Unbeaten Whitesboro, Westmoreland baseball teams among No. 1 seeds for spring playoffs
SYRACUSE – Unbeaten Whitesboro and Westmoreland are among the No. 1 baseball seeds as Section III gets back closer to normal for its 2022 spring playoffs.
The section set seeds and schedules for the baseball and softball postseasons Sunday and will contest the events in their traditional fashion for the first time since 2019.
Top remaining seeds will not be playing championship games on their home fields this year and there will be no split classes. The sectional winners will play on in regional and potentially state tournaments after those were canceled last spring and there was no 2020 season.
Whitesboro beat Class AA Utica-Proctor 12-1 Friday to complete a perfect 15-0 regular season. The Tri-Valley League A champions have been rewarded with the No. 1 seed for an 11-team Class A bracket and a bye to Thursday’s quarterfinals against the winner of a Tuesday game between No. 9 Oswego (9-11) and No. 8 Jamesville-DeWitt (7-9).
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Westmoreland shut out Cooperstown 4-0 Friday and Sauquoit Valley 11-0 Saturday, and enters the 17-team Class C playoffs with a 16-0 record. South Lewis (8-11) and Alexandria Bay (7-10), seeded 16th and 17th, will play the single out bracket game Monday to determine the opponent for the Bulldogs the following day in Westmoreland.
Dominant pitching has been a story for both of the teams that have yet to lose. Herkimer College recruit Colin Skermont has two no-hitters and Division I-bound senior classmate Ryan Cook has one for Whitesboro which has allowed 23 runs this season. The weekend shutouts were the sixth and seventh of the season for Westmoreland.
The other No. 1 seeds for baseball are Cicero-North Syracuse (17-2) in Class AA, South Jefferson (16-2) in Class B and Lyme (16-2) in Class D. Lyme was also a No. 1 seed last year when Poland won the Class D championship. South Jefferson was a No. 1 seed in a split B bracket last year; Camden, the No. 1 in last spring’s other B bracket, is competing in Class A this year.
Baseball semifinals will be played next weekend at Utica’s Murnane Field and Syracuse’s Onondaga Community College. The championship games are May 30 and 31 and June 1 at Onondaga.
For the girls, softball follows the same Monday/Tuesday/Thursday schedule for the first three rounds then uses Onondaga, Herkimer College and Oneida and Baldwinsville high schools for Saturday semifinals. The finals will be played at Carrier Park in Syracuse May 31 and June 1.
The top seeds for softball are Class AA Liverpool (13-6), Class A Jamesville-DeWitt (17-3), defending champion Marcellus in Class B (14-3), Class C Port Byron (18-1) and Class D Stockbridge Valley (14-2).
There will be one softball game played Monday. Utica’s Notre Dame Jugglers (9-9) travel to Boonville for a game at Adirondack (7-10) to determine Tuesday’s opponent for Port Byron in Class C. Jamesville-DeWitt and Stockbridge Valley were also No. 1 seeds last year. Bishop Ludden of Syracuse, last year’s Class D champion, did not qualify for this year’s postseason.
In addition to its one Class C game Monday, the baseball tournament has two in Class B. Central Valley Academy (7-11) is seeded 16th and plays at home against Hannnibal (7-12) with the winner traveling to South Jefferson the following day. Clinton (8-9) is the 15th seed and hosts Vernon-Verona-Sherrill (4-12) to determine who will play Tuesday evening at No. 2 Little Falls (17-2).
Other Tuesday games involving Center State Conference and Tri-Valley League teams include:
•No. 8 Rome Free Academy (6-11) vs. No. 1 Cicero-North Syracuse (17-2) at the Gillette Road Complex in Cicero, and No. 5 Fayetteville-Manlius (6-12) vs. No. 4 Proctor (11-6) at Murnane Field in Class AA baseball;
•No. 10 Fulton (5-10) at No. 7 New Hartford (8-6) in Class A baseball;
•No. 12 Marcellus (9-10) at No. 5 Holland Patent (13-5), and No. 9 Oneida (9-7) at No. 8 Cazenovia (12-8) in Class B baseball;
•No. 9 Frankfort-Schuyler (8-7) at No. 8 Mt. Markham (8-9), No. 15 West Canada Valley (7-9) at No. 2 Beaver River (18-1), No. 14 Sauquoit Valley (8-10) at No. 3 Pulaski (12-3), and No. 11 Adirondack (8-11) at No. 6 Cooperstown (10-6) in Class C baseball;
•No. 13 Poland (7-8) at No. 4 Morrisville-Eaton (12-3), No. 12 McGraw (7-6) at No. 5 New York Mills (13-4), No. 9 Hamilton (9-6) at No. 8 DeRuyter (8-6), No. 10 Mater Dei Academy (7-8) at No. 7 Stockbridge Valley (9-3), and No. 11 Sackets Harbor (9-8) at No. 6 Brookfield (13-5) in Class D baseball.;
•No. 12 Skaneateles (10-9) at No. 5 Holland Patent (13-3), No. 10 Central Valley Academy (9-7) at No. 7 Westhill (8-6), No. 13 Little Falls (6-12) at No. 4 South Jefferson (14-5), and No. 9 Mexico Academy (8-9) at No. 8 Canastota (15-3) in Class B softball;
•No. 15 Fabius-Pompey (7-10) at No. 2 Cooperstown (16-1), No. 13 Waterville (9-9) at No. 4 West Canada Valley (15-2), No. 11 Herkimer (10-8) at No. 6 Mt. Markham (12-4), No. 9 Weedsport (12-7) at No. 8 Westmoreland (10-4), and No. 14 Sauquoit Valley (7-8) at No. 3 Sandy Creek (7-8) in Class C softball;
•and No. 13 Belleville-Henderson (6-10) at No. 4 Poland (10-8), and No. 9 Cincinnatus (5-8) at No. 8 Hamilton (13-5) in Class D softball.
Jon Rathbun is a sportswriter for the Times Telegram. Email Jon at sports@timestelegram.com.
This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Whitesboro, Westmoreland earn No. 1 seeds for baseball playoffs
