Though it’s still quite early, the Cicero-North Syracuse softball and baseball teams remain undefeated – though they find different ways to reach the same destination point.
For the softball Northstars, Sydney O’Hara dazzled Friday at Fayetteville-Manlius, pitching a no-hitter as she finally got some late run support in a 4-0 win over the Hornets. Meanwhile, the CNS baseball side also played F-M and had to escape trouble numerous times to prevail by a 3-1 margin.
Though it was mid-April, this was the F-M softball squad’s season debut. By contrast, CNS had played twice, so it figured that O’Hara would carry a decided edge over the cold Hornets bats on a chilly, windy afternoon.
Yet for five innings, F-M pitcher Amy Bright matched O’Hara in a 0-0 deadlock, neither side giving. Finally, in the top of the sixth CNS broke through with a pair of runs, tacking on two more in the seventh.
As if striking out 12 batters against two walks in a no-hitter wasn’t enough, O’Hara struck a two-run home run to aid the cause. Brittany Paul and Sam Cirillo each finished with a pair of hits as Cirillo and Amy Van Hoven earned one RBI apiece. Bright lost despite striking out 13 CNS hitters, but she allowed four hits and five walks.
While all this was going on, the baseball Northstars, after its third win in a row, the CNS baseball side turned to left-hander Kyano Cummings, who had pitched so well in the Northstars’ 9-3 season-opening win over Baldwinsville on April 9.
Cummings would keep putting runners on base, allowing nine hits and two walks. All that F-M could get, though, was a run in the bottom of the second off Jeremy Mapstone’s bases-loaded infield hit, which tied it 1-1 after Eric Hamilton’s run-scoring single in the top of the first briefly put CNS in front.
So it remained, despite numerous chances on both ends, until the top of the fifth. Riley Moonan led off with a single, reached second on a sacrifice bunt and, with two out, raced home when Cory Burrows’ bouncer just eluded first base and dribbled down the right-field line.
CNS nearly gave up that 2-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth. After a dropped fly ball put Louis Testone on second, Bryan Hill singled, but left fielder Mark Sherlock fired a bullet to home plate, and Burrows tagged out Testone trying to score.
Two batters later, Mike Palermo drilled a shot off Cummings’ ankle for an infield hit. Able to walk off the injury (though he had ice on the ankle afterward), Cummings, with the bases loaded again, coaxed Mapstone to fly out, keeping it 2-1.
Three singles, the last of them by Hamilton, added a run in the top of the seventh to double CNS’s margin. Reliever James Coleman then put the tying runs on base in the bottom of the seventh before striking out Hill to end the game.
Right after the battle with F-M, the Northstars made another trip Saturday, to Jamesville-DeWitt, and toyed with the Red Rams in a 22-8 romp that improved the team’s mark to 4-0.
CNS already had a 3-0 lead when, in the top of the third, it erupted for eight runs, following that up with a seven-run fifth inning as it finished with 17 hits and got aided by five J-D errors. Dan Brower pitched six innings, earning the win as he struck out six and allowed five hits.
Vince Mallaro scored four runs as he and Brian Hamilton both finished with three RBIs. Sherlock, Riley Moonan, Jack Hotaling and Matt Dykeman each drove in two runs as, in all, 10 different players scored at least once. Eric Hamilton and Mark Centolella each had one RBI.
