Even with its terrific run through April and rise near the top of the state Class A rankings, the Jamesville-DeWitt baseball team knew that any path toward glory in Class A ran through the defending sectional champions from East Syracuse Minoa.
And the two neighbors met head-to-head twice early last week, with the first game a romp in the rain for the Red Rams as it had little trouble handling the Spartans in a 15-6 decision.
Multi-run rallies in each of the first five innings sent J-D on its way, the Rams building a 15-0 margin behind a 15-hit attack, the loudest blow a home run from Nolan Giblin.
Zach Goodson and Mateo Santos each got three hits, with Bobby Galusha earning a team-best three RBIs and scoring twice. Goodson and Logan Wing each drove in two runs as Murphy Foss scored three times. Matt Alexander, Shane Wright and Nick Brotzki joined Santos with one RBI apiece.
A.J. Ortega pitched four shutout innings, holding ESM to two hits. The Spartans’ lone runs came in a six-run seventh inning as, prior to that, only Hunter Borkowski and Brad Herrington produced much, Borkowski getting four hits and Herrington three hits. RBIs went to Nolan Penoyer, Lucas Grabowski and Jacob Buell.
All of this gave extra urgency to the return match between these teams a day later, and even though the game was at J-D again, ESM was able to battle its way to a 3-2, eight-inning victory to get even with the Rams.
After J-D went in front 1-0 in the top of the second, Spartans pitcher Dan Garris settled down, blanking the Rams over the next three frames and then getting some help when ESM got two runs off Foss in the bottom of the fourth.
In the sixth, J-D pulled back even, 2-2, and it remained that way the rest of regulation, ESM turning to Sean Welch in relief of Garris in the seventh inning.
Welch tossed two scoreless, hitless innings, and that work was rewarded when the Spartans plated the winning run in the bottom of the eighth off Giblin, who had taken over after Carter Kowalczyk’s 2 2/3 innings of scoreless work.
Spencer Carnival and Ben Leib both had two hits and an RBI, while Nolan Penoyer also drove in a run. Brendan Seburn and Josh Gilkey also had two-hit outings as Foss and Brotzki, with two hits apiece, accounted for all but two of J-D’s hits.
On Thursday, wet weather and poor field conditions kept ESM from facing Auburn, but J-D and Central Square were able to play on the turf at Onondaga Community College, and the Red Rams, showing again it could rebound from a defeat, topped the Redhawks 6-3.
A three-run first inning got J-D in front, but it still needed single tallies in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings to withstand Central Square’s comeback attempts.
Combined, Brotzki (three innings), Kowalczyk and Henry McTernan (two innings each) recorded 10 strikeouts. At the plate, Goodson and Wright each drove in two runs, with Alexander walking three times and Brotzki adding an RBI.
ESM played on Friday at Auburn and won 12-4, with two-run rallies in three consecutive innings, starting in the second, before it scored three times in the sixth and seventh to put the Maroons away.
Penoyer had three of the Spartans’ 10 hits and scored three runs. Grabowski and Gilkey also scored three times as Borkowski’s pair of hits led to four RBIs. Bryce Hall pitched 6 2/3 innings, limiting Auburn to four hits while striking out seven.
And on Saturday afternoon, J-D met up with its neighbors from Fayetteville-Manilus, and it was the Hornets getting the best of it, overcoming a brutal start to take over in the middle stages and beat the Red Rams 11-8.
J-D scored six times in the top of the first inning, but F-M, who had lost twice to Baldwinsville earlier in the week, answered with five runs in the second and then had two runs in each of the next three innings.
John Egnaczyk’s pair of hits led to three RBIs as Joe Gaeta and Seth Reisman each drove in two runs. Max Parker, Sean O’Connor and Ben Delmarsh also drove in runs. Only Logan Wing earned two hits on the Rams’ side.
