For the second time in three years, the Jamesville-DeWitt baseball team’s quest for a Section III Class A championship was thwarted by Whitesboro one victory short of the ultimate prize.
And this one was particularly difficult because, for 11 innings Sunday night at Onondaga Community College, the Red Rams fought it out before the Warriors outlasted them 3-2.
Ultimately, it got decided by a patient top half of Whitesboro’s batting order, who in the 10th and 11th innings produced the runs necessary and responded well when J-D rallied to tie it in the bottom of the 10th.
Older J-D players remembered that Whitesboro beat them in the 2017 sectional final, but the Warriors had a more immediate memory of dropping the sectional title game to East Syracuse Minoa one year ago.
So both sides were hungry – and both brought first-rate pitchers that settled into a championship duel.
A.J. Ortega took the mound for the Rams, and he only allowed one hit out of the outfield in the first five innings, his only stress in the top of the second, when the Warriors put two on before Ortega struck out Noah Scranton.
Whitesboro ace Avery Cook matched scoreless frames with Ortega, J-D unable to convert despite getting two runners on base in the third and fourth. Only once in the first five innings did Cook retire the Rams in order.
Ortega was saved by his defense when the Warriors threatened in the top of the sixth, putting two on with two out. Joey Crossley hit a sinking line drive to right, where Shane Wright caught it, saving at least one run, perhaps two.
Again in the seventh, Whitesboro put two on base and again Ortega worked out of it when Anthony Ruggiero was caught stealing third by catcher Mateo Santos, who had also thrown out Joey Ruggiero back in the first inning.
The eighth inning brought more stress, with the Warriors loading the bases, but an intentional walk to Cook proved successful when Nolan Giblin successfully fielded Collin McAndrew’s bouncing ground ball.
With two out in the top of the ninth, Ortega reached his pitch limit, and Murphy Foss relieved him. Foss hit Joey Ruggiero, but got Joey Panuccio to ground out and strand two more Whitesboro runners.
Cook had to leave the mound, too, due to the 125-pitch limit in the bottom of the ninth after Santos walked with one out, but Bryce Gnatek retired the Rams from there, keeping it 0-0.
In the top of the 10th, Foss walked Cook on four pitches, and Ryan Cardone tripled to the gap to bring Cook home with the go-ahead run. One pitch later, Crossley singled to score Cardone.
Somehow, J-D weathered this and answered in the bottom of the 10th. Bobby Galusha reached on an error and Matt Alexander singled to put the tying runs on base, and Giblin brought them home with a triple to the gap, only to get thrown out at home on Nick Brotzki’s grounder trying to score the winning run.
Again Whitesboro took the lead in the top of the 11th, with back-to-back two-out walks leading to Cook’s RBI single that scored Joey Ruggiero. Gnatek then gave up a two-out single to Wing, but Galusha popped out to end it.
