Perhaps, after 41 years of waiting for a Section III title, the West Genesee baseball team had things fall the way they needed to go for that championship drought to end.
The good news on Wednesday went beyond the no. 3 seed Wildcats’ 4-0 victory over defending state champions Liverpool in the AA quarterfinals.
For while that was going on, no. 2 seed Cicero-North Syracuse, who beat WG twice this season, was stunned at home by no. 7 seed Syracuse 8-1, seemingly clearing a major hurdle for the Wildcats.
None of this was guaranteed when the afternoon got underway. WG was throwing its ace, Liam Barry, but was again facing Liverpool ace Jake Wheeler, who held the Wildcats to four hits and shut them out 8-0 seven days earlier.
Getting a second shot at Wheeler, WG didn’t waste it. In the bottom of the first inning, Chris Bonacci singled, Nick Chemotti reached on catcher’s interference and Matt Kot’s single scored Bonacci.
It didn’t stop there, either, as Joe Comins’ single loaded the bases and a rattled Wheeler threw two wild pitches that brought home Chemotti and Kot. It was 3-0 before Wheeler could record an out.
Barry didn’t need anything more. In his first five innings of work, Barry surrendered just one hit, and survived his lone crisis in the sixth when two singles and an error loaded the bases with two out before Jordan Brown grounded out. Barry finished with six strikeouts.
WG added a run in the bottom of the sixth, driven in by Kot on an infield hit. Bonacci added a final touch with an over-the-shoulder basket catch deep in center field in the seventh.
All of this wouldn’t mean much if WG didn’t follow it up by beating Syracuse Thursday in the AA semifinal on the turf at Onondaga Community College. And it was quite stressful for a while, but the Wildcats took over late to win by a score of 7-2.
Still full of energy from toppling C-NS the day before, Syracuse struck for two runs in the top of the first off Brian Hartnett. From there, though, Hartnett settled down and, with relief help from Ryan Paige, kept Syracuse off the board the rest of the way.
Meanwhile, Syracuse pitcher Brian Olivo kept WG quiet until the fourth, when it put across its first run, tying it an inning later and then, in the bottom of the sixth, erupting for five decisive runs.
Kot keyed the entire surge, going three-for-four and scoring four runs while earning a pair of RBIs. Connor Macko’s pair of hits led to two RBIs as Tyler Gould and Timmy Winn also drove in runs.
And it sets up Sunday’s sectional final at OCC, which pits WG against top seed Baldwinsville, who had rolled past Fayetteville-Manlius (5-1) and Utica Proctor (15-2) and could pitch its ace, Jason Savocool, against Barry, both of them going on three days’ rest.
