By far, the Baldwinsville baseball team’s s most important wins of the regular season turned out to be the last two, a 4-1 decision over Fayetteville-Manlius on May 24 and a 4-0 shutout of Cicero-North Syracuse a day later.
Had it lost either of those games, the Bees would have surrendered the top seed in the Section III Class AA playoffs to West Genesee and had to play an extra round in the sectional tournament.
Instead, B’ville first got past F-M by getting two runs in the third inning to break a long scoring drought and then adding two more runs in the sixth for much-needed insurance.
Matt Starczewski was masterful, holding the Hornets to two hits and striking out seven. Nate Ray earned a pair of RBIs, with Bo Nicholson and Pat May also driving in runs as Nicholson had two hits and scored twice.
Even with this, B’ville still needed to avenge its two previous defeats to C-NS in order to secure that top seed, and sent Chris AuClair to the mound to start.
AuClair now threw his own complete-game two-hit, seven-strikeout gem, as B’ville scored in the second inning, added two runs in the third and a run in the fifth.
Jason Savacool starred at the plate, belting out a pair of hits, scoring once and driving in two runs. Pat May, Lucas Robinson and Jake Marshall also scored runs.
The win knocked West Genesee down to the no. 2 seed – and F-M eliminated them, 3-1, in a 10-inning quarterfinal last Tuesday at Wells College, following that up with a 5-0 shutout of no. 3 seed Cicero-North Syracuse in the semifinals.
Only then did B’ville enter the playoff fray, taking the field at Auburn’s Falcon Park late Thursday night to face no. 4 seed Liverpool in the other semifinal, a game that started late due to a rain delay in the first semifinal and only ended after 11:30.
None of this bothered the Bees too much as it bashed the Warriors 11-4, a far more impressive all-around effort than the two-regular season wins it had over Liverpool.
Two big rallies made the difference. In the bottom of the first inning, each of the first six B’ville batters reached base, knocking out Liverpool starting pitcher Jake Wheeler and leading to four runs, three of them dashing home on Jeb Farneth’s bases-clearing triple following Nate Ray’s RBI single.
Even more damaging was what happened in the bottom of the third after Liverpool cut the lead to 4-3. With two outs and nobody on, the Bees suddenly erupted for five runs.
A walk to Pat Anson started it. Mike Carni doubled him home, and May followed with an RBI single before Savacool drilled a two-run double and then raced home on Ray’s single.
All of this was enough run support for Marshall, who, other than the third inning, kept working out of trouble in his five-inning stint before AuClair went the rest of the way in relief.
Most importantly, B’ville didn’t need to use Savacool, saving his arm for the sectional final against F-M Sunday night at Onondaga Community College, with the Hornets attempting to complete an unlikely sweep of the top three seeds with Tom Coleman on the mound.
