ONONDAGA COUNTY – Heading into its most crowded stretch of the season, the Fayetteville-Manlius baseball team would find all kinds of different results – some quite good, others not so much.
Back-to-back defeats left the Hornets in an urgent mode going into last Thursday’s game at West Genesee – and it responded with a combination of power and pitching that produced a 7-1 win over the Wildcats.
Three first-inning runs set a winning tone, and after surrendering a run in the bottom of the first, F-M pitcher Colin Momtt blanked WG’s lineup before Seth Albert arrived and tossed three innings of no-hit relief.
Chris Hoalcraft’s home run was the big blow as he and Robert Mason, who had a single and double, finished with two RBIs. Tom Woodridge also drove in a run as he and Albert both scored twice.
The Hornets took a setback last Monday, falling 11-9 to Utica Proctor, whose eight-run fourth inning broke a 2-2 tie. Even when the Hornets netted five run in the fifth, it could not catch up.
Albert went three-for-five and drove in three runs, with Mason also getting three RBIs as he, along with Woodridge, Sam Kuss, Eltan Spinoza and Jordan Parker, managed two hits apiece.
A 5-1 loss to Baldwinsville followed a day later. Max Danaher had two hits and scored his team’s lone run on Woodridge’s sixth-inning RBI single. Matt Carner led the Bees with two hits and three RBIs.
Following the win over West Genesee, F-M hosted Liverpool on Friday, where it lost 11-8 to the Warriors despite a big early lead.
A run in the first inning and five runs in the second created a 6-0 lead, but the Warriors rattled off eight runs in the third through fifth innings.
Though F-M tied it, 8-8, in the bottom of the fifth, Liverpool struck for three runs in the top of the seventh to win it, overcoming an effort where Mason, Woodridge and Michael Dutch each had two RBIs as Kuss and Hoalcraft got two hits apiece.
Bishop Grimes lost, 8-0, to Westhill last Monday, managing just three hits, one each by R.J. Benedetto, Dominic Rossi and Jon Farstler as Brady Richardson led the Warriors with three RBIs.
Two day later, the Cobras pulled out a 3-2 win over Bisohp Ludden when, in the bottom of the seventh, Nick Colagiovanni singled to bring home Benedetto with the winning run.
That completed a Grimes comeback from a 2-0 deficit established when the Gaelic Knights scored twice in the top of the third. Single runs in the fifth and sixth innings tied it, Farstler earning an RBI.
Between them, Benedetto, who pitched five innings, and Will Markwood, who tossed two innings of relief, amassed 17 strikeouts while only allowing three hits.
