Nearly 12 months had passed since the West Genesee baseball team had seen the dream of ending its 41-year Section III championship drought dashed in an extra-inning classic against Baldwinsville in the sectional Class AA final.
Yet when the Wildcats and Bees reunited last Monday afternoon in Camillus for the first of a three-game series, they battled into extra innings again – lots of them, as it turned out.
In fact, darkness fell before it could end, with the score still tied 4-4 in the 12th inning of an astonishing game where WG led three different times, yet could not hold it.
Walks and errors in the first two innings meant that the Wildcats went in front 2-0 without getting a hit, and two more Bees errors in the fourth put the Wildcats in front again after B’ville tied it, 2-2, in the third.
After the Bees used a run in the fifth to make it 3-3, WG finally got its first hit off Jake Marshall in the bottom of the sixth, and with two out Dan Davis belted a pinch-hit single that scored Tyler Kensey.
Yet that 4-3 lead didn’t hold, either, as Sam Gallager relieved starter Jack Gordon and gave up two singles. With one out, Pat Anson hit a possible game-ending double play grounder, but an error at first allowed Jason Savacool to dash home with the tying run.
And it stayed 4-4 through four extra innings until daylight ran out. Not only would WG have to wait to finish that game, it would not play B’ville again until Thursday since their Tuesday meeting got rained out.
But it dried up in time for last Wednesday’s game with Liverpool, itself a makeup of a rained-out game from a week earlier. Having lost twice to the Warriors, the Wildcats did not want to get swept.
Again, it would go deep into to extra frames – but this time it ended before dark, and WG won it 4-3 when it netted the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.
Prior to that, the Wildcats had erased a 1-0 deficit with a run in the third and a 2-1 deficit by scoring twice in the bottom of the fifth, only to have Liverpool pull even, 3-3, in the seventh.
Nick Jessen pitched 6 2/3 innings, with Joe Comins working in relief until Mike Hebbard pitched a scoreless 10th. Kensey and Chris Bonacci both had two hits, Bonacci driving in a pair of runs as Brad May got three hits.
Now came the rematch between WG and B’ville, and a clash of aces – Ryan Paige going for the Wildcats, Jason Savacool for the Bees – but neither was around for the finish as, in eight innings, the Wildcats prevailed 5-3.
Unlike when he pitched in the the sectional final, Savacool got tagged for runs by WG – one in the second, two in the third – that erased an early 1-0 Bees lead, but he settled down and, over 6 2/3 innings of work, amassed 13 strikeouts.
Paige also went 6 2/3 innings, giving up seven hits but striking out seven, with the Bees netting single runs in the fourth and sixth innings to send WG into extra frames for the third time in four days.
Maintaining its poise, the Wildcats got to B’ville reliever Mike Carr for two decisive runs in the top of the eighth. Then Gallager recorded the final three outs.
Comins had two hits and scored twice, with Nick Chemotti also getting two hits. May drove in a pair of runs, while Davis and R.J. Murphy had one RBI apiece.
Aside from finishing the 12-inning game with B’ville and another rain-halted game with Cicero-North Syracuse, WG (9-3) also has a series this week against Fayetteville-Manlius.
Bishop Ludden won big at Pulaski last Wednesday, the Gaelic Knights prevailing 16-6 in large part because it put together a 10-run fourth innings after the Blue Devils seized an early 2-1 advantage.
David House singled, doubled, tripled and drove in three runs to pace Ludden, with Steve Anderson adding three hits, three runs scored and three RBIs. Pete Dunham drove in two runs as Pat McGarvey, Tom Westers, Jacob Duffy and Axel Rivera had one RBI apiece.
A 10-1 loss to Weedsport followed a day later, House’s solo home run in the fourth the lone run for the Gaelic Knights as the Warriors got away with a seven-run fifth inning. Rivera took the loss as Ludden also lost to Beaver River Saturday by that same 10-1 margin.
