Maybe it was an unfamiliar setting and an unfamiliar opponent, but the Liverpool softball team didn’t care, as long as the outcome was familar – and happy.
Repeating as Section III Class AA champions, the top-seeded Warriors blew open Monday night’s sectional AA final against Utica Proctor at Onondaga Community College in the second inning and went on to rout the Raiders 24-2.
Liverpool certainly wanted to avoid the stress and excitement of the sectional AA semifinal on May 28, when it had to rally from a three-run deficit to get past archrival Cicero-North Syracuse 5-3.
Proctor, a no. 6 seed who had fought past Auburn (5-4) in the quarterfinals and Baldwinsville (4-3) in the semfinals to get this far, was playing in its first sectional final since 1998, which was challenging enough, regardless of the quality of the foe.
Adding to the challenge, for both sides, was cold, wet weather that moved the sectional final from the familiar Gillette Road complex in Cicero to OCC and its artificial Field Turf. Regardless of the setting, though, the Warriors were a heavy favorite, and didn’t take long seizing control.
What helped Liverpool was the struggles Proctor pitcher Alanna Phillips faced at the outset. Erika Sadowski singled on Phillips’ first pitch, and both Dominique LaRose and Alicia Hansen were hit, loading the bases.
Phillips managed to get the next two outs on force plays at the plate, but a passed ball and a wild pitch allowed two Warriors runs to score, but that was just the appetizer.
What followed in the bottom of the second, after Proctor’s Stacey DiGiorgio tripled off Peyton Bellrose and scored on a wild pitch to cut Liverpool’s margin to 2-1, was the primary feast that decided matters.
The rally began with a walk to Gina Meyers, stolen base and a walk by Sadowski which, after a wild throw from home to second, produced a run. LaRose walked again to, and Bellrose hit into a force play, plating another run to make it 4-1.
Jenna Wike’s bunt led to another run, and Katie Yudin promptly drilled a two-run triple, followed by an error that extended the margin to 8-1. LaRose got hit with the bases loaded to get yet another run home, and Hansen’s two-run single put Liverpool into double digits.
Through two innings, Liverpool had 11 runs – on just five hits. Another run, without a hit, followed in the third inning, and the Warriors tacked on seven more runs in the fifth, capped by Jasmine Kelly hitting an inside-the-park grand slam, and five runs in the sixth that included Hansen’s three-run triple.
Liverpool will face Section II champion Shenendehowa in Friday’s AA regional final at Gillette, which starts at 5 p.m. The winner goes to the state final four June 13 at South Glens Falls.
