CENTRAL NEW YORK – Once finished with a split of their two-game series on April 13-14, the Jamesville-DeWitt and East Syracuse Minoa baseball teams had very different experiences the next time they took the field.
For the Red Rams, it meant going north to face Fulton and, with two scoring outbursts and great pitching from Jake Ogata and Tim Cooper, won 13-1 over the Red Raiders.
J-D immediately struck for five runs in the top of the first inning. Then it scored twice in the third and added a five-run sixth, the big blow an inside-the-park grand slam from Nasir Williams.
Helping out Williams at the plate, Aaron Ko tripled, singled and drove in three runs, with Dante Santos scoring three times and adding a pair of RBIs.
Meanwhile, Ogata (four innings) and Cooper (three innings) gave up just four hits between them and recorded eight strikeouts.
Off until Friday, J-D took on Class AA’s Rome Free Academy and, despite two different comeback attempts, took an 11-8 defeat to the Black Knights.
Three third-inning runs erased an early 3-0 deficit, but RFA struck for five runs in the fourth and three runs in the sixth that proved decisive.
Despite a run in the fifth and four more in the sixth, the Rams could not catch up. Still, Eamon Giblin went three-for-four with two RBIs, with Ko and Santos also driving in two runs apiece.
As for ESM, it ventured to Falcon Park last Monday to face Auburn and lost, 11-4 to the Maroons, who struck for three runs in the second inning and four runs in the third.
The Spartans could not recover from those bursts, though it did score twice in the third and sixth innings. Trey Bova went three-for-four with an RBI as Dan Gilkey also drove in a run. Logan Prince pitched four innings and took the loss, with Nick Commisso working in relief.
ESM picked up more runs a day later against Syracuse City, yet still took an 11-9 defeat in a game where it jumped out to a 5-0 first-inning advantage and led 8-2 in the third.
Syracuse stormed back with three runs in the third, five runs in the fifth to take the lead and three insurance runs in the sixth, unable to get out Jackson Grier, who went four-for-five with two doubles, two singles and five RBIs.
Commisso and Aaron Reynolds both drove in a pair of runs for the Spartans, with Gilkey, Joe Federico and Marlon Czajaka also getting RBIs as Bova, Carter Stewart and Jacob Pacheco all pitched.
Bishop Grimes entered the week feeling good after an epochal 3-2, 10-inning victory over Pulaski on April 14.
Bruno Kinsey traded zeroes with Blue Devils pitcher Jacob Krebs until the Cobras took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth, only to have Pulaski tie it in the seventh off Grimes reliever Frank Sgroi.
Settling down, Sgroi blanked the Blue Devils in the eighth and ninth innings, only to surrender a run in the 10th, but the Cobras answered with the tying and winning runs as Dante Piraino and Jon Farstler had two hits apiece.
Rained out of Tuesday’s game with LaFayette, Grimes resumed Thursday and, in a non-league game against Solvay, got a great pitching performance from Will Markwood to shut out the Bearcats 9-0.
Over 6 1/3 innings, Markwood allowed just one hit and three walks, amassing 12 strikeouts and getting all the help he needed when Grimes batted around in the bottom of the third, plating six runs.
Five different players – Farstler, Brett Helmer, Tristan Mancari, Matt Govendo and Aaron Nuzzo – notched two hits apiece, Farstler driving in a pair of runs as Govendo scored twice. Piraino and Kinsey each had an RBI.
