Facing a late-season crossroads, the Cicero-North Syracuse baseball team made a complete turnaround, going from three straight losses to three straight wins and claiming its own John Ilacqua Memorial Tournament Saturday at Gillette Field.
It all culminated in a spirited comeback in the tournament’s championship game against Penfield (Section V) and a 4-3 victory over the Patriots.
Despite Bobby Renaud’s solid pitching, CNS trailed, 3-0, going to the bottom of the sixth inning, but climbed back into the picture when, with a runner on base, Cory Burrows socked a two-run home run to slice the margin to one.
Then, in the seventh, CNS tied it, 3-3, on Riley Moonan’s RBI, then got the victory when John Howell’s single brought home Mark Centolella.
All this got set up by the Northstars jumping on Jamesville-DeWitt in the opening round. The 15-9 victory saw CNS torch the Red Rams for a season-best 12 runs in the second inning, which proved decisive.
Helped by six J-D errors, the Northstars saw Brian Hamilton produce five RBIs, while Howell drove in three runs. Matt Dykeman had two RBIs as Burrows, Jack Hotaling and Vince Mallaro gained one RBI apiece. James Coleman got the win in relief of Kyano Cummings.
Penfield beat Fayetteville-Manlius 3-1 in the other half of the opening round, with the Hornets rebounding to top J-D in another 15-9 game to claim third place.
All this followed the Northstars’ 14-7 win over West Genesee Thursday night at Gillette.
Breaking a 1-1 tie, the Northstars chased WG pitcher Brian Burns with five runs in the bottom of the second. When the Wildcats closed to 6-5, CNS responded with another five-run outburst in the fifth to get clear.
On its way to 15 hits against five WG pitchers, the Northstars saw Matt Dykeman get a double and triple, score three times and finish with a season-best five RBIs.
Hamilton and Howell each drove in three runs as Howell went four-for-five and scored twice, while Centolella and Moonan joined Hamilton in the two-hit column. Brian Dykeman scored a pair of runs. Joe Pokrentowski pitched most of the way to earn the win as Austin Hyde saw late relief duty.
Now at 11-6 following the tournament win, CNS plays Oswego, Corcoran and Binghamton Seton Catholic this week before finding out Sunday where it will start the Section III Class AA playoffs.