Though it took quite a while and required all kinds of reserve and resolve, the Baldwinsville baseball team managed to atone for its lone blemish of the 2021 season.
The Bees and Cicero-North Syracuse went to 12 innings on a warm Saturday afternoon at the Gillette Road complex before B'ville won it, 5-4, with two clutch hits and all kinds of strong relief pitching.
When they had first met May 12, C-NS had taken advantage of several Bees errors to win 10-2 on the way to accumulating eight wins in a row.
No one would get that far ahead in the rematch, even as Griffin Seeber and Kenny Svitak singled on the game's first two pitches off Noah Wieczorek, leading to a first-inning run.
C-NS went in front with single runs in the first and third innings, only to have the Bees regain the lead in the fourth on Kai Girard's two-run double. It would be far from Girard's final contribution.
Svitak's two-out RBI triple in the top of the sixth extended the margin to 4-2, but the Northstars used a walk, single, sacrifice bunt, balk and another single to put across the tying runs in the bottom of the sixth.
From there, though, Girard, B'ville's second relief pitcher after Chris AuClair went the first five innings, would combine with Aiden Milburn to blank C-NS over the game's last six innings.
In particular, what Girard did in the ninth was remarkable. Kevin Felasco's leadoff triple and two walks loaded the bases with no one out, but Girard struck out Matt Klamm and got Corey Cartier to hit a hard grounder to third that resulted in a rare 5-2-3 double play.
Meanwhile, the Bees were not doing much against Chris D'Agostino, who relieved C-NS starter Noah Wieczorek and proceeded to pitch six-plus scoreless innings.
But with two out in the top of the 12th, Matt Carner doubled and, one pitch later, Luke Arvantides, the winning pitcher the day before against Rome Free Academy, singled to right, scoring Carner.
Milburn, who had replaced Girard in the 11th, struck out the side in the bottom of the 12th to end the game. B'ville and C-NS will meet once more next Saturday on the Bees' home diamond.
Three games preceded the C-NS clash. Having won three times in its last at-bat, the Bees took a different approach in last Monday's game at West Genesee, striking early and carrying it all the way to a 3-1 victory over the Wildcats.
