PLATTSBURGH — It’s on to Binghamton for the Ticonderoga baseball team.
The Section VII champion Sentinels (14-6) play Section V winner Kendall (24-2) in Friday’s NYSPHSAA Class C Final Four semifinals at Mirabito Stadium.
“This is one of the goals we set every season,” Ticonderoga coach Dan Dorsett said. “We’re happy to be where we are, and this is where we want to be.
“We’ve won a lot of sectional titles, and we don’t take anything for granted and stay with the same formula as we move on.”
The Sentinels will avoid defending state champion and current No. 1-ranked Saratoga Catholic Central (20-2) in the Final Four semifinals. Section II’s Saratoga Catholic opposes Section I’s Tuckahoe in the other bracket at 1 p.m., following the 10 a.m. Ticonderoga/Kendall contest.
The championship game is set for Saturday at 1 p.m.
Kendall, however, is ranked second in Class C. The Eagles won the Section V Class C2 title with an 8-0 victory over Gowanda and then the overall Class C1-C2 crown with a 6-3 decision over Gananda.
In regional final play to advance to the Final Four, Kendall edged out a 1-0 victory over Section III’s Beaver River.
The Eagles have won 11 games in a row and allowed only 17 runs combined in the stretch.
“We’ve watched them (Kendall) on video,” Dorsett said. “They have two really good pitchers, one being a taller one with good velocity, but we need to see them in person to get a real read on them.”
Jackson Dorsett, who pitched a complete game in a 12-3 win over Section X’s Tupper Lake in a regional final and went 5-for-5 at the plate, gets the nod on the mound against Kendall.
“We have to go with our best,” Dan Dorsett said. “We have gotten better as a team, and other kids have stepped it up, but we will need more than Jackson to win this game.”
The Sentinals finished 9-4 in CVAC regular season contests and survived two difficult games in the sectionals finals as the top seed, recording 3-2 and 12-7 wins over second-seeded and rival Moriah.
One was a walk-off win, and the other went nine innings.
“We had a little lull in the regular season where we lost some tight games when we weren’t able to overcome some adversity, but we were able to respond against Moriah and handle the adversity,” Dan Dorsett said.
“It’s getting tougher every year against them.”
The Sentinels came into this season with a solid nucleus of players returning, and good things were expected from them.
“We lost Dom Crossman and a couple of other starters from last year,” Dorsett said. “Dom was a four-year starter for us as a pitcher and catcher. I was concerned going into the season with how we would replace him behind the plate, but Skyler Frasier has done a great job.
“I’m proud of the entire team. We put a lot of pressure on them in practice, so they can handle the pressure in games.”
The starting line-up Dan Dorsett used against Tupper Lake included Trevor Blanchard in center, Parker Davis on second base, Jackson Dorsett pitching, Rowen Bechtold at shortstop, Blaek Peters in left, Owen teRiele hitting for right-fielder Eli Dromgool, Frasier catching, Brady Mydlarz at third base and Alex Belanger on first.