They were 8-11 in the regular season, assigned a no. 7 seed in a seven-team field for the Section III Class AA playoffs. And now Fayetteville-Manlius will be playing for a sectional championship.
Having already knocked off no. 2 seed West Genesee 3-1 in 10 innings Tuesday night at Wells College, the Hornets pulled another surprise when it shut out no. 3 seed Cicero-North Syracuse 5-0 in Thursday’s sectional semifinal at Auburn’s Falcon Park.
This post-season run reflected the notion that F-M’s record prior to the sectional tournament did not properly reflect how tough it played every single opponent, even as it was dropping series to its league rivals.
For example, C-NS had beaten F-M two out of three times when they met earlier in the month, but here the Northstars could do very little against Hornets left-handed pitcher Max Parker.
Sharp from the outset, Parker worked through the first two innings, only surrendering an infield hit, while Northstars counterpart Justin Persse did the same.
Then, in the top of the third, F-M went in front. Ben Delmarsh led off with a single, Mitchell Seabury reached on an error and Parker delivered a perfect bunt single down the third-base line to load the bases with nobody out.
Sean O’Connor’s sacrifice fly scored Delmarsh. Itai Spinoza walked to again load the bases before Sean Arthur’s fly ball brought Seabury home and Tom Coleman’s two-out RBI single made it 3-0.
That was all Parker needed, as he retired 10 in a row at one point and did not get affected one bit by a 90-minute rain delay in the fifth inning.
In fact, the Hornets added to its margin in the sixth against C-NS pitchers Noah Wieczorek and Carter Wisely, again loading the bases with nobody out helped by a bunt single, this one from Seth Reisman. John Egnaczyk walked to force in pinch-runner Matt Vaccaro and Seabury added a sacrifice fly.
Despite allowing two runners to get on base in the sixth and seventh innings, Parker got out of both jams to preserve his shutout and send F-M along to the sectional final.
And all of this preceded what F-M did against West Genesee. As with C-NS, the Hornets had lost two of three regular-season meetings to the Wildcats, but won the fourth encounter that meant the most.
Spinoza’s RBI in the top of the third put F-M in front 1-0, and for six innings Coleman protected that slim margin, outpitching Wildcats ace Ryan Paige as he only allowed three hits and struck out seven.
Yet Paige didn’t let the Hornets build on that lead, either, and in the bottom of the seventh, Tyler Kensey drove home Joe Comins with the tying run, sending it to extra innings, where WG had found frequent success during the season.
The eighth and ninth innings went without a run, John Egnaczyk pitching well in relief of Coleman as he and Wildcats counterpart Sam Gallager keeping it 1-1.
Then, in the top of the 10th, F-M loaded the bases, and Parker coaxed a walk, followed by an O’Connor sacrifice fly.With that two-run cushion, Egnaczyk got the final three outs, and ended WG’s quest for a first sectional title since 1977.
C-NS would then fall, and on Sunday at 6 p.m. the Hornets would get its chance to sweep all three top seeds when it faces defending champion Baldwinsville in the sectional final, the Bees having ripped Liverpool 11-4 in the other semifinal.
