CENTRAL NEW YORK – It was a good thing for the Christian Brothers Academy baseball team that t his game with Cicero-North Syracuse did not have the same stakes as it last encounter with the Northstars.
Having beat the Northstars in the 2024 sectional Class AAA final, the Brothers were poised to do so again with a late-game comeback last Monday at the Gillette Road complex only to get upended in a 7-6 defeat.
It appeared C-NS was seizing control when it scored twice in the bottom of the fourth inning and again in the fifth to go in front 3-1, but then the real fun started.
CBA chased Northstars pitcher Kaden Kalfass with a three-run rally in the top of the sixth. Now trailing, C-NS countered with a run in the bottom of the sixth.
The Brothers scored twice more in the top of the seventh and regained the lead 6-4, but relief pitcher Ben Kaulback, who took over in the sixth for Tom Menar, could not hold it as C-NS put together a three-run rally in the bottom of the seventh, pulling it out.
All the Brothers could manage was six hits, and no one had more than one. Hector Gonzalez walked twice and scored a pair of runs as Jameson Walker, Mike Giamartino, Luke Becker and David Curry had one RBI apiece.
Another high-scoring game on Tuesday had CBA return to the win column outlasting Marcellus 11-8. In the first three innings CBA produced all but one of its runs, peaking with a seven-run outburst in the top of the third.
Giamartino homered, doubled and earned three RBIs. Jimmy Kennedy drove in a pair of runs as RBIs also went to Riley Clemons-Butenko, Tim Scholl and Rocco Grotto. Scholl also pitched four innings to earn the win.
Even more runs followed in Wednesday’s 17-3 romp over Homer where Clemons-Butenko led with three hits. Eleven different players scored at least one run as Grotto, Becker, Walker and Lorenzo LaFace joined Clemons-Butenko with two RBIs apiece. Freshman Colton Steinfest pitched five innings and earned his first win of the season.
Then a clash of two reigning sectional champions on Thursday had West Genesee, the Class AA champions in 2024, getting the best of CBA in a 7-2 decision in Camillus.
Wildcats ace Colin Crinnin allowed six hits (three of them by Grotto) but only a single run. He was helped by WG getting to Ben Kaulback for five runs in the bottom of the third and two more in the fourth as Ryan Tabaczyk singled, doubled and got three RBIs.
In Saturday’s game against Section V’s Fairport at Onondaga Community College, CBA won 7-4, getting all the runs it needed when it scored five times in the bottom of the second.
Grotto’s trio of hits led to two RBIs as Giamartino singled, doubled and drove in two runs. Scholl, Clemons-Butenko and Noah Monsour also drove in runs as Menar shut out Fairport until the fifth and amassed nine strikeouts to earn the win.
Fayetteville-Manlius took its turn against C-NS a day after CBA met them, and never got on the board in an 11-0 defeat to the Northstars.
A six-run second inning by C-NS knocked out starting pitcher Chris Cantalupe, and the Northstars would draw 12 walks to make up for earning just six hits off Canatalupe, Christian Higgins, Gavin Trombley and Jack Calnon. Brian Tonkovich, Harrison Schwab and Nolan Merrow put up F-M’s lone hits.
Another shutout followed on Wednesday, only this time it was Liverpool keeping F-M off the board in a 13-0 decision. All the Hornets would get was two hits off Warriors pitcher Paolo Munetz, one each by Schwab and Dylan Friedman.
F-M lost again Friday to Section IV’s Lansing 8-3, unable to recover from giving up four runs in the bottom of the first, though Boomer Kuss went three-for-four at the plate with two doubles, one of which scored rwo runs in the third and the other in the seventh for a third RBI. Schwab and Tonkovich had two hits apiece.
