Unlike some years, reasonable conditions were in place for high school baseball to get underway in the first week of April, and most of the local sides took advantage of this situation.
That included East Syracuse Minoa, who began the defense of its Section III Class A title by hosting Class AA power West Genesee and nearly erasing a three-run deficit before falling 5-4 to the Wildcats.
The Spartans grabbed a 2-0 first-inning lead, only to have the Wildcats answer with four runs in the top of the second off starting pitcher Dan Garris and another run in the fourth off reliever Bryce Hall.
Hall blanked WG the rest of the way, and ESM scored twice in the fourth to pull within one and knock out Wildcats starter Ryan Paige. But despite drawing three walks and getting a hit against WG reliever Jack Gordon, the Spartans could not pull even.
Lucas Grabowski and Josh Gilkey led ESM with two hits apiece, both of them also driving in runs, as did Ryan Seburn. For WG, Chris Bonacci and Brad May each had two RBIs, with Jake DePalma scoring twice.
Contrasting this was the way Fayetteville-Manlius opened its season against visiting Fulton, ignoring the cold, windy conditions to blow out the Red Raiders 14-1.
Even though Fulton got a first-inning run, that deficit quickly vanished as the Hornets scored twice in the second and then erupted for eight runs in the bottom of the third, tacking on four runs in the fourth.
Mitch Seabury, Sean O’Connor and Max Parker banged out two hits apiece, accounting for half of F-M’s 12 hits. Ben Delmarsh and John Egnaczyk earned two RBIs apiece as Sean Arthur, Seth Reisman, Itai Spinoza and Mark Laurie had one RBI apiece.
Meanwhile, three Hornets pitchers – Spinoza, Egnaczyk and Tom Coleman – combined to hold Fulton to just one hit, Coleman going four innings and amassing 10 strikeouts.
Christian Brothers Academy opened last Wednesday against Altmar-Parish-Williamstown last Wednesday afternoon, and the Brothers piled up the runs in a 21-3 victory over the Rebels.
The big numbers included Kent Wilson hitting a grand slam and finishing with five RBIs, while Anthony Marsallo drove in four runs and Joey Marsallo had a double and three RBIs.
Leo Genecco drove in two runs as single RBIs went to Kodi Dotterer, Jack Harrigan, Steve Colangelo, Mike Schaefer and Jason Boule. Wilson, Boule and Joey Marsallo each scored three times as five pitchers combined to hold APW to six hits.
A day earlier, Bishop Grimes began its season at Cazenovia, and its bats were mostly contained as it lost to the Lakers 7-1.
The Cobras’ lone run came in the top of the sixth as David Cifonelli doubled and raced home. Joe Wike and Alex Williams had the other hits, but otherwise Cazenovia pitcher Aeden Berson kept them quiet, recording seven strikeouts in his complete-game effort.
Seth Murphy tossed five innings for Grimes and gave up all of the Lakers’ runs. Patrick Linck led Cazenovia with three hits, while Tripp Clarke and Ryan Wozniak had two RBIs apiece.
But Grimes turned around Thursday and edged Central Square 2-1, getting a run in the first inning and then, after the Redhawks tied it in the third, going back in front for good by scoring in the top of the sixth.
Wike tossed a complete game, giving up eight hits, but continually getting out of jams and finishing with nine strikeouts. Murphy was the only Cobras player to get two hits as he and Ian Fisher drove in those runs.
