In a single sterling afternoon, the Liverpool baseball team may have locked up the CNY Counties League National division title and top seed for the Section III Class AA playoffs.
And the Warriors did so in the most convincing way possible, claiming a 12-4 victory over Utica Proctor Monday in a first-place showdown where it solved the riddle of the Raiders’ pitching ace, Steve Sarcone.
This was no small feat. Sarcone, going to the University of Rhode Island next fall, has gone 18-3 as a varsity pitcher, including a 5-1 mark this spring. Combined with a batting average hovering near .450, he was the main reason the Raiders entered the game tied for first with Liverpool.
None of this impressed the Warriors, who were coming off a split of a pair of games Saturday in the Albany area. It beat Queensbury 7-2 and lost 14-6 to Shenendehowa, though many starters did not play against the Plainsmen.
Liverpool used patience at the plate to slowly wear Sarcone down, then take him out after the Raiders struck in the top of the first inning on Ryan Donovan’s RBI double.
That work began in the bottom of the first, when the Warriors coaxed a pair of walks to load the bases before Jim Wright’s sacrifice fly tied it, 1-1.
The real fun began in the third. With one out, Mike Parsons doubled and, after another walk, Jim Wright returned to single home Parsons and put Liverpool ahead 2-1. Another walk later, Pat Wright produced his own run-scoring hit to double the margin.
Flush with confidence, Liverpool decided matters in the fourth, forcing Sarcone to issue his sixth and seventh walks that led to Shawn Peake’s two-run single.
Sarcone left, but the hitting continued as eight straight Liverpool batters reached base and six runs crossed the plate, Pat Wright delivering a two-run single in the middle of it.
Three more runs followed in the fifth, more than enough for Cory Folk, whose six solid innings on the mound included 11 in a row retired at one point. Joe Riley worked the seventh inning to close it out.
Overall, Pat and Jim Wright combined for five RBIs, with Andrew Schreyack driving in two runs. Parsons and Peake had one RBI apiece.
