In the lead-up to Wednesday’s showdown at the Gillette Road complex, the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool baseball teams both faced their own unique challenges, meeting them in different manners.
For the Warriors, no. 16 in the state Class AA rankings, that meant a three-game series against its other neighbor and rival, Baldwinsville, which did not start well as it ran into Bees pitching ace Cody Kaestle last Tuesday and took a 3-1 defeat.
Liverpool did take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning without a hit as Jake Evans drove home Jonah Harder, but Kaestle blanked the Warriors from there and, in fact, allowed just one hit, a single from Michael Wright.
Meanwhile, Jeff DeStefano had his own strong effort on the mound, touched up only when the Bees notched a pair of runs in the top of the fourth. B’ville would add an insurance run in the seventh, despite having just five hits off DeStefano.
Painful as that was, what took place in Wednesday’s rain-soaked 9-8. eight-inning defeat to B’ville hurt even more because it twice blew leads in the late going.
All seemed calm when Liverpool seized a 2-1 lead in the second inning. It stayed that way until the fifth, when the Warriors netted three runs – only to see the Bees answer with three runs of its own in the bottom of the fifth, chasing starter Joel Ciccarelli.
That set the stage for a wild seventh inning. Scoring twice, Liverpool extended its lead to 7-4, but three outs from victory, the Warriors squandered that edge as B’ville again staged a three-run rally and tied it, 7-7.
And even when Liverpool gained an 8-7 lead in the top of the eighth, it couldn’t hold on there, either, since the Bees tied it again in the bottom of the eighth and then brought home the winning run, too. Harder finished with two hits, a walk and two RBIs. Evans also got a pair of hits.
Frustrated at these defeats, the Warriors took out that anger on B’ville in the series finale, avoiding a sweep in a big way with a 17-2 romp that included four first-inning runs off Cameron Morrissey and eight runs in the top of the fifth.
Evans, with three hits and three RBIs, led a Liverpool lineup that finished with 18 hits and took advantage of seven Bees errors. Dillan Wilkinson, who pitched five innings, drove in two runs, as did Wright, while Harder and Anthony Sgroi each got two hits. Peter Belgarder, Matt Rioux and Owen Valentine also drove in runs.
C-NS, after waiting a day for the rain to stop, began its three-game series against Auburn last Tuesday at Gillette and, in yet another close decision, held on to defeat the Maroons 5-4.
Luke Dziados had far from his strongest outing on the mound, but still tossed a complete game where he overcame 10 hits and two walks to strike out five. Still, Dziados would need help from his offense, and got it.
Connor Stanton struck a home run and finished with three RBIs. Dylan Frawley also drove in a run as Nick Spinella joined Stanton in earning a pair of hits.
Another close game followed on Wednesday at Falcon Park, but again C-NS won, 4-2, netting all of its offense early.
C-NS got a a run in the first inning and three more runs in the second off Maroons starter Tyler Daddabbo. Spinella drove in two of those runs as Frawley and A.J. Nesci had one RBI apiece. Brendan Reilly contributed three hits, with Frawley and Stanton each getting two hits.
Meanwhile, James Salamone pitched six strong innings, holding Auburn to five hits while striking out four. The Maroons did get single runs in the third and fifth innings, but Salamone and reliever Ben Christian, who worked the bottom of the seventh, preserved C-NS’s lead.
Now C-NS would go for a sweep Thursday night at NBT Bank Stadium as part of the Strike Out Lou Gehrig’s Disease Classic, as part of a twin bill where, in the first game, West Genesee’s Colin BeVard threw a no-hitter against CBA.
Nothing like that happened in the game that followed – and neither did a sweep, C-NS falling to the Maroons 2-1 as it couldn’t get on the board until the seventh inning against Auburn pitcher Steve Bennett, who lost the shutout when Luke Dziados singled home Frawley.
Dziados had two of C-NS’s four hits against Bennett, who got all the production he needed when the Maroons tagged Northstars pitcher Chris Cramer for single runs in the first and fourth innings. Cramer only allowed six hits.
