At first, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool baseball teams were to start against each other, doing a three-game series as part of a new format of weekly series adapted by the CNY Counties League.
But when the snows showed up and cold temperatures lingered for a week more, that wiped out the April 4-7 clash between the defending Section III Class AA champion Northstars and Warriors.
That will get made up, but Liverpool had to wait until last Wednesday’s game against the Syracuse City team to make its local debut, having already got a full week of work, practice and games in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina late in March.
Not only did the Warriors prevail, 15-0, over Syracuse, it did so against left-handed pitching ace Jeff Belge, thought to be one of the country’s top prospects despite a recurrence of his childhood eye injury the previous summer.
Belge gave up four runs in the first four innings, each of them unearned as Syracuse’s defense made several mistakes, including four errors. The Warriors got just one hit off Belge, who struck out 10.
Once Belge left, though, the Warriors teed off, especially in a fifth inning where it exploded for eight runs, including Anthony Sgroi belting a two-run home run. Michael Wright scored twice and drove in two runs as Jonah Harder added a hit, walk and three runs scored. Tom Bianchi and Jake Evans each scored twice and contributed an RBI.
Left-hander Jeff DeStefano had a solid start on the mound, limiting Syracuse to five hits and keeping them off the board. Nick Antonello added two no-hit innings of relief that also included four strikeouts.
A day later, Liverpool met Syracuse again at VanDuyn Field, and without Belge to worry about, the Warriors took charge early in a 10-4 victory, batting around and notching seven runs in the bottom of the second inning and adding three more runs in the sixth.
Jonah Harder went four-for-five, notching a triple and double while recording four RBIs. Sgroi and Rocco Leone each doubled and drove in one run as Wright scored twice and Kyle Terzini doubled twice. Meanwhile, Bianchi pitched five innings, holding Syracuse to four hits before Devan Mederios worked the last two innings in relief.
Then the Warriors completed its sweep of Syracuse Friday afternoon with another double-digit runs effort, prevailing by a 12-3 margin. It was already 12-0 by the end of the third inning as Terzini led the way with a double, single, three runs scored and three RBIs, while Watson also had three RBIs.
Sgroi, Evans, Leone and Jeremy Sisto each gained one RBI, with Wright and Dillan Wilkinson both scoring a pair of runs. Staked to such a big lead, Joel Cicciarelli went five innings, holding Syracuse to five hits while earning seven strikeouts. Evan Shurtleff followed with two shutout innings of relief.
C-NS opened that same day at the Gillette Road complext against West Genesee, a rematch of the 2015 sectional final, only with many different characters on both sides. Yet it had the same winning result for the Northstars, who fought past the Wildcats 7-3.
Luke Dziados pitched six innings, giving up just two hits and two walks while striking out eight. Dziados gave a 7-1 lead to Josh Ludden in the top of the seventh, and while Ludden allowed a pair of runs, he did finish the game off.
For its part, the Northstars had just eight hits, two each by A.J. Nesci and Connor Stanton. Dziados, Nesci, Stanton and Nick Spinella each earned an RBI as Nesci scored twice, with Brendan Reilly, Dylan Frawley and Mike Sciore scoring runs.
The second game with West Genesee on Friday at Gillette had a different outcome, the Wildcats prevailing 4-3.
WG’s Colin BeVard pitched five innings, striking out seven and holding C-NS to three hits. It took the trio of Graham, Korzeniewski and Hagen to work the last two innings of relief to help WG hang on despite two hits apiece from Nesci and Spinella, Jake Plumley and Brendan Reilly joined Nesci in the RBI column as James Salamone pitched 5 1/3 innings and took the loss.
The series ended Saturday with the Wildcats back home in Camillus, but the Northstars poised for a big performance. And C-NS bashed the Wildcats 10-1, taking the lead with a pair of second-inning runs and batting around in the top of the sixth, scoring six times to break it open.
While Chris Cramer and Nick Consroe combined on a three-hitter and Cramer overcame seven walks in 4 2/3 innings to win it, Zach Williamson notched three hits, with Nesci and Dziados each getting two hits. Salamone, Spinella, Stanton and Reilly earned one RBI apiece.
