CENTRAL NEW YORK – After playing Class B sides for most of the spring, the Christian Brothers Academy baseball team will attempt to do what it accomplished in 2021 – namely, move up and earn the Section III Class A championship.
CBA was particularly impressive last Tuesday at Westhill, rallying with some power and solid pitching to earn an 8-3 victory over the Warriors.
A three-run third inning by Westhill erased an early 2-0 lead, but the Brothers got to pitchers Mike Madigan and Ryan Campbell for five runs in the top of the fifth to go ahead for good.
Teck Nash provided a long solo home run as Luke Boule and Jack Landau each got two RBIs. Louis Percival doubled twice as he, along with Nate Smith and Ethan Harris, drove in single runs. Boule, other than the third inning, kept Westhill off the board in 6 1/3 innings, striking out nine.
On Thursday, CBA shut out Altmar-Parish-Williamstown 10-0 as Smith held the Rebels to four hits while amassing 12 strikeouts, also driving in a run at the plate. Percival and Tom Leskoske each drove in two runs as single RBIs went to Nash, Ryan Petrie and Gerald Vielhauer.
Then CBA routed Oswego 17-6 on Saturday, moving to 14-4 overall. Smith tripled, singled twice and got five RBIs, while Jack Landau hit a home run as he, along with Nash, Matt Landau and Will Harrigan, drove in two runs apiece.
Jamesville-DeWitt stumbled last Wednesday in an 11-9 defeat to Fulton made far worse by the fact that it led 9-2 through three innings before the Red Raiders chipped away with single runs in the next two nnings, then scored three times in the sixth and four times in the seventh.
Before it fell apart, Jake Ogata had doubled and drove in three runs, while Matt Sweeney got a pair of RBIs. Dante Santos, Eamon Giblin and Carter King had one RBI apiece.
Another close loss followed on Saturday, J-D beaten 4-3 by Auburn in eight innings. The Rams led 2-1, fell behind 3-2 and tied it it the top of the seventh before the Maroons won it an inning later. King tripled, singled and drove in a run, with A.J. Sumida adding an RBI.
Fayetteville-Manlius dropped a close 2-1, eight-inning decision to Syracuse City last Tuesday afternoon, the game decided when Colin Murphy scored on Joey Ilacqua’s single in the top of the eighth.
Prior to that, Syracuse had grabbed a 1-0 first-inning lead, which pitcher Calvin Atkinson retained until the Hornets, in the bottom of the fifth, tied it when Chris Hoalcraft scored after one of his two hits.
Colin Mott pitched seven innings for F-M, striking out five and only allowing four hits before Sam Kuss took over in the eighth. Murphy pitched two innings of relief to win it for Syracuse.
F-M then fell 4-0 to West Genesee on Wednesday, held to three hits by Wildcats pitching ace Ryan Klementowski, who helped his team avenge a defeat to the Hornets six days earlier. Kuss, Robert Mason and Tom Woodridge had the hits as Max Danaher pitched and took the loss.
In Thursday’s 7-3 loss to Cicero-North Syracuse, Hornets pitcher Max Werde surrendered six runs in the bottom of the first and F-M was uunable to recover, though it did get two hits and an RBI from Ethan Powell.
F-M broke the skid Friday by topping Liverpool 9-5, largely on the strength of racing out to an 8-1 lead by the third inning to support pitcher Dan Swift, who went five innings for the win.
Kai Warner went three-for-three at the plate and scored twice, with Powell getting two RBIs. Hoalcraft, Danaher, Woodridge, Kuss and Seth Albert drove in one run apiece.
Bishop Grimes also faced a hot pitcher last Wednesday and fell 8-1 to Cazenovia, the Cobras limited to five hits by Lakers ace Jack Byrnes, who struck out nine to give him 81 in 49-plus innings pitched this spring.
Still, Grimes managed to break up the shutout in the top of the seventh when R.J. Benedetto drove home Bruno Kinsey. Dominic Rossi had two of the Cobras’ five hits.
Grimes is the no. 13 seed in the Class B sectional bracket, and meets no. 4 seed Homer in the opening round as F-M, in Class AA, has a no. 5 seed and visits no. 4 seed Utica Proctor in the quarterfinals that same day.
Over in Class A, CBA picked up the no. 3 seed, with a bye straight into Thursday’s quarterfinal against no. 6 seed Carthage or no. 11 seed Watertown as J-D, the no. 8 seed, faces no. 9 seed Oswego with the winner going to the quarterfinals where they would try and take down unbeaten top seed Whitesboro.
