What is “normal” for the Cicero-North Syracuse baseball team is quite good by the standards of most other Section III programs.
Each spring, the Northstars enter the fray thinking of nothing less than league and sectional titles, and in 2013 it’s hungry to chase after both crowns again.
A hint of what C-NS might accomplish came in last Saturday’s season opener against Binghamton Seton Catholic, where it wasted little time hitting the ball hard and kept going until it had put together a 27-2 victory in a game shortened to six innings.
In the first inning alone, the Northstars had nine runs. And it followed that up with a seven-run third inning and another nine-run outburst in the bottom of the fifth, adding up to 19 hits.
Eric Hamilton led with four hits, scoring three runs and earning three RBIs. In fact, seven different players – Hamilton, Paul Ludden, Jake McArdell, Paul Vinciguerra, Brandon Kapcinski, Owen Dziados and Justin Teague – drove in three runs apiece.
McArdell and Dziados led C-NS by each scoring four runs. Mike Mento and Vince Mallaro joined Hamilton and Teague as they all scored three times.
C.J. Szczesny pitched four innings to earn the win, allowing three hits while striking out three. Will Apps and Stephen Theetge each saw an inning of relief work.
In the league opener Monday afternoon against Central Square, the Northstars’ bats remained hot as it took apart the Red Hawks 22-4.
Four runs in the first inning got the Northstars going again. Then C-NS answered the Red Hawks’ three-run third inning with one of its own and really got away with eight runs in the fifth and five more runs in the sixth.
During this deluge, Hamilton piled up three hits, including a home run, and six RBIs, while Teague went four-for-five with four RBIs. Kapcinski scored three times and drove in three runs, while Ludden and McArdell each got three hits.
Mento added a solo home run and Vinciguerra earned two RBIs as part of the Northstars’ 19-hit attack. Austin Frawley, given all kinds of run support, pitched five solid innings, striking out six before Jessie Farabee worked the last two innings in relief.
