CENTRAL NEW YORK – Two more area high school baseball teams got underway early last week, with Jamesville-DeWitt starting out its Section III Class A championship defense.
The Red Rams traveled last Tuesday night to Donovan Stadium, facing Utica Proctor and, with a late-game comeback, delivering an 8-3 victory over the Raiders.
Proctor had scored twice in the bottom of the fifth inning to erase an early 1-0 J-D lead, but in the top of the sixth the Rams broke through in a big way, netting seven runs.
Eamon Giblin doubled and Luke VanMarter tripled, each getting a pair of RBIs. Tim Cooper, Aaron Ko and Ryan Walker also drove in runs as Aidan McGuire scored twice. Sam Ashe pitched 1 2/3 innings of relief and earned the win after VanMarter started and Luke McQuaid saw an inning of relief.
Christian Brothers Academy also had high expectations for 2024, and they weren’t quieted by last Monday’s dramatic 5-2 victory over Westhill at Onondaga Community College.
For six innings, the Brothers could do little against Warriors pitching ace Mike Madigan, kept off the board despite Mike Giamartino’s triple and double, while Westhill used a pair of runs off Ryan Petrie to go in front 2-0.
Then, in the top of the seventh, it all changed. Ethan Harris worked a walk. Ben Snyder pinch-hit and singled. Then Tim Scholl tripled to the gap, scoring both runs.
Moments later, Cooper Marko drilled a go-ahead two-run single and Giamartino added an RBI double, while Tom Menar got the final three out as he and Jack Landau pitched three scoreless innings of relief.
When the two met again at Tom Dotterer Field on Friday, Westhill got even, beating CBA 9-1 in a game shortened to five innings by rain.
Landau drove in Marko in the bottom of the first for a 1-0 advantage, but from there the Warriors took over, scoring three times in the second and third innings against Landau and reliver Tom Menar. Ryan Campbell, Anthony Sampo and Trey Dillobaugh each had two RBIs to lead Westhill.
Fayetteville-Manlius won for the second time last Tuesday at Oswego, shutting out the Buccaneers 10-0.
Max Werde went 5 2/3 innings and Harrison Schwab 1 1/3 innings in relief, the pair holding Oswego to six hits while accumulating 10 strikeouts.
A five-run third inning got the Hornets in front, but it added five more runs in the sixth and seventh. Ryan Kleinhans’ pair of hits led to three RBIs, with Tom Woodridge and Nolan Merrow each landing two hits and two RBIs. Anthony Giuffrida also drove in a pair of runs as Jimmy Kuss doubled twice and earned an RBI.
Bishop Grimes dropped a 5-4, eight-inning decision to Marcellus in a game where it trailed 4-0, only to score three times in the sixth and again in the seventh to force it to extra frames.
Frank Sgroi, Ben Carroll, Owen Tierney and Dakota Benoit each drove in runs, with Dante Piraino scoring twice, but in the bottom of the eighth the Mustangs pushed across the winning run against Carroll after Sgroi went the first seven innings, striking out five without a walk.
