CENTRAL NEW YORK – Continuing its fine early-season play during the April school break, the Jamesville-DeWitt baseball team was mainly glad to have dry weather most of the time in order to get in some games.
That included a tough test against Cortland last Monday afternoon that, with fine pitching and an early scoring burst, led to a 3-1 victory over the Purple Tigers.
J-D’s pair of first-inning runs off Cortland pitcher Zach Muir was all that was needed. Three Rams pitchers – Ryan Walker (three innings), Luke VanMarter (2 2/3 innings) and Sam Ashe (1 1/3 innings) – held the Purple Tigers to six hits and a single third-inning tally.
Up 2-1, J-D added an insurance run in the fifth. Aaron Ko picked up a single, double and RBI, with Walker also driving in a run. VanMarter, Eamon Giblin and Aidan McGuire scored those runs.
A day later, J-D defeated Syracuse City 10-4, a game it trailed 2-1 until a three-run fourth inning was followed by a five-run outburst in the bottom of the fifth.
McGuire brought the big bat with a home run and finished with four RBIs. Giblin, Tim Cooper and Anthony Virag drove in two runs apiece as every Rams batter got at least one hit. Ko and Giblin pitched, combining to strike out 10 in six total innings.
Then a two-game series with Oswego started on Thursday with J-D getting a pitching gem from Walker and Griffon Filighera in a 8-0 shutout of the Buccaneers.
Walker (5 2/3 innings) and Filighera (1 1/3 innings) allowed just four hits between them. Meanwhile, the Rams mostly leaned on three-run rallies in the first and sixth innings as Giblin homered, singled twice and got two RBIs. Ko also drove in two runs while scoring three times.
The second game on Friday was far closer, but J-D pulled it out 4-3, concluding a back-and-forth battle through the late innings that saw the Rams rally from a 2-1 deficit and go up 3-2, only to have Oswego tie it in the top of the seventh.
Sam Ashe reached on an error to lead off the bottom of the seventh. Then Luke McQuaid bunted, and a wild throw allowed Ashe to dash all the way home with the winning run and the Rams’ fourth win in five days.
East Syracuse Minoa played a doubleheader last Monday on the turf at Gutchess Field, dropping a 6-2 decision to Homer but salvaging a split when it rallied to beat Chittenango 8-7.
Against the Trojans, the Spartans managed single runs in the first and sixth innings, A.J. Grhaam and Trey Bova getting two hits apiece and Luke Liedka adding an RBI, but Homer scored twice in the first and then used a four-run fifth inning to earn its winning margin, led by Maddox Johnson’s three hits and two RBIs. C.J. Fleet pitched five innings and took the loss.
The Chittenango game looked to go in the same direction when the Bears went up 7-1 through four innings. However, ESM cut the margin in half with runs in the fifth and sixth before a top of the seventh where it scored four times to go in front.
Bova, with three hits, led the comeback as he, along with Nick Commisso and Chase Fredericks, drove in two runs apiece. Graham had two hits and scored twice, with Bova getting the final three outs in relief after stints by Mike Munger and Tommy Clonan.
A 13-1 defeat to West Genesee took place on Thursday, with the Spartans staying close until 11 runs were scored by the Wildcats in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. John Reale drove in ESM’s lone run in the bottom of the sixth.
ESM met up with Bishop Grimes on Friday afternoon and won, 6-1, over the Cobras, a three-run first inning all that was needed for the Spartans though it added a run in the third and two in the sixth.
Commisso pitched five innings, struck out six and held Grimes to two hits. Clonan, Bova, Reale and Aaron Reynolds earned one RBI apiece as Bova scored twice. Avery Pankow drove in the Cobras’ lone run.
Earlier in the week, Grimes lost, 8-1, to Westhill, pitcher Frank Sgroi keeping it close until the Warriors, up 1-0, reeled off five runs in the fifth and two in the sixth. Ben Carroll scored the Cobras’ lone run in the top of the seventh.
A 15-5 defeat to Central Square followed a day later. A five-run first inning and four-run third inning was all the Redhawks needed, Grimes getting two hits and two RBIs from Carroll as Dakota Benoit also drove in a pair of runs. Aaron Nuzzo scored twice.
After it played ESM, Grimes ran into Little Falls on Saturday and lost, 11-1, to the Mounties, Pankow again netting the lone RBI in the third inning on a hit that scored Nuzzo.
