AUBURN - Riding a five-game winning streak and leading 2-0 after three innings, all systems were beyond go for Auburn to win its first-round Section III, Class AA playoff game Tuesday at Falcon Park.
Jason Rearick / The Citizen
Auburn's Pat Montgomery catches ES-M's Gabe Hough at home plate during their sectional game at Falcon Park Tuesday afternoon. Auburn went on to lose 11-2.
Then, all that momentum collided against an invisible wall.
Tenth-seeded East Syracuse-Minoa, which hadn't mustered a hit through three innings against Auburn's top pitcher, Jeff Graceffo, somehow transformed its lineup into a modern-day murderers' row in the fourth inning, running off seven runs en route to an 11-2 victory.
Auburn, the seventh seed, ended its season at 13-8-1, with its first playoff appearance in about four years, by coach Ed Gremli's estimation. ES-M (11-10) advances to play at No. 2 Fayetteville-Manlius on Thursday.
Graceffo, a senior who will play at St. Lawrence University next year, had five strikeouts heading into the fourth, but suddenly struggled mightily in his final game for the Maroons.
"I sort of lost my control for a little while and put some people on, and then they got some hits," said Graceffo, the team captain. "They're a good hitting team, and they hit the ball hard.
"You learn to stomach it. You've got to just keep your head in your pitching. We got down a little bit, but our whole team hung in there. We just came up short."
A leadoff single by Steve Mullane was followed by a walk to Dan Lough, the Spartans' cleanup hitter. A double off the left-field wall by ES-M pitcher Jordan Judd scored the Spartans' first run, and then Brian Para's double was hooked around the third-base bag, scoring Lough and Judd and giving ES-M a 3-2 lead with no outs.
Tack on a single by Jason Kondra and Gabe Hough, the Spartans' eighth hitter, getting hit by a pitch while he was squared to bunt, and Graceffo was officially slumping, if not rattled, with the bases loaded and still no outs.
"We came with just nothing to start out with," said ES-M coach John Herrington, "and we came alive after that. Their pitcher kind of got in a little funk, and then we just started hitting the ball and making things happen. We're capable of doing that, so I was really happy."
Graceffo drew an infield fly out of Greg Galuski, ES-M's seventh hitter of the inning, for the first out.
But lefthanded leadoff batter Randy Riess followed by lacing an opposite-field single, plating Para and Kondra.
Graceffo was finally relieved by Greg Feocco after Tom DiLaura's one-run single made it 6-2.
"When I went out there, (Graceffo) said, 'Coach, I just can't find the strike zone. It's tough for me to find. I want to come out right now,'" said Gremli. "I said, 'Well, you've got to get at least one more batter,' because I knew Greg wasn't mentally prepared. Jeff got the next batter, and I think the next kid got a hit, so that's when I took him out."
Feocco got the next two batters out, with ES-M getting one more run out of a fielder's choice, but the Maroons were unable to pull out of their suddenly very deep hole.
That was due in large part to Judd, who went the distance for the Spartans (11-10), striking out six while giving up only four hits in total, and only two after Auburn's two-run first inning.
"I thought after the first couple innings we were going to keep hitting the ball, but that pitcher shut us down," said Gremli.
"Four hits the whole game - you need more."
Auburn took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, as Graceffo reached first on a ground ball bobbled by ES-M's shortstop, Kondra.
Dan Zambito then snuck a single between first and second base, bringing up cleanup hitter Zach Prentice.
Prentice hit a double that escaped the reach of center fielder DiLaura, plating Graceffo and Zambito for what would be the Maroons' only two runs.
The Spartans added four more runs off of Feocco in the seventh inning, all but eliminating Auburn's remote hopes for a last-inning comeback.
Graceffo, one of only four seniors on the team (along with Dan Cuff, Kevin Donovan and Jeremiah Sorenson) and the only one in the starting lineup, believes the Maroons will be back even stronger next season, and Gremli agrees.
"We went down struggling, there's no doubt about it," said Gremli.
"If there's a bright side to the loss, it's that we're looking forward to next year. We've got a bunch of real good juniors coming back."
Tenth-seeded East Syracuse-Minoa, which hadn't mustered a hit through three innings against Auburn's top pitcher, Jeff Graceffo, somehow transformed its lineup into a modern-day murderers' row in the fourth inning, running off seven runs en route to an 11-2 victory.
Auburn, the seventh seed, ended its season at 13-8-1, with its first playoff appearance in about four years, by coach Ed Gremli's estimation. ES-M (11-10) advances to play at No. 2 Fayetteville-Manlius on Thursday.
Graceffo, a senior who will play at St. Lawrence University next year, had five strikeouts heading into the fourth, but suddenly struggled mightily in his final game for the Maroons.
"I sort of lost my control for a little while and put some people on, and then they got some hits," said Graceffo, the team captain. "They're a good hitting team, and they hit the ball hard.
"You learn to stomach it. You've got to just keep your head in your pitching. We got down a little bit, but our whole team hung in there. We just came up short."
A leadoff single by Steve Mullane was followed by a walk to Dan Lough, the Spartans' cleanup hitter. A double off the left-field wall by ES-M pitcher Jordan Judd scored the Spartans' first run, and then Brian Para's double was hooked around the third-base bag, scoring Lough and Judd and giving ES-M a 3-2 lead with no outs.
Tack on a single by Jason Kondra and Gabe Hough, the Spartans' eighth hitter, getting hit by a pitch while he was squared to bunt, and Graceffo was officially slumping, if not rattled, with the bases loaded and still no outs.
"We came with just nothing to start out with," said ES-M coach John Herrington, "and we came alive after that. Their pitcher kind of got in a little funk, and then we just started hitting the ball and making things happen. We're capable of doing that, so I was really happy."
Graceffo drew an infield fly out of Greg Galuski, ES-M's seventh hitter of the inning, for the first out.
But lefthanded leadoff batter Randy Riess followed by lacing an opposite-field single, plating Para and Kondra.
Graceffo was finally relieved by Greg Feocco after Tom DiLaura's one-run single made it 6-2.
"When I went out there, (Graceffo) said, 'Coach, I just can't find the strike zone. It's tough for me to find. I want to come out right now,'" said Gremli. "I said, 'Well, you've got to get at least one more batter,' because I knew Greg wasn't mentally prepared. Jeff got the next batter, and I think the next kid got a hit, so that's when I took him out."
Feocco got the next two batters out, with ES-M getting one more run out of a fielder's choice, but the Maroons were unable to pull out of their suddenly very deep hole.
That was due in large part to Judd, who went the distance for the Spartans (11-10), striking out six while giving up only four hits in total, and only two after Auburn's two-run first inning.
"I thought after the first couple innings we were going to keep hitting the ball, but that pitcher shut us down," said Gremli.
"Four hits the whole game - you need more."
Auburn took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, as Graceffo reached first on a ground ball bobbled by ES-M's shortstop, Kondra.
Dan Zambito then snuck a single between first and second base, bringing up cleanup hitter Zach Prentice.
Prentice hit a double that escaped the reach of center fielder DiLaura, plating Graceffo and Zambito for what would be the Maroons' only two runs.
The Spartans added four more runs off of Feocco in the seventh inning, all but eliminating Auburn's remote hopes for a last-inning comeback.
Graceffo, one of only four seniors on the team (along with Dan Cuff, Kevin Donovan and Jeremiah Sorenson) and the only one in the starting lineup, believes the Maroons will be back even stronger next season, and Gremli agrees.
"We went down struggling, there's no doubt about it," said Gremli.
"If there's a bright side to the loss, it's that we're looking forward to next year. We've got a bunch of real good juniors coming back."
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