Perhaps the next time the Liverpool baseball team meets up with Cicero-North Syracuse, it won’t have to worry about Steven Theetge.
In two separate outings this season, Theetge has kept the rival Warriors off the board, doing so again last Thursday as the Northstars battled to squeeze out a 1-0 victory.
These same sides had met Apirl 17, and Theetge tossed six scoreless innings to help C-NS prevail 7-0. And now Theetge was seeing the Warriors again, opposed on the mound by Ryan Stott.
In the bottom of the first inning, A.J. Nesci reached base, and raced home when Justin Teague singled, neither side imagining that it would be the only run of the game.
Stott was superb for the Warriors, throwing a two-hit complete game where he surrendered four walks, but struck out two and got error-free defense behind him.
Usually, that’s a winning combination, but not with Theetge around. Even though Liverpool’s batters had seen him before and would manage seven hits, Theetge kept escaping, either with strikeouts (eight of them) or with solid defensive plays from his teammates.
Twice in the 2013 season, C-NS took on Baldwinsville– and won both games, a point of pride for the Northstars, especially when the Bees went on to take the state Class AA championship.
But when the two sides reunited last Tuesday afternoon, C-NS could not quite repeat that effort, taking a 2-1 defeat to B’ville in a game that remained in doubt until the bottom of the seventh inning.
Jessie Farabee took the mound for the Northstars and kept B’ville quiet until the bottom of the third inning, when Pat Dubiel’s RBI double scored Kevin Paul and put the Bees in front 1-0.
It stayed that way until the top of the fifth, C-NS unable to solve Bees pitcher Cody Kaestle, but in the fifth Jake McArdell sent a Kaestle pitch over the fence for a solo home run to tie it, 1-1.
That was one of just four hits the Northstars would get against Kaestle, who threw a complete game. So did Farabee, but in the bottom of the seventh Gage Blasi singled, and when Kevin Paul doubled into the gap, Blasi raced home with the decisive run.
Just before facing B’ville, the Northstars got an 8-1 win over Central Square, erasing an early 1-0 deficit by scoring twice in the bottom of the second and tacking on four more runs in the next two innings to take charge.
Jason Shandler pitched six innings, surrendering just two hits and striking out five. At the plate, Jesse Farabee singled, doubled and drove in three runs, with Owen Dziados and Josh Rodriguez each getting a pair of RBIs. Steve Kires also had an RBI as Nesci and Mike Copani both scored twice.
Meanwhile, Liverpool’s week began with a 3-2 defeat to Syracuse East, a game where, trailing 2-0, it used single runs in the fourth and fifth innings to catch up, only to see East go back in front in the bottom of the fifth and hold on from there.
Nick Claver, in defeat, pitched a complete game, striking out six but giving up six hits and three walks, also earning an RBi at the plate. East ace Jeff Belge struck out 10 Warriors and held them to four hits, with Claver, Jason Schulz and Rick Sisto getting those hits.
Yet the Warriors turned around a day later and beat Syracuse West 7-1, doing most of the damage in the top of the fourth, when it batted around against West pitcher Hector Santa and produced six runs to expand upon an early 1-0 lead.
Don Pauldine hit a home run and finished with a pair of RBIs, while Schulz doubled twice and drove in three runs. Ben Terzini added an RBI as Luke Gilbert went the route on the mound, holding West to six hits and recording seven strikeouts.
Then Liverpool won a rematch with Syracuse West, 11-3, just 24 hours later, breaking out of an early 2-2 tie by scoring runs in six consecutive innings, beginning in the top of the second.
Gilbert and Michael Wright each managed two hits as part of the Warriors’ 11-hit attack. Gilbert also scored three runs as nine different players – Claver, Wright, Schulz, Sisto, Ryan Stott, Bobby Zywicki, Kyle Watson, Dalton Horton and Tim Cerniglia – earned one RBI apiece.
Following that up, the Warriors went to Camillus Friday afternoon and beat state Class AA no. 11-ranked West Genesee 6-1, breaking out of a 1-1 tie when it scored four runs in the top of the third inning off Wildcats starter Matt VanAllen.
WG was playing its fifth game in as many days, and Zywicki kept them quiet, pitching a complete game and limiting the Wildcats to four hits and two walks while earning five strikeouts. Claver and Schulz each scored two runs for Liverpool as Pauldine and Sisto got credit for RBIs.
