By STEVE BRADLEY
After leaving seven runners on base in the first five innings, the Pittsford Sutherland baseball team had a feeling that something big was coming.
The Knights were right.
Second-seeded Sutherland sent 11 batters to the plate and scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to break a 3-3 tie and pull away for an 8-4 victory over No. 5 Honeoye Falls-Lima in the Section V Class A championship game at Innovative Field on Friday afternoon.
“It comes every time,” said winning pitcher Paul Byrne, who was named game MVP after striking out 10 and allowing seven hits in a complete-game effort. “If you look at our box scores over the past two weeks you will see that it always comes. Sometimes it comes in the first inning and sometimes it comes in the fifth or sixth, I’m just glad that it came.”
Third baseman Tyler Allen, one of four sophomore starters for Sutherland (17-6) sparked the winning rally with a single to left and junior Logan Tomeny followed with a bunt single. Sophomore Aidan Kress, who is adjusting to life in the lead-off spot, delivered a single to left field to give the Knights the lead.
“In situations like that, I just try to stay calm,” said Kress, who had two hits and drove in two runs. “I think quick hands and put the ball in play.”
Owen Osborne walked to load the bases. After a fielder’s choice, sophomore Jaxon Bernas, who was looking for a fastball, drove a changeup through the drawn-in infield to make it 6-3.
“I just sat on it, adjusted and tried to drive it up the middle as best I could,” Bernas said. “When all of the guys get going and the energy is up, it just keeps on rolling.”
Ryan Munzinger, who is also a sophomore, followed with an RBI single and another run came in on a wild pitch to send the Knights to their Section V-best 16th baseball championship.
“That’s kind of how we’ve been all year,” Sutherland coach Brandon DeRosa said. “We always talk about staying level-headed, continuing to have good at-bats and put barrels on balls and it will come.”
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The calm, cool and collected approach also benefited the Knights in the top of the fifth.
Conor Finn ripped a one-out single to tie the game at 3 and advanced on the throw, giving the Cougars runners on second and third. Sutherland intentionally walked HF-L’s Aidan Neenan, who entered the game with nine extra-base hits and 23 RBI, and Byrne caught the next two batters looking to end the rally.
“Paul has been so outstanding since his sophomore year and I have the utmost confidence in his ability to get out of jams,” DeRosa said. “I am so proud of how he battled through all of the adversity.”
Byrne, who threw 114 pitches while improving his record to 7-2, relied on the lessons he has been taught throughout the years.
“I feel that ever since my sophomore season that I have tried to stay even keel,” said Byrne, who plans to continue his career at perennial Division III power SUNY-Cortland. “That’s what Coach DeRosa preaches and that what I tried to do. I knew that I made mistakes in letting three runners get on base and I just tried to lock in, make my pitches and limit the damage.”
He did it despite having a relatively new catcher behind the plate. Kress stepped into the role after Max Vorrasi, who has caught Byrne since his early days in youth baseball, suffered a thumb injury midway through the season.
“Aidan has done an incredible job, he has been a brick wall,” DeRosa said.
The Cougars, who defeated Sutherland in the 2023 Class A2 final, manufactured the game’s first run in the top of the third as second baseman Jake Weber drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Landon Hammond and came home on the second of two wild pitches in the inning.
HF-L scored again in the top of the fourth as shortstop Matt Meacham led off with a single to center, stole second and came home when his aggressive baserunning on a soft liner to first base led to a throwing error.
Sutherland patiently responded in the bottom of the frame by parlaying three hits, two walks, a sacrifice and an error into three runs. Kress and Osborne plated the first two runs with RBI singles and Sammy Renica gave the Knights the lead with a sacrifice fly to deep left.
Bernas, who doubled in the third inning, also finished with two hits for Sutherland. The Knights will play the Section VI champion in the Far West Regionals at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 1 at Grand Island.
Hammond and Finn both finished with two hits for HF-L (13-10), who loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the seventh in an effort to come back.
“Our kids battled the whole time,” said HF-L coach Dan Hoyt, who is retiring after leading the Cougars baseball program since 2012. “We started out 2-8 and our kids fought right until the end. It’s not easy when you start out that way and my three senior captains (Neenan, Meacham and Andrew Wanzenried) did a tremendous job of leading us through that.”
Notes: Section V Baseball announced its award winners at its finalists brunch on Friday morning. Miguel Matos of East High School was named Class A Player of the Year and his coach, Kyle Crandall, was named Coach of the Year.
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