For a good part of May, followers of the Liverpool softball team wondered where all the hard-hitting power had gone.
While Erin Squairs and Tiffany Sampere continued to provide good outings every time they pitched, it wasn’t always rewarded, as evidenced by the May 8 game at Gillette Field when it took a 1-0 loss to defending Class AA champion Cicero-North Syracuse.
Just in time, though, the bats came back.
The Liverpool-CNS rematch on May 22 turned into a Senior Day showcase as the Warriors pummeled the Northstars 14-2.
Each of the Warriors’ five seniors — Squairs, Jen Maloney, Kalyn Howard, Ciara Burke and Katie Bresnahan — received their accolades prior to the game. Sometimes, such an affair can distract a team and keep it from its best effort.
That wasn’t the case here, though, as Squairs worked a 1-2-3 first inning, even striking out CNS star Lucia Meola, a rare feat. Then the offense went to work.
With two out in the bottom of the first, Emily Dumas hit a bloop single, bringing up Howard — and she promptly sent Sydney O’Hara’s pitch well over the right-field fence, a two-run home run.
It didn’t end there, either, as Beth Lamison singled and Sampere reached after O’Hara hit her. Squairs then doubled both of them home, making it 4-0.
Maloney’s RBI double made it 5-0, and though CNS scored twice in the third inning, that was all Squairs would allow in her four-hit, complete-game effort.
Liverpool put it away with two more four-run rallies — one in the fourth inning, the other in the fifth inning — on its way to 15 hits for the afternoon.
Howard didn’t stop until she had five RBIs, created by two more run-scoring singles. Lamison had three hits and two RBIs, while Stephanie VanDusen drove in a sixth-inning run.
A day later, at Utica Proctor, Sampere took her turn on the mound, and everything clicked again for the Warriors as it shut out the Raiders 7-0.
Sampere threw a one-hitter, piling up 11 strikeouts along the way. Liverpool got on the board with three second-inning runs off Proctor pitcher Alyssa Brennan, then scored in three of the next five innings to add to the margin.
Dumas fueled everything at the plate, getting five of her team’s 14 hits, including a triple, plus three RBIs to move her batting average to a robust .476. Howard also tripled, driving in two runs, while Squairs and Maloney both had one RBI.
Despite all this, Liverpool still has the no. 2 seed for the Class AA playoffs, with CNS the top seed.
The Warriors will meet Central Square or Henninger in Saturday’s quarterfinals, with the semifinals June 3 at Hopkins Road Park and the finals June 6 at Gillette.
Liverpool’s baseball team does have the top seed in Class AA, though, and a bye right into Thursday’s quarterfinal against Baldwinsville or Oswego. The semifinals are Saturday and the title game June 2 at Alliance Bank Stadium.
