Displeased by the two defeats it took at the Utica-Notre Dame Tournament on May 16-17, the Christian Brothers Academy baseball team sought to regain its footing before the Section III Class A playoffs — but it didn’t prove that easy. In a neighborhood battle on Thursday between the Brothers and Jamesville-DeWitt, the Brothers came back from a five-run deficit in the last two innings to stun the Red Rams 6-5. Fueled by solo home runs from starting pitcher Justin Marzella and Kenny Schunck, J-D seized a 5-0 lead by the third inning. Tom Driscoll, Mick Cariseo and Jack Susman also drove in runs. Riley Dixon relieved Rob Cuomo, and prevented the Rams from getting anything more. Still, CBA didn’t score until the top of the sixth, when it finally got to Marzella for four runs, cutting the margin to one. In the top of the seventh, J-D reliever John Sheedy got the first two outs. Just one out from defeat, CBA stayed alive when Dave Anderson singled, and Bryant Moore stunned the crowd by smashing a Sheedy pitch over the right-field fence, giving CBA a one-run lead. Sensing the game’s importance, the Brothers brought in its ace, Mike Kitts, to close it out. He walked Marzella, who went to second base on a wild pitch and to third on a sacrifice bunt. The tying run was 90 feet away. Susman grounded out, though, and Dylan Sacks took a called strike three that J-D hotly protested, but to no avail. CBA had won. Three days earlier, the Brothers were at home, unleashing its offense on Phoenix in a 15-2 rout over the Firebirds. Down 1-0 early, CBA went ahead with three runs in the second inning, then got five runs in the fifth inning and six runs in the bottom of the sixth. Anderson, Sean McGraw, Anthony Cirillo and Chris Folsom each had two RBIs, with Moore, Joe Merola, Spencer Dunn and Alex Simone driving in single runs. The real unique part, though, came from Kitts, who went 5 1/3 innings and got the win — mere hours after shooting a team-best 83 at Barker Brook to lead CBA’s boys golf team to the Section III Class C-1 championship. In a non-league game Tuesday at Baldwinsville, the Brothers brought the same kind of offense, yet still squandered a double-digit advantage and lost to the Bees 14-13. CBA once had a 13-2 lead, yet let it all get away. B’ville made up most of it with eight runs in the fifth inning, then scored twice in both the sixth and seventh innings to pull it out. Both McGraw and Folsom hit home runs, as Steve LaBerge earned a team-best three RBIs. Simone drove in two runs, while Anderson and Moore had one RBI apiece. Kevin Roy led B’ville’s rally with a home run and four RBIs. In yet another non-league game on Wednesday at West Genesee, CBA used five runs in the second and third innings to go in front, then held on down the stretch to beat the Wildcats 7-5. Andy Scanlon pitched the whole way, allowing five hits, as Cirillo and Folsom earned one RBI apiece. To begin its week, J-D was at home Tuesday afternoon, steadily putting together a 10-4 victory over the Chittenango Bears. They were tied, 3-3, before the Red Rams used two runs in both the fourth and fifth innings to go ahead for good. Sheedy and Susman got two RBIs apiece, with Driscoll, Schunck, Sacks and Josh Paduano also driving in runs. Anthony Dunn pitched and got the win, with Sheedy and Paduano appearing in relief. The Rams made it back-to-back wins on Wednesday, venturing to Phoenix and beating the Firebirds 10-2. J-D began to pull away with three runs in the third inning. Then, with the score 5-2, the Rams got five runs in the top of the fourth, plenty of support for Eric Schwartz, who earned the win on the mound as Mike Yanta worked in relief. All told, the Red Rams had 12 hits, including home runs from both Dunn and Schunck. Dunn finished with a season-best five RBIs, as Shunck drove in two runs and Paduano earned one RBI. What followed on the weekend for J-D were two defeats in the John Ilacqua Jr. Memorial Tournament at Cicero-North Syracuse, including an 18-0 loss to Westhill where Jack Ganley pitched a perfect game. This dropped J-D to the no. 7 seed for the Section III Class A playoffs and a first-round assignment Tuesday against no. 10 seed Chittenango. The winner gets no. 2 seed Mexico on Thursday. CBA, meanwhile, has the top seed, awaiting Thursday’s quarterfinal against East Syracuse-Minoa or Whitesboro.