CENTRAL NEW YORK – Four of the area’s high school baseball teams wanted to make it through their opening games of the Section III playoffs in three different brackets.
Of those games, none were more anticipated than Christian Brothers Academy defending its no. 4 seed in Class AAA against no. 5 seed Liverpool in last Tuesday’s quarterfinal round.
And it was the Brothers, with one big rally at the plate, that turned around a deficit and defeated the Warriors 5-2 to earn a spot in the semifinals against top seed Baldwinsville.
All went well for Liverpool in the early going, the Warriors poking across a run in the top of the second and maintaining that 1-0 lead for a while thanks to strong pitching from Nate Benjamin.
In the bottom of the fifth, it all changed.
CBA’s bats got to both Benjamin and reliever Tyler Vivacqua, with Jack Landau driving in a run, three doubles from Jimmy Kennedy, Tim Scholl and Cooper Marko and a two-run home run from Riley Clemons-Butenko.
Despite getting a run in the seventh, Liverpool could not recover as Brothers reliever Tom Menar went the final two innings after Ryan Petrie started, the pair giving up six hits between them.
Over in Class AA, Fayetteville-Manlius held the no. 3 seed, while East Syracuse Minoa had the no. 9 seed. Neither made it past their opening game.
In F-M’s case, it was overwhelmed at home in last Tuesday’s quarterfinal by no. 6 seed Auburn in a 12-0 game all but decided when the Maroons jumped out with five runs in the top of the first inning.
Max Werde started on the mound, but was gone by the second. Danny Swift tried to limit the damage, but Auburn got to him for single runs in the second and third before a five-run fourth.
Harrison Schwab worked the rest of the game in relief as F-M got just four hits (two of them by Anthony Giuffrida) off Maroons pitcher Owen Birchard, who amassed 11 strikeouts. Jacob Morrell led Auburn at the plate, his three singles leading to four RBIs as the Hornets’ season finished at 10-8.
A day earlier, ESM met no. 8 seed Watertown, looking to advance to a quarterfinal against top seed West Genesee, but lost 4-2 to the Cyclones, who struck for two runs in the bottom of the first and then added two more runs in the fifth to double its margin to 4-0.
Those last two runs were needed. ESM scored twice in the sixth, Tommy Clonan and Nick Bova getting the runs, but Watertown held on from there.
Cyclones pitchers John Flowers and Danny Mauere equaled what Birchard did against F-M, holding the Spartans to just four hits, one each by A.J. Graham, Mike Munger, Trey Borkowski and Chase Fredericks as its season ended with a 5-16 record.
Moving to the Class B sectional tournament, Bishop Grimes could not get out of the opening round, either, the no. 12 seed Cobras ousted 4-0 by no. 5 seed Clinton as it finished with a 4-14 mark.
