When the Ace Morabito Tournament in Herkimer was done last weekend, the Cicero-North Syracuse softball team emerged with a 2-2 mark.
It had not started well for the Northstars, who fell 1-0 to Ketcham in Saturday’s opener on a seventh-inning run. It negated a brilliant effort by pitcher Sydney O’Hara, who threw a one-hitter and struck out 15 Ketcham batters.
Yet the usually-potent Northstars only managed three hits of its own, one each from Amy Van Hoven, Lindsey Silfer and Kelly Corbin.
That frustration continued Saturday in the second game, a 6-5 loss to Valley, where the Northstars held a 5-0 lead in the third inning, only to see Valley tie it by the sixth inning and prevail with a run in the bottom of the eighth.
Before it fell apart, Sydney Harbaugh managed three hits, including a double, as she, along with Silfer and Morgan Phillips, drove in one run apiece and Silfer scored twice. Kalet Lenart struck out seven and held Valley to four hits, but still could not hold on to that lead.
Furious at this, C-NS rebounded with two wins on Sunday, starting with an 18-0 shutout of Shaker that saw the Northstars pound out 20 hits.
Van Hoven hit a home run, double and single and finished with five RBIs. Harbaugh and Lauren Floyd each had three hits and three runs scored, while Brittany Paul managed four hits and drove in a pair of runs. Phillips also had two RBIs as O’Hara, who threw her second one-hitter in as many days and got 13 strikeouts, added an RBI.
The other game, an 11-2 win over New Rochelle, included O’Hara smacking three doubles and scoring three runs while getting three RBIs. Phillips doubled, put up four hits and matched O’Hara’s three-RBI output as Harbaugh added four hits. Lenart won this time, striking out a season-best 14 New Rochelle batters.
