SYRACUSE – True, the historical record will indicate that the Solvay baseball team earned the Section III Class B championship when it defeated Holland Patent 12-3 in Monday’s sectional final at Onondaga Community College.
In many ways, though, the Bearcats’ biggest step toward the title was taken the day before.
Up against a top-seeded Bishop Ludden side who beat them in the regular season, Solvay prevailed 5-3 with two well-timed rallies and strong pitching down the stretch from senior Max Overend.
When these teams met April 30, the Gaelic Knights blanked the Bearcats 3-0 with 6 2/3 innings from pitching ace Joe Dunham. But it was Jimmy Westers on the mound for Ludden in the playoff rematch since Dunham had pitched in the quarterfinals against Altmar-Parish-Williamstown.
Westers and Overend each worked through two scoreless innings. Then, in the top of the third Solvay broke through against Westers with a three-run rally to grab a lead it would not relinquish.
The Gaelic Knights cut it to 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth, but in the fifth Solvay restored its previous margin scoring twice. Overend, A.J. Trendell and Sawyer Stewart each were credited with RBIs as Cameron Capetta scored twice and Sam Sardo earned a pair of hits.
Though Ludden did put across a run in the fifth and had eight total hits to the Bearcats’ five (two each by Dunham and Parker Pichoske), Overend would settle down and, in the sixth and seventh innings, get the six outs he needed to send Solvay to the final.
Once there, Solvay met a Holland Patent side which had knocked off no. 2 seed Phoenix 9-2 in the other semifinal scoring all of its runs in the first two innings.
Here the Bearcats didn’t wait to take charge, erupting for four runs in the bottom of the first off Golden Knights pitcher Jacob Daniels, all with two out.
Sam Sardo’s RBI single scored Cameron Cappetta. A passed ball brought a second run home and an error by shortstop Andrew Jones on a Jacob Bigelow grounder brought two more runners home.
Stewart doubled in the bottom of the third, then raced home on Vito Hamon’s infield hit, but the real getaway started in the bottom of the fourth after HP netted a pair of runs off Stewart earlier in the frame.
Poor defense plagued the Golden Knights all game long, and it led to back-to-back triples from Chris Cappetta and Justin Zimmerman. Overend delivered an RBI single, and back-to-back doubles from Trendell and Stewart made it 8-2.
Zimmerman returned to drive in another run in the fifth and the Bearcats added three runs in the sixth. Meanwhile, Stewart pitched a complete game, giving up one more HP run in the sixth but still easily securing Solvay’s sectional title.
All this happened after Westhill saw its season end in the sectional Class A semifinals last Saturday night, the no. 4 seed Warriors falling to top seed Jamesville-DeWitt 7-2.
They traded first-inning runs, but in the bottom of the second the Red Rams struck for four runs and chased Westhill starter Peter Stroman. Anthony Sampo replaced Stroman, only to exit in the fifth as J-D struck for two more runs.
Westhill had just five hits off three Rams pitchers – Eamon Giblin, Jack Pole and Griffon Filighera. Stroman and Collin White had two hits apiece, the only other hit going to Sampo.
