SYRACUSE – Start to finish, no one got close to the Jamesville-DeWitt baseball team on its way to earning its Section III Class A championship since 2014.
The Red Rams’ rampage culminated Monday night at Onondaga Community College with a 5-0 victory over New Hartford in a title game where it quickly went out in front and, with sophomore Luke VanMarter’s deft pitching, stayed there.
“It’s awesome to be a part of this,” said VanMarter. “And it’s so good to do this with my best friends.”
Many players, along with head coach Ryan Dera, pointed to the many messages of support from J-D baseball alumni as a source of strength as it bounced back from three straight defeats to end the regular season, Dera saying this win was “for the whole J-D baseball family.”
Power and speed got J-D in front in the bottom of the second against New Hartford pitcher John Vitullo. VanMarter walked and raced around to score when catcher Aaron Ko tripled to the wall. Dante Santos then made it 2-0 with a run-scoring single.
An inning later, the Rams’ margin doubled. Eamon Giblin doubled and, after Rowan Gall relieved Vitullo, raced to third on a wild pitch and scored on another. A.J. Sumida walked, moved to third on the wild pitches and scored on Ko’s sacrifice fly.
Santos returned in the sixth to double, get to third base on a dropped third strike and score when, with nobody out, Ryan Walker grounded into a double play.
A single run was all VanMarter needed, though. Throwing strikes and working through several quick innings, VanMarter only surrendered four hits.
“Luke throws gems,” said Ko, the Rams’ catcher. “He locates every pitch well and knows just where the umpire wants it (for a strike).”
Still, getting to the end wasn’t that easy. New Hartford put two on with two out in the top of the sixth, but VanMarter struck out Derek DeFazio. Then the Spartans loaded the bases with nobody out in the top of the seventh.
Dera walked out to talk to VanMarter, but the sophomore said that it all was good, and he proceeded to strike out Matt Greene and Logan Clarey, and watch as Ko threw a runner drifting off third base to end the game.
J-D had breezed to the title game by routing Indian River 15-0 in last Saturday’s semifinal right before New Hartford brought an end to the unlikely post-season run of East Syracuse Minoa 7-2 in the other semifinal.
A four-run first inning got the Rams going against Indian River, and it would get at least one run in every inning except the second, peaking with a five-run outburst in the bottom of the fifth.
Of J-D’s 16 hits, three each were earned by Santos and A.J. Sumida. VanMarter drove in three runs, with Eamon Giblin, Aaron Ko and Tim Cooper each getting a pair of RBIs as Jake Ogata joined Sumida in scoring three runs.
Aside from what he did at the plate, Ogata also pitched most of the way, going 6 2/3 innings before Will Cooper picked up the final out, Ogata striking out nine and only allowing two hits.
In the other semifinal, ESM, attempting to follow up its upset of top seed Whitesboro in the quarterfinals, erased an early 2-0 deficit to New Hartford in the top of the third on Trey Bova’s two-run double.
Quickly answering, New Hartford went ahead for good on John Vitullo’s bases-loaded double in the fourth. Zach Philipkoski, who twice has led his school to the boys basketball state Class A final four, kept ESM quiet the rest of the way, pitching a complete game.
J-D would make sure, though, that New Hartford didn’t win again in 2023, and would earn a trip to the Class A state tournament, where it hopes to beat Section X’s Franklin Academy Thursday at CCC to set up a regional final Saturday against Section II champion Columbia.
