AUBURN – Sometimes having a top seed isn’t exactly the best thing, especially in area large-school baseball, where so many times through the years the team with that no. 1 seed didn’t end up with a Section III championship.
What happened before happened again with Baldwinsville, who was ousted Thursday night in the first-ever sectional Class AAA semifinals at Auburn’s Falcon Park with a 10-6 defeat to Christian Brothers Academy.
When the sectional playoff bracket was released last Sunday, B’ville did indeed own the top seed, benefiting from a points system that rewarded the Bees’ tough schedule and also reflected the 14-5 record put up in the regular season.
However, two problems emerged. Since this was a seven-team bracket, B’ville had a bye straight into the semifinals, which meant that, while it could line up its pitching, it would also come back from a layoff.
That wasn’t the case with CBA, the no. 4 seed, who had boosted its confidence by knocking off 2023 sectional Class AA champion Liverpool 5-2 in the quarterfinals two days earlier, its 10th win in its last 11 games.
The Brothers’ lone blemish in that span? A 6-5 defeat to B’ville on May 11 where it surrendered a late 5-2 lead. Without a doubt, CBA remembered that result and was ready to get even.
They traded early runs, with the Brothers scoring in the first inning and the Bees answering an inning later, but with the score 1-1 in the top of the third, both sides broke out.
CBA put up five runs, with Mike Giamartino, Tim Scholl and Jimmy Kennedy all getting RBIs and Ethan Harris coaxing a bases-loaded walk.
Down 6-1, B’ville countered with four runs in the bottom of the third, a balk sandwiched in between run-scoring hits by the trio of Logan McIntyre, Jacob Penafeather and Tyler Hawthorne.
Absorbing this, the Brothers, in the top of the fifth, put together what turned out to be a decisive three-run rally, then tacked on a run in the sixth.
Other than a seventh-inning tally, the Bees were contained the rest of the way, Tom Menar getting the win in relief for CBA as Jason Oullette, Ben Leaton, Joey Warner and Shane Wellman all saw mound stints for B’ville.
Combined, four Brothers pitchers – Menar, Jack Landau, Tim Scholl and Hector Gonzalez – limited the Bees to five hits, two each by Hawthorne and McIntyre. Scholl’s two hits and three RBIs paced CBA, who went on to beat Cicero-North Syracuse 8-3 in the sectional final three nights later.
