CENTRAL NEW YORK – Hitting the halfway point of the regular season, the West Genesee baseball team has done little to discourage anyone’s championship aspirations.
The Wildcats again showed its grit in last Monday’s game against Cicero-North Syracuse at the Gillette Road Complex, going to eight innings to beat the Northstars 3-2.
WG got to C-NS ace Bryce Zicaro for a first-inning run, but was shut out for the rest of regulation. Meanwhile, Landyn Shaw put together his own shutout until the Northstars poked across a run in the fifth.
Helped by reliever Ryan Tabaczyk, the Wildcats kept it 1-1 until the top of the eighth, when Ryan Saroney’s bases-loaded single brought home Cameron Noce and Anthony Augello.
That cushion was needed sine Tabaczyk gave up a run in the bottom of the eighth, but was able to record the final out. Talon Elkins and Jacob Severson produced two hits apiece.
In the rematch a day later in Camillus, WG again trailed, and again came back, this time with a late scoring surge that subdued C-NS and led to a 6-1 victory.
The big blows came in the bottom of the fifth, when the Wildcats erased C-NS’s 1-0 lead and got to pitcher Battista Wood for four runs, adding two in the sixth off reliever Justin Coyne.
Vince Firenze and Jason Clifton each got two hits and two RBIs, with Saroney and Talon Elkins also driving in runs. Clifton, after giving up a first-inning run, blanked the Northstars and struck out six before Charlie Searle worked two scoreless innings of relief.
Now WG had two games against Fayetteville-Manlius, the first of them Thursday night at NBT Bank Stadium where, again, freshman pitcher Colin Crinnin impressed in a 5-2 victory over the Hornets.
After giving up a pair of first-inning runs, Crinnin blanked F-M the rest of the way, allowing just five hits to move to 4-0 on the season.
All of the Wildcats’ runs came in the top of the fourth, when it got to Max Danaher with several clutch hits, one of them Severson’s two-run single as Elkins also had an RBI.
When these same two sides met in Camillus less than 24 hours later, WG got yet another great pitching effort, this one from Elkins, and shut out F-M 3-0.
In 6 2/3 innings, Elkins limited the Hornets to five hits and a walk, striking out seven. And he also had a single and RBI in the decisive third inning where the Wildcats scored all of its runs, Clifton and Jared Jeager also crossing the plate.
Bishop Ludden recovered from its first defeat of the season to Skaneateles on April 22 when it blanked Jordan-Elbridge 12-0 last Tuesday, Tim Dunham pitching six scoreless innings and striking out seven.
Scoring in every inning except the third, the Gaelic Knights saw Joey get three hits and score five runs. Joe Dunham and Parker Pichoske had three RBIs apiece as Andrew Pullano drove in a pair of runs.
Another shutout followed on Wednesday, Ludden blanking Union Springs 6-0 on Joe Dunham’s one-hit gem, the ace amassing nine strikeouts against just two walks allowed.
A three-run inning was all the Gaelic Knights needed, though it doubled the margin by game’s end. Greg Purdy’s pair of hits led to two RBIs as Nolan Feldt and Mike Masterpole also drove in runs.
This led to a Friday showdown with 7-1 Tully, and with two fine pitchers at work, Nolan Feldt got the best of it as Ludden blanked the Black Knights 2-0.
Accumulating 14 strikeouts, Feldt held Tully to three hits and two walks, getting all the help he needed when the Gaelic Knights poked across runs in the first and third innings, each of them driven home by Joe Dunham.
Also playing on Friday, J-E lost, 12-2, to Pulaski, as only Emerson Derby got two hits for the Eagles, Derby and Hunter Bigness scoring the runs.
