SYRACUSE – When one big hit was required and had proven elusive for most of Sunday night’s Section III Class AA championship game at Onondaga Community College, Cooper Marko delivered it – and made Christian Brothers Academy baseball fans quite happy.
Marko’s bases-clearing double in the top of the sixth inning turned around a close, tense title game and, combined with Tom Menar’s stellar relief pitching, ultimately helped the Brothers defeat Cicero-North Syracuse 8-3 for the sectional title.
This marked a long-awaited post-season deliverance for CBA, who reached sectional finals in 2021 (against Auburn in Class A) and 2023 (against Liverpool in Class AA) and lost them both.
“We really wanted it,” said Marko. “And we’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”
CBA who came to this game with plenty of confidence, gained from winning 13 of 14 games and knocking out both Liverpool and Baldwinsville in the sectional playoffs. Also, it beat C-NS 11-7 when the two teams played late in April.
What quickly emerged in this sectional final rematch was a pattern where the two sides frequently threatened big innings but only partially delivered on them, keeping things close.
With two on and one out in the top of the first, Jack Landau doubled to the wall, but the chase for the ball froze the runners, and only Riley Clemons-Butenko scored, with the Brothers unable to add to it.
C-NS answered in the bottom of the first, Carter King singling home Andrew Davis, but the 1-1 tie was broken in the second with another two-out RBI hit, this one a double by Riley Clemons-Butenko.
The Brothers loaded the bases in the top of the third with no one out. Harris lined it right at Zimmer, who stepped on second for a double play, and Ben Snyder popped out in foul territory, keeping it at 2-1.
Fired up by this, C-NS pulled back even 2-2 in the bottom of the third, then loaded the bases with no one out in the fourth, pushing across a run on Zimmer’s sacrifice fly to take its first lead.
Now, though, it was the Northstars unable to get away with Menar, relieving Ben Lovell, getting out of that fourth-inning jam and a bases-loaded, two-out situation in the bottom of the fifth.
Menar said that an early-season injury limited his mound role to late-inning relief, but that now he had the ability to longer – which he did, and in the top of the sixth, CBA got its breakthrough.
Harris led off with a walk, and starter Kaden Kalfass exited, replaced by relief specialist Battista Wood, who got two outs but gave up walks to Jimmy Kennedy and Clemons-Butenko that loaded the bases.
Marko was up. He said that, based on the many rallies his team had made during the season, “I knew we would come back”, and he made it happen when he drilled a Wood pitch to the wall in left, clearing the bases and putting the Brothers up 5-3.
Mike Giamartino followed with an RBI triple and raced home on Landau’s single. This, along with Kennedy’s RBI single in the top of the seventh, gave Menar the cushion to work the last two innings and secure a sectional championship.
Already a confident group after upending 2023 sectional Class AA champion Liverpool 5-2 in the quarterfinals, CBA carried it over into the May 23 semifinal at Falcon Park where it knocked off top seed Baldwinsville 10-6.
The Bees got the top seed due to a tough schedule that reflected the 14-5 record put up in the regular season. But CBA had won 10 of 11, its lone blemish 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 Giamartino, Kennedy and Tim Scholl all getting RBIs and Harris coaxing a bases-loaded walk.
Down 6-1, B’ville countered with four runs in the bottom of the third. 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, 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, Scholl, Landau and Hector Gonzalez – limited the Bees to five hits, with Menar striking out five in 2 2/3 innings, hinting at a longer stint with higher stakes that led to championship glory.
CBA will return to OCC this Saturday at 6 pm. to face Section II champion Shenendehowa in the Class AAA regional final, determining who will advance to the June 7-8 state final four in Binghamton.
“We knew we were the best team in Section III,” said Menar. “And we want more.”
