Right from the outset, the Section III Class A baseball playoffs featured excitement and plot twists, with three local sides as central figures.
Jamesville-DeWitt and East Syracuse Minoa met up in last Tuesday’s quarterfinals, moved to Onondaga Community College, and the Spartans staged a miraculous seventh-inning comeback, yet still lost as the Red Rams pulled it out, 8-7.
A pair of first-inning runs put J-D in front, and for 5 2/3 innings A.J. Ortega protected that lead. The Rams added a run in the fourth and appeared to put the game away with three runs in the bottom of the sixth, Matt Alexander working his way to four RBIs and Nick Brotzki adding two RBIs.
Three outs from seeing its reign as sectional champions, ESM rose up in the top of the seventh and battered three J-D pitchers – Nolan Giblin, Carter Kowalcyzk and Murphy Foss – for six runs to take a 7-6 lead. Hunter Borkowski drove in two of those runs, with RBIs also going to Brendan Seburn and Nolan Penoyer.
Now it was up to Sean Welch to close it out for the Spartans, but J-D recovered from blowing a five-run lead, tying it at 7-7 and winning it when Giblin, atoning for his mound struggles, drove home Bobby Galusha with the decisive run.
Meanwhile, top seed Christian Brothers Academy saw its sectional quarterfinal against no. 8 seed Carthage pushed back 24 hours by rain, but when they did play last Wednesday, it proved tense before the Brothers pulled out a 4-2 decision over the Comets.
It was the Comets seizing a 2-0 lead with single runs off pitcher Derek Jann in the third and fourth innings, but CBA countered, tying it 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth and then thwarting Carthage in the fifth when Joey Marsallo threw out a runner at home to kill a bases-loaded situation.
Fired up by that, CBA scored twice more in the bottom of the fifth and Jann blanked the Comets the rest of the way, only allowing three hits and five walks overall. Kodi Dotterer had two hits as he, along with Marsallo and Leo Genecco, had one RBI apiece.
And this led to Friday’s semifinals at Falcon Park, pitting J-D against no. 6 seed Auburn and CBA against no. 4 seed Whitesboro. With one big rally and strong pitching from Carter Kowalczyk, the Red Rams took care of its part, defeating the Maroons 6-1.
They were 0-0 when, in the bottom of the third, J-D broke through against Auburn pitcher Brendan Williams. Logan Wing singled, Bobby Galusha reached on an error and walks to Alexander and Matt Goodson produced a 1-0 lead.
More would follow when Giblin singled up the middle, plating two runs, and right after Foss and Mateo Santos produced run-scoring singles, which knocked Williams out of the game.
Staked to that 5-0 lead, Kowalczyk lasted until the sixth, striking out six before Auburn plated a run and put two on base after Santos added an RBI single in the fifth. Foss relieved Kowalczyk, escaped that jam and loaded the bases in the seventh before inducing a game-ending groundout before a quiet seventh inning ended it.
Now it was CBA’s turn against Whitesboro, but it could not quite match what J-D accomplished, unable to recover from a rough start in a 7-3 defeat to the Warriors.
M.P. Geiss started for the Brothers against Whitesboro’s Noah McAndrew, and it stayed scoreless until the bottom of the third, when the Warriors broke out for four runs to take a lead it would not relinquish.
Only in the top of the fourth did CBA get on the board, Boule driving home Genecco, but Whitesboro, helped by Avery Cook’s two-run double, answered with three runs in the bottom of the fourth off Anthony Marsallo and Cade Bacon.
Even with a 7-1 deficit, the Brothers nearly made it back. In the bottom of the sixth, it chased McAndrew and got two runs thanks to Wilson’s RBI single and, with the bases loaded, Joey Marsallo getting hit by reliever Ryan Cardone.
Now Bryce Gnatek replaced Cardone on the mound, facing Genecco, who with one out represented the tying run. Genecco lined one – right to second base, where Ryan Cook grabbed it and forced the runner for an inning-ending double play.
Gnatek got the final three outs from there, and CBA’s season concluded with a 16-3 record, Whitesboro advancing to its third consecutive sectional final, where J-D awaits them Sunday at 3 p..m. at OCC.
