For six innings last Monday afternoon, the Baldwinsville baseball team appeared to once again, have got the best of West Genesee, just as it did when it prevailed last June in the Section III Class AA championship game.
Then came the seventh inning, and with it a stunning rally that allowed the Wildcats to pull out a 9-6 decision and remain atop the SCAC Metro division standings.
WG arrived at this game with a 7-0 record, having played far more than B’ville in the early stages of the season, and it quickly took a 3-0 first-inning lead off Bees starter Gavin Miller.
Miller settled down, though, and blanked the Wildcats until the sixth. Single runs in the first and fifth inched B’ville closer and, in the bottom of the sixth, it struck for three runs to seize a 5-3 advantage.
It didn’t last, though. With Miller gone, relievers Jason Ouellette and Jacob Penafeather were tagged for five runs in the top of the seventh as WG went back in front to stay.
Reid Rachwal and Aiden Milburn both got a pair of hits, plus an RBI. Penafeather also drove in a run as Dean Welch scored twice. Aidan Leaf paced the Wildcats with two hits, two runs scored and three RBIs.
This all was bad news for B’ville’s next opponent, Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, who felt the Bees’ wrath in an 11-0 shutout at NBT Bank Stadium that was part of the “Strike Out ALS” Tournament.
With a four-run third inning and six runs in the bottom of the fifth, the Bees settled matters as Matt Carner had two hits, two runs scored and two RBIs.
Evan Kenville, Perry Chetney and Cameron Brennan drove in two runs apiece, with Colin Ray pitching five shutout innings, limiting the Red Devils to two hits.
Back in league play on Thursday, B’ville faced a Fayetteville-Manlius side that had twice beaten Cicero-North Syracuse in the previous three days, but could not handle the Bees, who prevailed 7-1.
Unlike his 1-0 loss to C-NS the week before, Kai Girard got plenty of run support, B’ville scoring twice in the first, third and seventh innings. Again, Girard threw a complete game, earning five strikeouts while holding F-M to four hits and two walks.
Carner was four-for-five at the plate, scoring twice as Chetney drove in two runs. Single RBIs went to Miller, Braden Seeber and Dean Welch.
Then, in Saturday’s non-league game at Saratoga Springs (Section II), B’ville matched its run production it got against F-M, but still lost 8-7 to the Blue Streaks.
Saratoga scored seven times in the first two innings to build a 7-2 advantage, only to have the Bees catch up in the top of the fourth with a five-run rally.
The Blue Streaks broke the 7-7 tie with a run in the fifth and held on from there. Five different B’ville players – Carner, Miller, Milburn, Cameron Brennan and Josh Leonard – earned one RBI apiece.
So the Bees would take a 5-3 record into this week, where trips to Liverpool and Rochester McQuaid would bridge a Thursday rematch with West Genesee.
