Now all that the baseball teams at Baldwinsville, Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse wanted was a last week of the regular season free from weather interruptions.
It was darkness that had halted a 4-4 game between the Bees and West Genesee back on May 6, and it did not end until 13 days later, when in the 12th inning B’ville got the run it needed to beat the Wildcats 5-4.
Up until now, WG had won four extra-inning contests this season, but in this resumed game Anthony Petragnani’s single in the top of the 12th brought home Jason Savacool with the go-ahead run.
Then Chris AuClair got the final three outs, having gone 5 1/3 scoreless innings total in relief after Jake Marshall started it, AuClair striking out six and only allowing two hits.
In the full game that followed in Camlilus, WG rebounded to beat B’ville 4-2 and win the series.
AuClair started here, and got a pair of first-inning runs in support as Marshall and Jeb Farneth drove in Pat May and Nate Ray, but from there Wildcats pitchers Jack Gordon and Sam Gallager blanked the Bees, holding them to four hits overall.
AuClair allowed a first-inning run, then kept it quiet until the fifth, when WG scored three times and chased him from the game, Chris Bonacci’s two-run single the key blow.
Any momentum the Bees owned from that victory dissipated two days later when, in its first game of a series against C-NS at the Junior High School on Taft Road, the Northstars shut down the Bees in a 2-0 decision.
Justin Persse, lit up and pulled in the second inning of his start against Liverpool the week before, now found himself matching zeroes with Savacool through the first five innings. The big escape was in the bottom of the fourth, when the Bees had runners on second and third and two out, but Persse struck out Pat Anson.
They were still 0-0 when, in the bottom of the sixth, C-NS got Nate Geloff and Tim Taladay on base with two out, and Justin DelVecchio brought them home with a single, one of just two hits the Northstars got all afternoon.
Savacool struck out 10, allowing a pair of walks, but it was Persse getting the complete-game shutout as earned five strikeouts and limited the Bees to five hits.
Now, on Wednesday, C-NS and Liverpool met up for the third game of a series where the first two were split the week before. And it was the Northstars taking the series as early runs, plus terrific pitching from Noah Wieczorek, helped them beat the Warriors 4-0.
In each of the first two innings, C-NS struck for two runs off Luke Harder and Jake Wheeler. Drew Bristow doubled, drove in a run and scored twice, with RBIs also going to DelVecchio, Jared Stanton and Cole Rockwell.
One run was all that Wieczorek needed, though. Keeping Liverpool off-balance, he surrendered just two hits, one each to Shane Hazelmyer and Jagger Alberici, and three walks while recording six strikeouts.
Liverpool had defeated Syracuse 5-2 the day before, notching a pair of first-inning runs before Syracuse tied it in the bottom of the third on Connor Burke’s two-run double.
It took a three-run rally in the top of the fifth for the Warriors to move ahead for good as Samy Saba had two hits and two RBIs. Hazelmyer doubled and drove in a run as Sam Sgroi added an RBI. Anthony Lapine pitched six strong innings, striking out eight before Matt Pare picked up the save.
