As it went up, down and sideways through a 10-10 regular season, there was little that suggested the Baldwinsville baseball team to be a serious Section III Class AA championship contender.
But then the post-season started, and upheaval in the sectional bracket started with the no. 5 seed Bees going to Camillus and beating no. 4 seed West Genesee 13-5, sharply turning around what had happened two weeks earlier in their regular-season series.
When they met from May 8 to 11, B’ville had lost two of three to WG and had only scored three total runs, the win a 1-0 Cameron Morrissey shutout. But the Bees’ bats were on fire from the outset here as it jumped all over Wildcats starter Marshall Winn for two runs in the first inning and five runs in the second inning to establish a 7-0 margin.
From there, WG tried six more pitchers – Keith Hagen, James Randall, Dylan Steinman, Billy O’Brien, Kevin Donohue and Liam Barry – yet they could not keep B’ville from stretching the margin to 10-0 in the fourth inning.
Finally, the Wildcats got on the board with a five-run fourth inning, the only runs that B’ville starter Jason Savocool would allow as, overall, he allowed six hits and struck out four. It included Winn’s two-run single and Matt Kot’s two-run double, but WG would not get closer, and the Bees scored three times in the top of the seventh to clinch it.
In particular, Cam Williams whipped the Wildcats, accumulating three hits and earning a career-best five RBIs. Carson Hayes drove in three runs, with Anthony May scoring four runs and Zach Bush scoring three times as they, along with Alex Robinson, had one RBI apiece.
That same day, an even bigger surprise took place as two-time defending sectional champion Cicero-North Syracuse was knocked out at home by Fayetteville-Manlius 3-1, taking away a major obstacle for everyone else in the field.
Still, the Bees would have to deal with its other neighborly rival, Liverpool, in the AA semifinals Thursday night at Onondaga Community College. And it was here that the title dream ended as B’ville fell to the Warriors 7-3.
They had played a series the week before, with Liverpool taking two of three games. Here, the Warriors got to B’ville ace Cameron Morrissey for a run in the second inning and three runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 4-0 lead.
Even when the Bees got on the board in the top of the sixth, the Warriors pulled further away with three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Nate Valentine relieved Morrissey, and B’ville fought to the end with a pair of seventh-inning runs on Frankie Levanti’s double, but it proved too late as Liverpool advanced to Face Rome Free Academy (who beat F-M 4-1) in Sunday’s title game, also at OCC.
