CENTRAL NEW YORK – A win over Liverpool and a 0-0, rain-shortened draw with Baldwinsville had increased the confidence of the West Genesee baseball team heading into last week’s action.
This made the Wildcats’ 9-1 defeat to visiting Cicero-North Syracuse that much more surprising, with the Northstars all but settling matters by scoring four times in the first inning and three times in the third.
Wyatt Braun, Dan Davis, Markus Vogt and Aidan Leaf each saw pitching stints, but WG could not do much agianst C-NS starter Noah Wieczorek, blanked until the seventh inning, when Max Miller scored his team’s lone run.
Up against Auburn a day later, the Wildcats turned it around in a hurry, beating the Maroons 7-5 in a game that was low-scoring until the latter stages.
Trailing 1-0, WG broke through against Auburn pitcher Ryan Stewart in the top of the fifth, scoring twice, and then batted around in the sixth while plating five runs. Nick Jessen, Luis Suarez and Cameron Hovater earning two hits apiece as Jessen, Davis and Jacob DePalma each drove in two runs.
Jessen also pitched and, despite five hits allowed and six walks, kept the Maroons quiet until it scored four times in the bottom of the fifth, requiring Eric Korzeniewski to work the last 1 2/3 innings in relief to get the save/
Playing again on Wednesday, WG honored its seniors before its game with Fayetteville-Manlilus, then proceeded to pull out a dramatic 4-3 victory over the Hornets.
An early 1-0 lead had gone away and the Wildcats were down 3-1 going to the bottom of the sixth, but then chased F-M starter Itai Spinoza by loading the bases.
A two-out rally followed, Jacob Severson legging out an infield hit, and two Hornets errors led to two other runs. Then Davis, pitching in relief, put the tying and go-ahead runs on in the seventh but was able to escape it and earn the win.
Ryan Klementowski allowed six hits and struck out in his five-inning starting stint. WG won despite getting just four hits, one each by Severson, Klementowski, Vince Firenze and Markus Vogt.
In Friday’s game against Rome Free Academy, WG built an 11-4 lead by the fourth inning as Suarez got a trio of RBIs. But the Black Knights whittled away at that margin and then, in the bottom of the seventh, struck for five runs to pull out a 12-11 decision.
Now, challenging Christian Brothers Academy on Saturday, WG managed to play at its best all-around level so far, handing the Brothers its first defeat of the season in an 11-1 romp.
A three-run first inning set the tone. Single runs in the third and fourth were followed by a decisive six-run fifth inning as Klementowski homered and got three RBIs, with Davis adding three hits and two RBIs.
Agianst a potent CBA lineup, Korzeniewski pitched five shutout innings, only allowing two hits before Dan Flaherty tossed the last two innings in relief.
Bishop Ludden had made headlines when eighth-grader Joe Dunham threw a no-hitter in his varsity debut May 3 against Port Byron.
A week later, it was Peter Dunham getting the complete-game shutout, an 11-0 win over Cato-Meridian where Dunham struck out eight and held the Blue Devils to three hits.
Multi-run rallies in four of the first five innings gave the Gaelic Knights plenty of cushion as Tim Dunham went three-for-three with three RBIs. Axel Rivera drove in a pair of runs as Patrick Towsley, Mike Masterpole and both of the other Dunham brothers got one RBI apiece.
Against Weedsport on Thursday, Ludden trailed 2-0 before it scored three times in the bottom of the sixth, including Tim Dunham’s run-scoring single, only to have the Warriors score twice in the top of the seventh and then get the final three outs to edge the Gaelic Knights 4-3.
Jordan-Elbridge was shut out 13-0 by Chittenango last Wednesday, with the Eagles held to three hits, two of them by Caleb Rouse. Tyrus Kelly led the Bears with two doubles and two RBIs.
This followed a 13-4 win over Altmar-Parish-Wililamstown last Monday afternoon where the Eagles scored eight runs in the fourth innings, Dominic Rinaldo and Keegan Farris each getting three RBIs. J-E then took a 10-4 defeat to Bishop Grimes on Friday despite Tyler Waldron’s three hits.
