CENTRAL NEW YORK – As it moves up to Class AA for post-season purposes, the Christian Brothers Academy baseball team has already shown it can stand up to and beat the top sides.
With a win over Cicero-North Syracuse in the books, the Brothers were set to take on Baldwinsville last Monday afternoon, but it got postponed.
So CBA was off until Thursday, when it went to Skaneateles and, despite a big comeback by the Lakers, was able to regroup and pull out an 8-6 victory.
A five-run second inning followed a run in the first and produced a 6-0 lead but Skaneateles erased all of it in the bottom of the third, tying it 6-6 as Carter Corbett’s bases-clearing triple was the big blow.
But in the top of the fifth, the Brothers scored twice and held on from there, Ryan Petrie pitching 4 1/3 innings of scoreless relief after Will Harrigan was removed in the third.
Mike Giamartino continued to star at the plate, his single and double producing four RBIs. Harrigan, Luke Boule, Ethan Harris and Jack Landau also drove in runs.
Fayetteville-Manlius started a two-game series against Liverpool with another close game that, despite a big comeback, it could not quite full off, ultimately taking a 7-6 defeat.
Down 6-1, F-M battled back with a well-balanced attack. Steve Wratney’s two-run single highlighted a four-run fourth and Tom Woodridge’s sixth-inning single scored Brady Moore and tied it, 6-6.
Harrison Schwab pitched four innings before Kuss took over in relief. But in the bottom of the seventh, Jack Hoppe reached on an error, moved to second and then took advantage of a pair of Kuss wild pitches to dash home with the winning run.
A day later, F-M had another close one with Liverpool, but won it 4-3 with a stirring late-game rally as, with three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, it managed to erase a 3-1 deficit.
Woodridge scored a pair of runs as Max Danaher, Michael Dutch, Seth Albert and Etan Spinoza got two hits apiece. Albert also got the win with two innings of relief after Dan Swift started, the pair only allowing three hits between them.
F-M then had two games against West Genesee, starting last Thursday at NBT Bank Stadium, where the Hornets fell 5-2 to the Wildcats.
Dutch and Woodridge drove in first-inning runs, but from there WG’s freshman pitcher, Colin Crinnin, blanked the Hornets, only allowing five hits overall.
Still, F-M led 2-0 when, in the top of the fourth, the Wildcats got to Danaher for all five of its runs, the key blow a two-run single by Jacob Severson.
The rematch with WG almost fell into the same pattern, a single rally making the difference as WG won, 3-0, by getting all of its runs in the third inning off Gavin Nichols.
Kuss took over and pitched well in relief, but the Hornets again were limited to five hits, scattered by Wildcats pitcher Talon Elkins in 6 2/3 innings of work.
Bishop Grimes put together a 7-3 victory over Marcellus last Tuesday, the Cobras getting all the offense it needed when it scored four times in the bottom of the first, adding a two-run third and a run in the sixth.
