If the Fayetteville-Manlius baseball team wanted to sketch out or construct the ideal start to its 2018 season, it could not have proven better than the reality.
Up against the reigning state Class AA champions from Liverpool last Tuesday afternoon, the Hornets dominated from the outset and, thanks to timely hits and tremendous pitching by Christian Mahoney, shut out the Warriors 10-0.
This was the second scheduled game of a three-game set. The first was postponed by weather, but it cleared out long enough for F-M and Liverpool to get together a day later.
But this was not the same Warriors team that blazed to the 2017 state title. No less than 17 seniors graduated from that team, including most of the starting lineup and both pitching aces, Nick Antonello and Jeff DeStefano.
Knowing all this, Mahoney dominated against the new-look Liverpool lineup, giving up just two hits and one walk while amassing eight strikeouts in his complete-game effort.
Meanwhile, F-M took the lead with two runs in the first inning and steadily added to that margin, getting a run in every inning except the third and fifth while amassing 13 hits.
Sean O’Connor had three of those hits, adding three RBIs and three runs scored. Mitch Seabury also scored three times as Isaac Blanford doubled and drove in three runs. Maloney had two hits and two RBIs as Sean Arthur scored twice and John Egnaczyk also got an RBI.
Terrific as this was, F-M managed to top it when it returned home for a rematch with Liverpool on Wednesday afternoon and Tim Coleman pitched a gem in a second consecutive shutout, this time by a 6-0 margin.
Coleman only surrendered a single to Jake Wheeler and a walk to Kobe Stenson, managing four strikeouts and inducing contact as F-M’s defense overcame a pair of errors and made the other plays it needed.
Meanwhile, the Hornets were patient at the plate, notching a single run in the third inning but then breaking it open with three runs in the fifth and two runs in the sixth.
Joe Gaeta singled, tripled, scored twice and earned an RBI, while Arthur drove in a pair of runs. Ben Delmarsh also scored a pair of runs as Seabury and Blanford drove in one run apiece.
On Friday, F-M met Jamesville-DeWitt and saw an 8-3 lead slip away late in a 10-8 defeat to the Red Rams, this despite two RBIs apiece from Coleman and Egnaczyk as Blanford got three hits and scored three runs.
Christian Brothers Academy had to wait until Saturday to make its season debut, and split those two games, routing Homer 12-1, but falling 2-1 to defending sectional Class A champion Whitesboro, whose pair of fourth-inning runs overcame the Brothers’ lone third-inning tally.
