SYRACUSE – Only a couple of shots, out of the nearly 3,000 taken during Wednesday’s Section III Class AA fall tournament, separated the Baldwinsville boys golf team from claiming the championship banner.
With 10 golfers on hand at Drumlins Country Club, the Bees found itself in a tight three-way battle for the top spot with Fayetteville-Manlius Green and Cicero-North Syracuse Blue.
When all the scores were counted, B’ville, who had gone 10-1-1 in the regular season, had a 400, beating the Northstars’ 403, but behind the Hornets, who won with 398.
Still, each of the Bees’ top-five finishers were able to secure berths in May’s sectional state qualifying tournament at Seven Oaks in Hamilton.
Austin McClintic led B’ville, shooting a 77, which put him in third place, five shots behind the individual champion, F-M Green’s Velton Perry, and C-NS Blue’s Jake Nardozza, who had a 75.
Trey Ordway was close behind, putting together a 79, while Alden Motala stepped up to shoot an 80. Nate MacGregor finished with an 81 and Aidan Farmer earned an 83.
F-M Green didn’t have a round close to Perry’s, but still saw Luke Weisiger post a 79. It took Jack Antshel and Hugh Roddy both shooting 82 and Colin Mott shooting 83 to help the Hornets hold off the Bees as
Dylan Wertheim and Tom Hastings tied with matching rounds of 89. They finished ahead of Keegan Lynch, who had a 93. Evan Trasher shot 96 and Jake Czyz had a 105.
B’ville picked up momentum for the sectional tournament by a pair of wins early last week, starting with a 189-224 romp over C-NS Green at Northern Pines.
Farmer and MacGregor both shot two-under-par 34. Trasher had a 38, with Hastings, Ordway and McClintic tying for fourth place with 39 ahead of the 42 from the Northstars’ Joe DeGroat.
One more tune-up took place a day later, B’ville handling Fayetteville-Manlius White 187-204 at Woodcrest behind a 35 from Ordway and a 36 from Farmer. McClintic had a 38, with Trasher and Hastings both shooting 39.
