With unprecedented depth and quality, the Baldwinsville boys golf team ventured to Tuscarora Golf Club in Marcellus on Wednesday with every intention to repeat as Section III Class AA champions.
However, the Bees’ quest was thwarted by West Genesee, who used the same formula that worked so well for B’ville in 2016 – namely, local knowledge.
Just as the Bees benefited from its experience at Radisson Greens, the Wildcats had plenty of rounds at Tuscarora before the sectional tournament, and then put together a team score of 390 to prevail here.
B’ville, with 399, tied for second place with Cicero-North Syracuse Blue, the same squad with which it shared regular-season honors in the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division. Fayetteville-Manlius was fourth with 400.
Despite the disappointment of the team result, the Bees still had three finishers in the top 10 and four of its golfers make the cut to advance to the May sectional state qualifier at Seven Oaks in Hamilton.
Ben Donohue led the way, his five-over-par 76 putting him alone in third place behind WG’s Nick Bove (74) and F-M’s Kyle Gilroy, whose two-under-par 69 gave him the title by five strokes.
Maxwell Dec and Trevor Tooke tied for eighth place, each of them shooting 79, while Ryan Fecco, shooting an 81, made the sectional cut on the number.
Matt Shipman and Anthony Petragnani both finished with rounds of 84, tying for 21st place, two shots ahead of Tanner Glavin’s total of 86. Vic Ianno had an 88, while Carter Nichols shot an 89. Ryan Conley put up a 90, while Dan Reiser had a 93 and Jarrett Phinney posted a 97.
In a unique match last Monday at Liverpool Country Club, B’ville and C-NS Blue joined the Salt City Athletic Conference Empire division regular-season champions, East Syracuse Minoa Blue, for a three-team showdown that amounted to a match for bragging rights.
The Bees shot 194, ahead of the Spartans (204), but behind the Northstars’ 188. Donohue’s 33 at LCC matched that of C-NS Blue’s Brendan Villnave, but two other Northstars, Jake Nardozza and Andrew Brunozzi, posted 38s ahead of the 39 by Shipman, who tied ESM Blue’s Ian Rivers and Justin Seltzer on that number.
