The pair of Section III Class A baseball semifinals that played out over a long Saturday evening at Onondaga Community College ended in delight for East Syracuse Minoa, and despair for Christian Brothers Academy.
The no. 3 seed Spartans rallied to top no. 2 seed Watertown, while the top-seeded Brothers’ furious rally fell just short in a 6-5 defeat to no. 5 seed and defending champion Whitesboro.
Going first, ESM, who beat Fulton 5-2 two days earlier in the sectional quarterfinals, would fall behind Watertown twice, but come back on each occasion.
In the top of the third inning, with the Spartans trailing 1-0, no. 9 batter Lucas Grabowski doubled, and raced home on Nolan Penoyer’s single to tie it, 1-1,
Pitcher Tanner Waldman maintained that tie until the fifth, when the Cyclones’ Ryan Peters doubled and three walks issued by Waldman put Watertown back on top.
Sam Jenkins walked to lead off the sixth, moved to third on Josh Gilkey’s double, and raced home on Ryan Seburn’s sacrifice fly.
After Watertown pitcher Ben Cisco hit Jacob Buell, Grabowski returned with two out and hit what looked like an inning-ending fly ball to right – but the Cyclones’ Joe Longamore dropped it, and Gilkey scored the go-ahead run.
Ricky Neuser, who saved the sectional game against Fulton after Ryan Seburn’s solid start, entered here and, in both the sixth and seventh innings, picked off Watertown runners on base. With the tying run on in the bottom of the seventh and two out, Buell’s sliding catch on a foul pop to first by Ethan Baytos ended it.
Then it was CBA’s turn. The Brothers entered the sectional semifinal sporting a 16-game win streak, though most of it was attained against Class B foes and it had barely got past New Hartford 3-2 in the quarterfinal round.
Whitesboro, in that same round, had gone on the road and knocked out no. 4 seed Jamesville-DeWitt 8-2, and carried that confidence over to this game, where it knocked out CBA starter Jake Maser by scoring twice in the first and second innings.
The Brothers nearly had a big start of its own, loading the bases in the bottom of the first and getting a pair of runs, but then getting contained by Warriors pitcher Avery Cook, who then blanked CBA over the next five innings.
M.P. Geiss, in six innings of relief, mostly contained Whitesboro’s batters, but Joe Ruggiero’s bunt and error in the fourth led to another run and, in the seventh, Dom Fasulo tripled and got home on Jake Montrose’s sacrifice fly.
As the bottom of the seventh began, CBA trailed 6-2, but when Maser led off with a walk and Collin McAndrew relieved Cook, it set the stage for a memorable ending.
Jack Lester reached on an infield hit. Maser got to third and, with one out and Lester on second, Maser scored on a wild pitch as Lester now moved to third, scoring on Bryce Moore’s sacrifice fly.
Now it was 6-4, and Kent Wilson kept the Brothers alive with a single. Sean Miller, representing the tying run, walked, and catcher Luke Frontale singled home Wilson to cut Whitesboro’s lead to one.
Tommy Marzullo pinch-ran for Frontale and stole second. Thus, the tying and winning runs were in scoring position for Calvin Krueger, but after fouling off a pair of two-strike pitches, Krueger looked at strike three.
It had all started with the quarterfinals on May 24, where CBA escaped New Hartford as ESM held off Fulton.
ESM wasted little time jumping on the Red Raiders. In the bottom of the first, Jimmy Griffin doubled and scored on a misplayed fly ball, with Gilkey doubling off the wall to score Griffin and racing home on Nick Reppi’s groundout.
The Spartans added a run in the fourth when Colin Williams tripled and got home on Gilkey’s sacrifice fly.
Ryan Seburn pitched and breezed until the sixth, when Fulton cut its 4-0 deficit in half and loaded the bases before Seburn escaped. Penoyer’s single scored Justin Kingsley in the bottom of the sixth, and Neuser tossed a scoreless seventh inning of relief to end it.
As that went on, CBA met New Hartford with ace Mike McCully on the mound. Trailing 1-0 and 2-1 early, the Brothers rallied both times, going in front for good with two runs in the bottom of the third driven home by Wilson’s double.
McCully settled into a duel with New Hartford’s Danny Owen, who struck out 11. For his part, McCully got nine strikeouts and allowed just five hits, but still needed Maser to pitch a scoreless seventh inning of relief to help CBA hang on.
At least CBA and ESM got through the quarterfinals. J-D did not, falling to Whitesboro two days before the Brothers did in a rematch of the 2017 sectional final.
Now, as then, the Warriors got the best of it, erasing J-D’s early 1-0 lead with single runs in the third and fourth innings and then, in the bottom of the fourth, staying in front when the Rams loaded the bases, but could not convert.
Whitesboro’s four-run fifth inning proved decisive, the key blow Montrose’s three-run home run. Luke Smith and Murphy Foss both had two hits as Mark Toscano and Zach Goodson earned RBIs, but J-D’s season ended with a 12-4 record.
