Christian Brothers Academy baseball coach Patrick Wiese has preached to his team that if they play the game the right way, they'll always have an opportunity to win.
No opportunity was bigger than the top of the sixth inning when Cooper Marko stepped up to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded and with the Brothers trailing Cicero-North Syracuse by one run in the Section III Class AAA championship on Sunday at Onondaga Community College.
In perhaps the biggest at-bat of the season, Marko unloaded the bases with a three-RBI double to give his team a lead that it never gave back on their way to an 8-3 win over the Northstars.
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"The first pitch was really high. I had to reset, not let my emotions get the best of me," Marko said. "Just get up there and do what I know how to do."
Marko's triple gave CBA a 5-3 and then Michael Giamartino ripped a triple to the left-center gap to drive in Marko. Jack Landau singled to center to give the Brothers a commanding four-run lead late in the game.
"(I) try to tell them that up 5-0, down 5-0, 0-0, 1-0, every single pitch is a new pitch," Wiese said.
The Brothers started the game hot striking for a run in the top of the first inning.
After working a full count, Riley Clemons-Butenko led off the game with a single to center. Marko followed that up with a walk. After Giamartino popped out to the pitcher, Landau smoked a double to the right field wall to drive in Clemons-Butenko and give the Brothers a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
With runners on second and third with one out, C-NS' Kaden Kalfass locked in. He struck out the next two batters to escape the inning surrendering just one run.
In the bottom half of the inning, the Northstars responded with a run of their own.
With two outs in the inning, Kenton Cochran singled to left field to knock in Andrew Davis and tie the game at 1-1.
The Brothers took a 2-1 lead in the top of the second inning and looked poised to break the game open with the bases loaded and no one out, but C-NS had other plans.
Kalfass worked out of the jam by forcing a double play and a pop-out to leave the inning unscathed.
Then it was the Northstars' turn to put the pressure on.
The Northstars evened up the score at 2-2 in the bottom of the third and kept their foot on the gas in the fourth inning.
In the fourth, C-NS loaded the bases with no outs and relief pitcher Tom Menar on the mound.
Jaden Zimmer hit a sacrifice fly that scored Mason Mingle to give the Northstars a 3-2 lead but that's all Menar would allow.
He retired the next two batters and got the Brothers out of the inning facing just a one-run deficit.
"For our guys to keep that confidence and keep with it in the middle of the game there," Wiese said. "I'm super proud of them."
Sunday was Menar's longest outing of the season. He threw four innings, surrendered no runs, three hits, four walks and struck out one to pick up the win.
"I got injured, started the season and I missed a lot of time," Menar said. "So when I came back I kind of took on that relief role and only pitched a couple of innings and I finally felt good today and coach let me go longer and (it) just took me a little bit to find my groove. But once I got it, I felt confident."
After getting out of the fourth inning, Menar found himself in another jam in the bottom of the fifth inning. Again, he worked his way out of it.
C-NS was threatening again with runners on second and third with no outs.
Menar got the next two batters out before walking Christopher Williams to load the bases. Mingle grounded out to the shortstop to end the inning and Menar escaped without surrendering a run to keep the score at 3-2 heading into the sixth inning.
"(Menar is) a guy that if I give him the ball, I know what I'm going to get," Wiese said. "He's a competitor, but even more, he's such a good kid and I couldn't be more than happy for him."
Battista Wood came on in relief of Kalfass in the top of the sixth and that's when the CBA offense finally capitalized on opportunities thanks to Marko's double, Giamartino's triple and Landau's single.
CBA added another run in the top of the seventh inning to go ahead by the winning margin and kept C-NS off the board in the bottom half of the inning.
"That's a fantastic team that we just played," Wiese said. "Their head coach has done a great job with them and they played the game the right way. It was just a great game."
The Northstars finish the season 15-7. They were led by Zimmer who went 2-for-2 with an RBI. Kyle Gancarz also contributed two hits in the loss.
CBA's offense was fueled by Landau, Clemons-Butenko, Jimmy Kennedy and Marko. Landau, Clemons-Butenko and Kennedy each had two hits. Landau had two RBIs Kennedy and Clemons-Butenko each had one. Marko had one hit and three RBIs.
The Brothers (17-4) will play the Section II champion in regionals at 6 p.m. Saturday at OCC.
