ONONDAGA COUNTY – With victories in each of its first four matches, the Baldwinsville boys tennis team had established itself as the main challenger to Fayetteville-Manlius in the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division.

The Bees got its chance to upend the Hornets when they went head-to-head May 15 at the Durgee Tennis Courts, and B’ville got points in singles and doubles, but still took a 4-3 defeat.

In first singles, Antonio Marsallo recorded a 6-1, 6-3 victory over David Fernando, with Connor Tutor overcoming a first-set defeat against Fergus Brady to prevail 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 as Eric Smith lost to Cameron Lukasik 6-2, 6-0.

Moving to doubles, Max Funicello and Nick Licciardello were successful for the Bees, working past F-M’s duo of Jaden Duggal and Davin Woolridge 6-4, 6-2.

However, James Brussel and Brian Jung lost to Gene Balian and Dan Manta 6-1, 7-5, with Mason Doan and Leonardo Vona falling to Ben Farber-McEntee and Andy Sun 6-2, 6-3. Nick Helbig and Colin Savage played two close sets, but lost to Justin Dunn and Xavier Sul 6-4, 6-4.

These same two teams met again at F-M two days later, and while the Bees again had some success, it couldn’t quite catch up to the Hornets in a 5-2 loss.

Marsallo needed three sets to claim his rematch with Fernando 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. Pushed to a third-set tie-breaker, Funicello and Licciardello held off Duggal and Woolridge 7-6, 5-7, 7-6.

But F-M won the remaining five matches in straight sets, with Smith and Tutor going to doubles and falling 6-1, 6-4 to Farber-McEntee and Sun as Doan and Vona lost to Balian and Manta by those same scores.

Brussel, paired with Brian Jung, fell to Dunn and Sul 7-6, 6-4, while in singles Andrew Jung had a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Lukasik and Tyler Blum fell to Brady 6-4, 6-3.

Even with those defeats, B’ville’s confidence did not diminish, for it moved on and, in last Thursday’s match against Liverpool, shut out the Warriors 7-0.

Marsallo blanked Evan Prosser 6-0, 6-0 as Smith handled Aiden Barbour 6-1, 6-1 and Tutor topped Cole Potrzeba 6-2, 6-0, while Funicello and Licciardello began the doubles sweep, handling Brandon Davis and Shohbit Sharma 6-2, 6-1.

Doan and Vona won 6-0, 6-1 over Adam Reiter and Brett Ritter, with Brussel and Jung topping Aiden Hunter and James Welch by those same scores. Helbig and Savage handled Cole DenBleyker and Evan Miller 6-1, 6-2.