CENTRAL NEW YORK – What the Christian Brothers Academy baseball team achieved in outscoring Cazenovia and Homer by a combined 37-1 margin was try and establish itself as the team to beat in the OHSL Liberty division.
Westhill challenged that notion, and the two powers met last Tuesday afternoon, only to have the Brothers again jump out to a quick early lead and not let up until it had blanked the Warriors 10-0.
Luke Boule held Westhill to two hits and got all the support he needed when CBA struck for five runs in the bottom of the first inning.
Five more runs would follow as Jack Landau homered, singled, walked, scored three runs and joined Ethan Harris and Zach Mulhern getting two RBIs apiece. Boule, Cooper Marko and Matt Landau also drove in runs.
When CBA faced Bishop Grimes on Thursday, the Brothers pulled off another 10-0 shutout, this time seeing pitcher Tom Leskoske throw a one-hitter with 12 strikeouts.
CBA was ready at the plate, scoring in six straight innings starting with a three-run second and helped by five Cobras errors. Nate Smith, with three RBIs, led the attack as Matt Landau drove in two runs. Teck Nash scored three times as he and Andrew Schaefer added single RBIs.
Against another local opponent on Friday, CBA got the best of Fayetteville-Manlius, prevailing 6-4 over the Hornets.
They were tied, 3-3, through five innings, and remained that way until the top of the seventh, when the Brothers struck for three runs Off F-M reliever Sam Kuss, who had replaced starter Max Danaher in the sixth.
The Hornets could only manage a single tally in the bottom of the seventh in response. Boule led CBA with a double, two singles and three RBIs, with Nash and Louis Percival also driving in runs as F-M’s Robert Mason went three-for-four with a pair of RBIs.
Things turned for both teams on Saturday, F-M rebounding to beat Ithaca 9-4 as CBA was shut out 1-0 by Liverpool.
In the Hornets’ case, two runs in the third and fourth inning broke a 1-1 tie with the Little Red, and more followed as Mason drove in a pair of runs, with Sam Kuss, Chris Hoalcraft, Tyler Black and Seth Albert getting one RBI apiece.
Meanwhile, CBA ran into Liverpool pitching Noah Klasen, who held them to five hits (two of them by Will Harrigan) and struck out eight. A lone run in the second inning made the difference as Nash and Ryan Petrie shared pitching duties with Jack Landau.
Back on Tuesday, Bishop Grimes faced Skanaeteles and took a 3-1 defeat to the Lakers. Trailing 1-0, the Cobras tied it in the bottom of the fourth as Tristan Mancari drove home Dominic Rossi, while pitchers R.J. Bendetto and Will Markwood were combining to keep the Skaneateles bats quiet.
Then, in the top of the seventh, the Lakers got to Markwood for two decisive runs, the key blow Mike Blowers’ double as Grimes could not answer it in the bottom of the seventh.
Then, after the loss to CBA, Grimes rebounded in a big way Saturday, routing Chittenango 12-1 as the Cobras’ overall record improved to 6-7.
East Syracuse Minoa was 1-11 going into last Thursday’s game with Fulton, but beat the Red Raiders 11-5 by scoring three times in the second inning and five times in the third to build an early 8-0 advantage.
Nick Commiso went three-for-four, scoring three times. A.J. Graham and Kevin Stewart each scored twice as Dylan Clark and Carter Stewart earned RBIs and Clark pitched six innings to earn the win, overcoming six hits and seven walks.
Jamesville-DeWitt took another setback last Tuesday with a 6-5 defeat to Syracuse City, who led 2-0 after one inning and, after the Red Rams scored four times in the second, answered with a three-run third.
As it turned out, a sixth-inning Syracuse run was needed since J-D, trailing 6-4, got a run in the seventh, but saw its comeback fall short. Eamon Giblin had three hits and Matt Sweeney got two hits as he, along with Carter King, Tyler Kaelin and Dan Rindfuss, had one RBI apiece.
In Saturday’s tight 5-4 defeat to Homer, J-D could not quite overcome a 5-1 deficit, though Kaelin and Aidan McGuire each got two hits, with Aaron Ko, Nasir Williams and Matt Sweeney earning one RBI apiece.
