifth innings and two runs in the seventh to prevent a Raiders comeback.
In softball, West Genesee had a second chance in as many weeks to topple three-time defending sectional champion Liverpool. When they met last Tuesday, the Wildcats again kept it close – and again lost to the Warriors, this time by a 4-1 margin.
WG struck in the top of the first as Abbey VanHorn singled home Teagan Dow, but Liverpool countered with all of its runs in the bottom of the second, two of them driven home on Avery Marcy’s single.
Deanna Shackleton blanked the Warriors from there, only giving up six hits. But despite six hits of its own (two of them by Dow), WG could not cash them in against Liverpool ace Jenna Wike, who also pitched a complete game.
From there, the Wildcats were off until Friday, when it took on Fayetteville-Manlius and beat the Hornets 5-2 behind Kayla Hoovler’s pitching as she struck out eight in a complete-game effort. VanHorn and Katie Drogo each had two hits, with Down driving in two runs as Drogo and Olivia Davoli got one RBI apiece.
Then the Wildcats took an 8-3 defeat to Baldwinsville on Saturday where it scored all of its runs in the first inning, with Drogo and VanHorn earning RBIs, and kept that lead until the sixth, when the Bees scored all eight of its runs, the key blows home runs by Kayla Young and Claire McAllister.
On Monday, with the no. 8 seed in the Section III Class AA playoffs, the WG softball team hosts no. 9 seed Utica Proctor, knowing a win would give them a third shot at top seed Liverpool in the quarterfinals.
WG’s baseball side would have the no. 4 seed in its AA bracket and squares off with no. 5 seed Baldwinsville in the quarterfinals. Here, too, Liverpool is a top seed and could await in the semifinals should the Wildcats get that far.
