CENTRAL NEW YORK – Perhaps it’s the break the West Genesee baseball team has needed for 45 years.
Trying to break its long Section III championship drought, the Wildcats claimed a 2-1, eight-inning decision over Baldwinsville in Thursday night’s Class AA semifinal at Onondaga Community College, highlighting a wild set of games for area squads.
There was Westhill turning back Skaneateles 3-2 in a tense Class B quarterfinal as Marcellus went on the road to surprise Homer 5-3 and, in Class C, Bishop Ludden shocked no. 2 seed Beaver River 12-6 a mere five days after losing to those same Beavers.
To top it off, back in the Class B bracket Solvay rallied from five runs down in a game with Vernon-Verona-Sherrill that spilled over into Friday before the Bearcats were ousted, 14-12, by the surprising Red Devils.
But what happened at OCC, in a rematch of the 2021 sectional Class AA final, was memorable for many reasons, chief of which were the events that unfolded in the eighth inning.
The two sides were tied 1-1, Baldwinsville having pulled even in the top of the seventh after West Genesee went up 1-0 in the top of the fifth on Aidan Leaf’s RBI triple.
With two out in the top of the eighth, the Bees’ Griffin Seeber singled. Cam Brennan singled, moving Seeber to second. Then Logan Welch took a Talon Elkins pitch to right field for another base hit.
Seeber sped around third base and headed home. Leaf threw to the plate, where Jake DePalma caught it and turned around, only to have Seeber slide and appear to touch home with the go-ahead run ahead of DePalma’s tag. But Seeber was called out.
B’ville players, coaches and fans were stunned, but the call stood. And in the bottom of the eighth with two outs, Luis Suarez walked, Ryan Klementowski sent a line drive to right field that Matt Carner nearly caught, but trapped, allowing Suarez to race to third.
Dan Flaherty then delivered a single up the middle to score Suarez and end it, WG moving on to Sunday’s sectional final where it will face an unlikely opponent, no. 5 seed Fayetteville-Manlius, who knocked off top seed Cicero-North Syracuse 8-5 in the other semifinal.
Hours earlier, two long-time antagonists engaged in another post-season battle, and like their two regular-season encounters, Westhill, the no. 3 seed in Class B, was pushed by no. 6 seed Skaneateles, but finished on top.
The Warriors took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, Aiden Kerr scoring. After the Lakers tied it 1-1 in the top of the third, Westhill answered with two runs off Skaneateles pitcher Cooper Purdy, Kerr and Anthony Sampo crossing the plate.
A run in the fifth pulled the Lakers back within one, but Tyler Campbell and Ryan Campbell combined to limit Skaneateles to just four hits, overcoming seven walks with six strikeouts. Somehow Westhill won with just three hits on the board.
That Westhill would take on VVS in the sectional semifinals was quite improbable. The Red Devils started out as the no. 18 seed in the 18-team Class B bracket, but then edged Clinton 5-4 and stunned no. 2 seed Little Falls 9-7 to earn a quarterfinal date with Solvay.
Actually, it took two days, for the Bearcats fell behind early, closed the gap to 8-6, but then saw VVS score three times in the top of the seventh. Somehow, Solvay battled back and, with five runs in the bottom of the seventh, forged an 11-11 tie.
They played a tense eighth inning as daylight faded, the Red Devils making it 12-11 but the Bearcats answering with a run and loading the bases, yet unable to end it.
Play was called, and resumed on Friday morning. After a scoreless ninth inning, VVS struck for a pair of runs in the top of the 10th and then kept Solvay off the board to advance to a semifinal with Westhill less than 24 hours later.
Far more conventional was Marcellus, the no. 12 seed, going on the road and avenging two regular-season losses to Homer in its Class B quarterfinal.
A two-run first inning got the Mustangs in front, and it added a run in the third and two runs in the fifth. Colin Johnson’s pair of hits led to three RBIs, while Hunter Byrne added an RBI.
Adam Sullivan not only scored twice, he pitched an effective complete game, earning seven strikouts while giving up six hits. It sent Marcellus into a Class B semifinal against another surprise team, no. 8 seed Cazenovia, who knocked off top seed South Jefferson.
Whatever expectations Bishop Ludden carried into the Class C sectional tournament, they were raised after the Gaelic Knights’ efforts against a Beaver River side it lost to, 9-3, on the last day of the regular season.
An early 1-0 deficit vanished when Ludden got a run in the second, then blasted away for eight straight runs in the third and fourth innings, with the Beavers unable to make up that ground.
Peter Dunham went three-for-five with a double, two singles and four RBIs. Joe Dunham, who pitched six innings to earn the win, scored twice and drove in a pair of runs as Patrick Towsley and Joey Adamo both scored three runs. Ludden meets no. 3 seed Pulaski in Saturday’s semifinal at Utica’s Murnane Field.
