ONONDAGA COUNTY – It appears that, this time around, the Fayetteville-Manlius baseball team is not waiting until mid-May to demonstrate its potential.
Having won a pair of Section III Class AA titles with late-season pushes, the Hornets earned its third straight win last Monday at Gutchess Field in Corltand when it spoiled East Syracuse Minoa’s season opener, prevailing 7-2.
A run in the second inning and two more in the fourth got F-M in front, but it still needed a four-run rally in the fifth for the cushion it needed.
Jimmy Kuss and Nolan Merrow each got two RBIs, Brady Moore scored twice and Brian Tonkevich got two hits plus an RBI. Dan Swift pitched five innings before Harrison Schwab went the last two innings in relief, Luke Liedka taking the loss for ESM as Braeden Phipps got two hits and the Spartans’ runs were scored by Luke Liedka and Tommy Clonan.
Just 24 hours later, it was F-M meeting another of its neighbors, Jamesville-DeWitt, but this time it was the Hornets on the wrong end of it as the Red Rams prevailed 12-8, handing F-M its first defeat of the season.
A five-run first inning pushed J-D in front and it scored once in the next four innings before adding three insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth that helped it stave off a possible Hornets comeback.
Luke VanMarter got a home run as he and Eamon Giblin both drove in a pair of runs, Giblin getting three hits. Griffon Filighera doubled and drove in four runs, Dylan Bertollini adding two hits and an RBI. Tom Woodridge scored three runs for F-M and Steve Wratney hit a home run, joining Jeremy Albert and Ryan Kleinhans with two RBIs apiece.
ESM, meanwhile, took a narrow 4-3 defeat to Cicero-North Syracuse, who scored twice in the top of the seventh to erase the Spartans’ 3-2 advantage it had built scoring twice in the third inning and once in the fifth.
A.J. Graham had two of the Spartans’ five hits, while Liedka, Mike Munger and Tyler Hildreth had one RBI apiece. Munger took the loss, going 2 1/3 innings amid pitching stints by Trey Bova, Nick Commisso nad John Reale.
Then ESM got its first win of the season against Auburn at Falcon Park, prevailing by that exact same 4-3 margin as Liedka pitched and got 12 strikeouts, limiting the Maroons to three hits in 5 2/3 innings.
Even with a 3-0 lead built up in the third and fourth innings, the Spartans required a run in the seventh to pull it out. Commisso got two RBIs, with Graham adding two hits and an RBI. Clonan and Chase Fredericks also scored runs.
The second game of the Auburn series on Friday would see the Maroons salvage a split by beating ESM 6-3, building a 5-0 lead through the first four innings before the Spartans got on the board.
ESM did get eight hits, two of them by Liedka, who drove in a pair of runs. Ryan Dablock also had an RBI, while Commisso and C.J. Fleet each pitched three innings, Fleet taking the loss.
