All of the success the Cicero-North Syracuse baseball team is enjoying this spring traces back to the great work pitching ace Steven Theetge does every time he steps to the mound – and Liverpool is doing well, too, adding more anticipation to their meeting this Tuesday at the Gillette Road complex.
Theetge has managed three different complete-game shutouts, earning another one of them last Monday afternoon in a 3-0 victory over the combined Syracuse city squad.
Exactly three weeks earlier, on April 13, Theetge held Syracuse to three hits in a 1-0 win at the Gillette Road complex, out-pitching fellow left-hander Brian Nolan in a game where the lone run was scored on Stephen Kires’ single in the bottom of the seventh.
Here, Nolan and Theetge squared off again, and C-NS didn’t wait to get on the board. In the top of the first, three singles led to a run, James Salamone driving home Christian LaLomia.
An inning later two more runs followed as Dylan Frawley doubled, raced home on A.J. Nesci’s single, and then Connor Stanton got home on LaLomia’s RBI groundout.
Nolan blanked the Northstars from there, but Theetge, after some early control issues (three walks in the first three innings), settled down and started to dominate.
Getting error-free defense behind him, Theetge allowed just one hit, a bunt single by Bo Nesci (A.J.’s cousin) in the second. Over the last four innings, just one Syracuse player reached base, and Theetge recorded 10 strikeouts, fanning Nesci to end the game.
C-NS got another shutout on Thursday, blanking Central Square 7-0. Though the pitching trio of Salamone, Sam Spadafore and Brad Hamilton gave up seven hits between them, they kept getting out of jams and prevented the Redhawks from getting on the board.
A four-run first inning gave C-NS an early cushion, and it added a run in the second, plus two runs in the fourth. Theetge singled, doubled and drove in two runs, with LaLomia, Jake McArdell, Mike Sciore and Michael Krick earned one RBI apiece.
Liverpool would get a big win of its own last Tuesday, avenging an earlier defeat to defending Section III Class AA Auburn and toppling the Maroons 4-2 at Falcon Park.
When the two sides first met April 14 at Liverpool, Auburn claimed a 2-0 shutout thanks to six shutout innings from Justin Valentino. But it was Casey Komanecky going for the Maroons in the second encounter, and the Warriors would get to him early.
A pair of first-inning runs, backed up by single tallies in the second and fourth, put Liverpool in front. Michael Wright twice drove in runs as Dillan Wilkinson had two hits and two runs scored, with Jonah Harder joining Wright as run-scorers.
Meanwhile, Auburn got both of its runs in the top of the third off Bobby Zywicki. As T.J. Baranick blanked Liverpool from the fifth inning onward, Zywicki was just as stingy, pitching a complete game and holding Auburn to four hits, walking two while striking out five.
Another key road test loomed Friday against the same Syracuse team C-NS had beat earlier in the week, and the Warriors passed it, claiming that game by a 6-3 margin.
Nolan pitched on three days’ rest, and he held up for four innings, Liverpool only getting a single run off him as the game went 1-1 to the top of the fifth. But here Nolan tired, and the Warriors jumped on him for five decisive runs.
Jake Pieklik tripled and finished with a pair of RBIs. Harder, Anthony Sgroi and Rick Sisto earned one RBI apiece as Rocco Leone got two hits and scored twice.
And while Nolan did not last until the seventh inning, Tom Bianchi did, the Liverpool hurler notching 6 1/3 innings of solid where he overcame seven hits and three walks to contain Syracuse until Ryan Stott recorded the final two outs.
This brought Liverpool back to C-NS, whom it lost to in 11 innings, 4-2, on April 25, and the Northstars would carry more momentum thanks to Saturday’s 12-0 shutout over Rome Free Academy.
