One more time, the dozen seniors that were part of the West Genesee baseball team got to perform in front of a home crowd in Camillus that, this spring, had grown accustomed to seeing them prevail.
And the Wildcats did so again last Monday afternoon, making Senior Day a successful one as it beat Fayetteville-Manlius 7-1 with another fine pitching performance from Liam Barry.
Maintaining a shutout until the fifth inning, Barry limited the Hornets to two hits, amassing 11 strikeouts without surrendering a walk.
The Wildcats got to F-M starter Tom Coleman for a pair of first-inning runs, added a run in the second and broke free with a four-run rally in the sixth.
Chris Bonacci’s double was a big blow as he recorded three RBIs. Dan Purcell’s pair of hits led to two RBIs as he also scored twice. Matt Kot and Tyler Gould had two hits apiece as single runs were driven in by Gould and Joe Comins.
Great as this was, the Wildcats couldn’t carry it over into Wednesday’s game at Liverpool, shut down by Warriors pitching ace Jake Wheeler in an 8-0 defeat.
All that WG could manage was four hits against Wheeler, two of them by Comins, and it was kept off the board.
Meanwhile, Dylan Steinman was hit hard in the bottom of the second, forcing the Wildcats to use its bullpen. James Randall got the same treatment when the Warriors got three runs in the fourth as Jack Gordon and Devin Leahy also saw relief stints.
All of this turned around again when WG had a Thursday rematch with F-M. Runs were produced in every inning except the fourth, and the Wildcats steadily worked its way to an 8-4 victory over the Hornets.
Even with a 4-1 advantage through three, the Wildcats had to see F-M pull within one, 4-3, before it used a run in the fifth inning and three runs in the sixth to feel a bit more comfortable.
Comins’s three hits led to four RBIs. Kot also had three hits, two of them doubles, while scoring three runs and driving in two others. Bonacci added two hits as Brian Hartnett pitched 3 2/3 innings before Ryan Paige went the rest of the way, the pair holding the Hornets to five hits while accumulating eight strikeouts.
Bishop Ludden won last Monday over Cato-Meridian, the Gaelic Knights holding off the Blue Devils 5-3, and prevailed again on Thursday afternoon, traveling to Weedsport and handling the Warriors 10-3.
A five-run second inning put Ludden in charge against Weedsport, though it still needed two runs in the sixth and seventh innings to secure it for pitcher Tom Westers, who went five innings and struck out eight before Pat Anson and Axel Rivera worked in relief.
At the plate, Rivera doubled, singled and scored two runs, with Anson and Ryan DeVaney also scoring twice. Pat McGarvey walked twice, doubled and earned a pair of RBIs as Zach Caden and Ian Tills also drove in runs.
Ludden would draw the no. 16 seed in the sectional Class C playoff bracket, meaning that, if it beat no. 17 seed Sherburne-Earlville in the first round, it would battle top seed Pulaski.
In Class AA, West Genesee had the no. 3 seed, meaning it would host no. 6 seed Liverpool in the quarterfinals. The winner would get Cicero-North Syracuse or Syracuse City in the semifinals at Onondaga Community College later this week.
