As the baseball rivalry between Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse resumed on a gloomy Friday afternoon, power and precision would prove decisive. The power came from Shawn Peake, whose first-inning home run put the Warriors. The precision came from pitcher Pat Brown, whose cool complete-game work produced a 4-2 victory over the defending Section III Class AA champion Northstars. Brown had pitched against CNS before, and knew it relied on speed and plate discipline to rattle the opposition. The response – throw strikes, and make the Northstars swing. That meant enduring a scary first inning that included Mark Centolella and John Howell pounding out singles. But Brown stranded two runners when Jack Hotaling hit a deep ball that stayed in the park and got caught. Staying in the park wasn’t on Peake’s mind when he came up against CNS left-hander Joe Pokrentowski with one on in the bottom of the first. Seeing a pitch he liked, Peake, a right-hander, pounded it to the opposite field and watched it sail over the right-field fence, giving Liverpool a 2-0 lead. An inning later, Liverpool loaded the bases, and sophomore Alex Caruso poked a single up the middle, bringing home two more runs and doubling the margin to 4-0. Pokrentowski, aided by some superb defense, blanked the Warriors the rest of the way, allowing just four hits while striking out six. Now he just needed some help. CNS would get on the board when Howell singled home Centolella in the third, but the game’s key moment came in the fourth, when a single, error and walk loaded the bases with nobody out. Brown didn’t flinch. Instead, he struck out Brian Dykeman, coaxed Matt Dykeman into a short flyout and threw strike three past Centolella, keeping the game 4-1. Though the Northstars did get another run in the fifth, Brown shut things down from there. Howell had three hits, but watched as Jimmy Wright made a running catch in left field in the seventh, when he represented the tying run. Hotaling grounded out to end the game. Overall, Brown earned six strikeouts, against seven hits and two walks allowed. Wright and Rob Broddus joined Peake and Caruso by scoring runs. CNS had built up a win streak before going to Liverpool, as it visited Nottingham last Monday and, with Bobby Renaud throwing a no-hitter, beat the Bulldogs 13-0. Renaud had the best pitching performance of his varsity career, keeping Nottingham off the base paths as he registered 12 strikeouts and got perfect defense behind him. Meanwhile, the Northstars had at least three runs in four of the first five innings, accumulating nine hits and taking advantage of five Bulldog errors. Centolella, Howell, Brian Hamilton and Matt Dykeman each got two hits, with Riley Moonan scoring four runs and Howell crossing the plate three times. Liverpool, by contrast, had to pull a close one out, coming back to the field on Wednesday by going to Central Square and holding off the Red Hawks 3-2. The Warriors struck with two runs in the first inning, only to have Central Square tie it with a pair of tallies in the bottom of the second. It took a fifth-inning Liverpool run to make the difference as Mike Parsons earned the win and Cory Folk pitched a scoreless seventh inning for the save. Andrew Schreyack drove in two runs, while Parsons got the other RBI. The Warriors prevailed despite getting just four hits all afternoon – a formula that would repeat itself against CNS two days later.