Nearly getting swept by Cicero-North Syracuse probably did more to motivate the Liverpool softball team than any number of one-sided victories it has recorded in 2015.
With the Warriors sitting at no. 14 in the state Class AA rankings after edging the Northstars 5-4 on May 8, it visited Baldwinsville last Tuesday afternoon and relied on early run production to put away the Bees in a 4-0 shutout.
They had first played April 20, at Liverpool, and that ended in a 5-0 victory. B’ville pitcher Emma Bernet got the start against the Warriors’ ace, Peyton Bellrose, and knew that any mistakes could prove costly.
In the top of the first inning, Liverpool took charge with a trio of runs, and then tacked on a run in the second. Bellrose and Alicia Hansen both doubled and drove in runs, with Katie Yudin adding an RBI as Erika Sadowski got two hits, including a double, and scored twice.
Bernet then blanked the Warriors in the third inning before handing it to Keeanna Wolcik, who in her four innings allowed just one hit and one walk, striking out two.
But Bellrose had more than enough runs to work with. Wolcik, Serena Capsello and Brooke Carlisle each earned hits against Bellrose, but were stranded on base as the Liverpool right-hander recorded five strikeouts and got error-free defense behind her.
Liverpool got a more conventional 9-0 victory over West Genesee two days later, this one featuring a three-run third inning and six total runs in the fifth and sixth innings that broke the game open.
Yudin pitched and gave up just two hits, striking out five, the same total Hansen, Sadowski, Jordan Wheeler, Delanie Alberici and Gina Meyers got all by themselves. Dominique LaRose joined Hansen and Myers in the two-RBI column, with Alberici and Joelle Nesci also driving in runs.
While that was going on, C-NS turned to its pitching ace, Megan Tully, to deliver a gem of her own – and she did so, putting together a one-hitter as the Northstars recorded a 2-0 shutout over Auburn at the Gillette Road complex.
For the third time in two weeks, C-NS beat an opponent it lost to earlier this season. Having done so with B’ville and Central Square, the Northstars now turned to an Auburn side that railed from a 5-0 deficit in the last two innings and prevailed at home by a 6-5 margin on April 20.
Tully made sure that there wasn’t any Maroons comeback this time around. Surrendering just a single to Katie Feocco and a walk to Ally Nicolisi, Tully piled up 11 strikeouts.
Auburn’s Taylor Stearns pitched well, too, but C-NS broke through for single runs in the third and sixth innings, each of them driven home by Lauren Floyd on a single and triple.
