ENDICOTT – Years of hard work and plenty of dreams and support from the community were all contributing factors to the Jamesville-DeWitt baseball team’s first-ever appearance in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class A championship weekend.

But the Red Rams ran into a superior opponent in last Friday’s state semifinal, unable to do much against Section IV’s Maine-Endwell, who continued to grow its diamond legacy by beating J-D 9-0 at Union-Endicott High School.

Aside from all the other accolades in its athletic program, Maine-Endwell has proven strong in baseball, too, building upon what the community experienced in 2016 when a team based in that area went all the way to the championship of the Little League World Series.

Eight years later, it was M-E, playing just a few miles from its high-school campus, facing J-D and two aces on the mound, Luke VanMarter pitching for the Rams against the Spartans’ Liam Hadfield, who after an hour-long rain delay immediately got support when VanMarter was tagged for a run in the first inning and three more in the top of the second.

Though M-E would tag on single runs in the fifth and seventh innings and a three-run sixth in between, Hadfield didn’t need any more support. The right-hander continually baffled J-D’s batters. only allowing one hit – a second-inning single by Ryan Walker.

Nine Rams hitters struck out, and Hadfield excelled at the plate, too, doubling home M-E’s first run, while Austin Nyschot had a two-RBI single in the second, one of three Spartans to get two hits off VanMarter and relief replacement Eamon Giblins, with Santino Michitti and Stratos Anastos joining Hadfield in that category.

So J-D’s season ends at 19-2, its only other defeat coming to Syracuse City. Losing the Likes of Aidan McGuire, Tim Cooper and Aaron Ko will graduate, but having VanMarter, Giblin, Walker and Griffon Filighera back should make the Rams a contender again in 2024.