BALDWINSVILLE – When the Baldwinsville baseball team left the diamond at Onondaga Community College in June 2019, it was a hungry group, disappointed at its defeat to Fayetteville-Manlius in the Section III Class AA final, but certainly anticipating a championship run the following spring.
Instead, no one played, with COVID-19 wiping out the senior season for a Bees group led by pitching ace Jason Savacool, who is now a freshman on the rotation at the University of Maryland.
The nearly two-year wait for B’ville to return to action finally ended last Saturday afternoon, when it hosted West Genesee and pulled out a dramatic 2-1 victory over the Wildcats.
For a long while, it looked like the pitching efforts of Chris AuClair and Gavin Miller would get wasted. AuClair went five innings, only surrendering a third-inning run and four hits while striking out six.
Miller tossed two scoreless innings of relief, yet B’ville still trailed 1-0 going to the bottom of the seventh when it finally solved WG starter Nick Jessen, with Lukas Arvantides and Aiden Milburn both reaching base.
Then, with Ryan Klementowski entering the game in relief of Jessen, Dean Welch drove home the tying run and Kai Girard produced the game-winning single. B’ville only had one other hit, by Perry Chetney.
That same Saturday afternoon, B’ville’s softball team also made its long-awaited return, also facing West Genesee and also delivering a victory, though this one involved a lot more runs as the Bees prevailed 9-6.
WG’s pair of first-inning runs was answered by B’ville in the bottom of the third. Then, in the fourth, the Bees broke in front with a five-run rally and, after the Wildcats cut it to 7-6 in the fifth, again responded with single tallies in the next two frames.
Bella Nadzan doubled twice and drove in two runs, with Alyssa Dabacz adding three hits and an RBI. Emma Johnson, Jordan Martin and Mattison Phinney also drove in runs as Taylor Tripodi pitched all seven innings, striking out 11.
