Back from Myrtle Beach, where it had earned head coach Kevin Rockwell his 300th victory, the Cicero-North Syracuse baseball team engaged in its first of four three-game series against its SCAC Metro division rivals.
As it turned out, it was West Genesee, who had roared out to a 5-0 start and maintained that momentum in last Monday’s series opener, a close affair the Wildcats pulled out 2-1 over the Northstars.
WG, no. 18 in the state Class AA rankings, took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning as Nick Chemotti doubled and eventually scored on Joe Comins’ sacrifice fly. C-NS got even in the top of the second as Justin DelVecchio singled, reached second and raced home when Cole Rockwell singled.
DelVecchio, helped by a pair of double plays, kept the game 1-1 until the bottom of the fifth, when Jake DePalma doubled and R.J. Murphy singled and, with nobody out, Luis Suarez’s grounder brought DePalma home.
In the top of the sixth, C-NS nearly got to Wildcats starter Ryan Paige as Nate Geloff drew the game’s only walk, went to second on an error and was on third following a flyout.
But Nick Wieczorek’s shallow fly ball could not bring DelVecchio home, and Connor Gonzalski grounded out before Paige struck out the side in the top of the seventh, giving him 10 K’s for the afternoon.
A day later, at the Gillette Road complex, C-NS looked to pull even, and nearly did so, only to have weather get in the way.
WG scored a run in the top of the first, only to have C-NS answer it an inning later, just as in the first game. And once more the Wildcats inched ahead 2-1 with a fifth-inning tally, only here the Northstars again pulled even.
At the end of seven innings, it was still 2-2 when rains forced the game to be halted. They would resume that game a week later, but first would come a second game in Camillus where, again, the Northstars lost, this time in a 4-1 decision.
Nick Jessen pitched for WG, and after giving up a first-inning run when Drew Bristow doubled and scored on DelVecchio’s single, Jessen blanked C-NS the rest of the way, overcoming six hit and two walks by constantly getting out of trouble
Patient at the plate, the Wildcats pulled even, 1-1, in the third, and scored twice off Noah Wieczorek in the bottom of the fourth, adding an insurance run in the fifth.
DePalma and Tyler Kensey led the WG hitters, getting two hits apiece as DePalma, Paige and Chris Bonacci earned one RBI apiece.
Aside from finishing the 2-2 game with West Genesee, C-NS also is meeting New Hartford Tuesday at NBT Bank Stadium before a Friday trip to DeLutis Field to face Rome Free Academy
