About the only thing capable of stopping the Cicero-North Syracuse baseball team at this juncture in the season is a hot pitcher – or, barring that, precipitation.
The rain that had mostly gone missing through the end of April and the start of May resurfaced late last week, just before the Northstars were to host its annual John Ilacqua Jr. Memorial Tournament.
A threat of inclement weather wiped out Friday’s games, and then the overnight rain, combined with more precipitation on Saturday morning, meant the outright cancellation of the tournament and the accompanying Wall of Fame ceremonies.
To make up for it, the Northstars will play a non-league at West Genesee next Monday, right before the start of the Section III Class AA playoffs, and will have the Wall of Fame ceremony in conjunction with the program’s annual golf tournament on June 2.
In fact, the rain started last Wednesday, but didn’t deter the Northstars as it went to Murnane Field and overcame a slow start to beat Utica Proctor 4-1 and make it 15 wins in a row.
For a while, the Raiders made things quite uncomfortable. Proctor poked across a run in the bottom of the second, and maintained a 1-0 lead through three innings as Matt Haddad pitched well and Jordan Treen made several terrific catches in center field to rob C-NS of some hits.
But in the top of the fourth, the Northstars broke through against Haddad, scoring twice to move in front 2-1, and tacked on two more runs in the fifth, aided by three Raider errors. Eric Hamilton and Paul Vinciguerra each had run-producing hits.
Now it was left to pitcher Austin Frawley, and again he didn’t disappoint, going six innings and limiting Proctor to five hits while striking out six. Top reliever Will Apps arrived in the seventh and went 1-2-3, striking out two Raiders to clinch it.
Back when the sun was still out, C-NS made it 14 consecutive wins by going to Oswego and steadily working on the Buccaneers before a big finish created a 13-1 romp, the team’s seventh game this spring where it scored double-digit runs, and third in a row.
It started modestly enough, C-NS staking itself to a 3-0 lead in the third inning on Oswego ace Ryan Lavner, but it took control with three runs in the top of the fifth, knocking out Lavner. Then it knocked around three Bucs relievers in a seven-run seventh inning.
Hamilton and Paul Ludden both went deep for home runs, Hamilton also doubling as he and Ludden got two RBIs apiece. Owen Dziados had two hits and a team-best three RBIs, while Vince Mallaro also drove in two runs. Mike Mento, Brandon Kapcinski and Justin Teague had one RBI apiece as Vinciguerra parlayed a walk and single into three runs scored.
Sophomore pitcher Steven Theetge’s stellar season continued, too, as he went the route and held Oswego to four hits while recording 12 strikeouts.
With the weekend’s weather interruptions, C-NS would resume action Monday, at Fayetteville-Manlius, the last hurdle before Wednesday night’s highly-anticipated showdown with defending Class AA champion Baldwinsville at Gillette Field and a Thursday trip to Liverpool.
