ONONDAGA COUNTY – Though it was still mid-April and a lot of games remained, the baseball showdown last Wednesday between Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse at the Gillette Road complex would indicate just where the two rivals stood.
As it turned out, they were fairly close, but it was the Warriors getting the best of this meeting, topping the Northstars 4-2.
C-NS grabbed a 1-0 lead with a run in the bottom of the first inning off Liverpool ace Tyler Vivacqua, but the Warriors tied it 1-1 in the second and took the lead for good by scoring twice in the third.
Other than that early run and another tally in the seventh, the Northstars were quiet against Vivacqua, who gave up just three hits and walked three while earning six strikeouts and getting error-free defense behind him.
Justin Coyne went six innings for the Northstars, allowing nine hits. At the plate for Liverpool, Chris Baker and Anderson Roden joined Vivacqua earning two hits, while Dylan Wiggins got credit for an RBI. Ben Watkins and Chris Williams drove in the C-NS runs scored by Shacory Williams and Andrew Davis.
Both sides came into this game undefeated, Liverpool winning its third in a row last Tuesday at Oswego as it blew past the Buccaneers 10-1.
Single runs in the first and second innings were followed by a three-run third and five-run fifth that put Oswego away. Nate Benjamin led with three hits, three runs scored and two RBIs.
Vivacqua scored twice as he joined Roden, Austin Burch, Lucas Crawford and Cayden Nappa driving in one run apiece. Wiggins pitched, holding the Bucs to two hits in five innings before Ryan Densmore worked two innings of scoreless relief.
Far closer was C-NS’s 4-3 win over East Syracuse Minoa where it trailed 3-2 going into the top of the seventh inning, only to notch the tying and go-ahead runs against Spartans reliever Mike Munger.
Davis and Mason Mingle scored those runs, having crossed the plate earlier in the game as Davis got two hits and two RBIs. Carter King went three-for-four and added an RBI. Battista Wood pitched three innings of relief to get the win after Kaden Kalfass struck out nine in his four-inning mound stint.
