CENTRAL NEW YORK – When it was time for the Jamesville-DeWitt and East Syracuse Minoa baseball teams to take to the field for the Section III Class A playoffs, both sides knew they had to play better than what they had recently showed.
This was especially the case for the Red Rams, who last Tuesday got shut down in a neighborhood clash with Fayetteville-Manlius, the Hornets roaring to a 6-0 victory.
Coming off getting swept in a May 13 doubleheader by Bethlehem and Saratoga Springs, F-M quickly went in front with two runs in the bottom of the first inning off Luke VanMarter.
A run in the fourth and three runs in the fifth gave the Hornets more of a cushion, but Max Danaher didn’t need it. Dominant on the mound, Danaher gave up just two hits and no walks while striking out 10.
A.J. Sumida and Dante Santos had J-D’s lone hits, while the Hornets’ Nolan Merrow had three hits all by himself , a double and two singles leading to three RBIs as Tom Woodridge and Eitan Spinoza also drove in runs.
Later, on Friday afternoon, F-M lost 10-4 to Utica Proctor, who continued to establish itself as a Class AA title contender by jumping on the Hornets for nine runs in the bottom of the first. Ryan Kleinhans did get a pair of RBIs, with Sam Kuss and Seth Albert also driving in runs.
J-D already had gone through shaky start to the final week of the regular season last Monday as it took a 14-7 defeat to Syracuse City.
To its credit, the Red Rams, who gave up six runs in the top of the second, made it all the way back, tying it 7-7 by the fifth thanks to two hits and two RBIs from Luke VanMarter and two more hits by Tyler Kaelin.
Syracuse answered, though, with a two-run sixth off A.J. Sumida, who had pitched after stints by Jake Ogata and Eamon Giblin, and added five insurance runs in the top of the seventh. Jackson Grier led Syracuse with two hits and four RBIs.
Meanwhile, ESM lost last Monday 3-2 to Fulton, who claimed it in the bottom of the seventh after the Spartans had tied it, 2-2 with a run in the top of the seventh.
Carter Stewart pitched a complete game, earning 10 strikeouts, but that, along with RBIs by A.J. Graham and Trey Bova, was not enough, Joe Federico adding a pair of hits.
A 6-3 defeat to Fulton followed in the second game, with much of the damage done when Fulton, after tying it 2-2 in the fifth, broke through with four runs in the bottom of the sixth.
The Spartans were held to four hits, two of them by Graham, while Dan Gilkey got an RBI and Jacob Pacheco, Aaron Reynolds and Joe Federico scored the runs. Logan Prince pitched five innings and amassed eight strikeouts.
Yet another close game on Thursday had ESM taking a 4-3 defeat to Oswego, who erased an early 2-0 Spartans advantage and answered with a run in the bottom of the seventh after the Spartans tied it 3-3 in the top of the seventh.
Luke Liedka pitched 5 1/3 innings before Bova relieved him. J.J. Reale drove in two of ESM’s three runs, with Carter Stewart getting the other RBI.
This started a doubleheader where the Buccaneers also beat the Spartans 11-4 in the second game. Only Kevin Stewart had two hits for ESM as Prince, Jacob Pacheco and J.J. Reale had one RBI apiece.
ESM would have to turn this around as the no. 9 seed in the sectional Class A playoff bracket, playing in Tuesday’s opening round against no. 8 seed Central Square with the winner to battle top seed Whitesboro in the quarterfinals. That’s where J-D, as the no. 2 seed, already is situated, the Red Rams hosting no. 7 seed Fulton or no. 10 seed Watertown on Thursday.
