It proved to be a wild time leading up to the Vernon Verona Sherill-Oneida baseball showdown on Thursday afternoon. Both sides dealt with crazy weather, crazier scores — and in the Red Devils’ case, its first loss of the season. What made VVS’s 18-14 defeat to Clinton last Monday more baffling was the way the game started. Jamie Cielinski, Tyler Mautner and Mitch Iseneker all hit home runs on consecutive at-bats in the top of the first, so all looked to be fine. That changed, though, when the Warriors torched the Red Devils for seven runs in both the first and second innings. Control was to blame, as four VVS pitchers — Cielinski, Jesse Whitmeyer, Travis Eaton and Steve Davis — combined to issue an astonishing 15 walks. Clinton also gathered up 14 hits to counter 12 VVS hits, including an Iseneker triple and doubles from Mautner and Kevin Sayles. A day later, VVS showed some resiliency as it came back home and delivered an 18-12 victory over Utica-Notre Dame. Iseneker proved quite busy and productive on this day. He twice went deep for home runs, adding a double on his way to five RBIs and also pitched five innings to get the win. Five different times, VVS had at least three runs in an inning as it gathered up 14 hits. Mautner contributed a home run and double and, despite the Jugglers getting five runs in the seventh, closed out the game on the mound. As for Oneida, it was quite conventional last Monday in a 3-1 victory over Holland Patent, but then used a monstrous fifth inning as the catalyst for a wild 24-11 victory over Camden. In the first game, a solo home run by Brian Chevier in the third inning helped the Indians seize a 2-0 lead against the Golden Knights. When the Golden Knights closed within 2-1, Chevier countered with another solo shot in the fifth. That was enough for pitcher Jeremy Rodriguez, who went five innings for the win. Combined with reliever Andrew Hornyak, the two pitchers only gave up three hits. The Camden game did not feature the same kind of mound mastery. Oneida scored four times in the first inning, only to have the Blue Devils counter with four runs of its own in the bottom of the third to tie it. Even though a fourth-inning tally put the Indians back in front 5-4, the game remained in doubt. But in the top of the fifth, that all changed. Each Oneida batter got to the plate twice, and they all seemed to cross the plate, too. The fun continued, thanks to walks, hits and Camden errors, until 15 runs had crossed the plate, turning a tight contest into a laugher. On its way to 18 hits for the day, the Indians saw Hornyak and Nate Mallinder smack home runs, while Mallinder joined Chevier, Evan Watson, Kyle Armstrong and Dylan VanDresar as they each finished with three RBI. Overcoming his rough start, VanDresar still picked up the win as Armstrong and Mitch DuBois helped in relief.