While a fourth encounter in the Section III Class AA playoffs would carry the most meaning, for now the Liverpool baseball team has the upper hand on Cicero-North Syracuse.
Solid pitching from left-hander Dillan Wilkinson and a well-timed sixth-inning rally helped push the Warriors past the Northstars 5-3 Wednesday afternoon at the Gillette Road complex in the third regular-season meeting between the two rivals.
Their first game on April 20 went 10 innings and C-NS won it, 5-3. Nine days later, Liverpool got even, 2-0, so now came the third encounter, with Wilkinson pitching against Northstars right-hander Luke Dziados.
In the first three innings, Liverpool pecked away at Dziados, but stranded five runners. C-NS had an even more difficult time against Wilkinson, not picking up a clean hit until the the bottom of the fourth inning.
That fourth inning proved pivotal. With Dylan Frawley on first and nobody out, Nick Spinella, whose hit the game-tying and game-winning singles in a 3-2, nine-inning victory over Rome Free Academy two days earlier, hit line drive – right at first baseman Kyle Terzini, who stepped on first base to complete the double play. Two singles followed, but Wilkinson escaped the threat when pinch-hitter Jake Plumlee grounded out.
An inning later, C-NS did get a 1-0 lead thanks to two walks, a hit batsman and Frawley’s sacrifice fly, but again Wilkinson got out of it as Spinella, on a 3-2 pitch, grounded out.
Finally, Liverpool broke through against Dziados in the top of the sixth. Jake Evans singled and, with one out, moved to third on Terzini’s single, and then raced home on a throwing error to tie it, 1-1, before Wilkinson’s single scored Terzini with the go-ahead run.
Not stopping there, the Warriors made it 3-1 on Jonah Harder’s RBI single, and on Michael Wright’s grounder, a throwing error netted a fourth run.
C-NS didn’t surrender, scoring twice in the bottom of the sixth and forcing the Warriors to go to reliever Joe Antonello, who halted the rally, got the benefit of an insurance run in the seventh inning set up by Jeff DiStefano’s triple and closed out the game.
The lead-ups to this rubber game proved quite different, with C-NS needing a pair of clutch hits from Spinella to pull past RFA last Monday as Liverpool rolled over Fayetteville-Manlius in the first two games of their series.
RFA had gone up 2-0 on C-NS by the fourth inning as Derrick Miller hit a solo home run and Derek Samuels’ single drove homer Tyler Schoff. And though the Northstars answered with a run in the bottom of the fourth, it still trailed, 2-1, going into the seventh inning.
Down to its final out, the Northstars got Spinella to the plate – and with a full count, Spinella fouled off a pair of pitches before drilling the single that scored the tying run. The game spilled into extra frames and, in the bottom of the ninth, Spinella returned to the plate and, with a single to right, brought home the winning run.
James Salamone pitched for C-NS, settling down after those two early runs to go six innings and earn five strikeouts before Josh Ludden tossed three scoreless innings of relief, only allowing one hit.
Liverpool, meanwhile, opened its series against F-M last Monday with a 9-3 victory that saw both sides score twice in the first inning, but the Warriors take over with a five-run outburst in the bottom of the third. DiStefano held the Hornets to two hits in five innings of work, striking out three while issuing a pair of walks.
At the plate, Anthony Sgroi was unstoppable, going four-for-four, including a double, scoring twice and earning an RBI as Tom Bianchi drove in two runs. Evans, Harder, Wilkinson, Terzini and Rocco Leone, joined Sgroi with one RBI apiece as Wilkinson notched a pair of hits.
Then, in the second game of the series on Tuesday, the Warriors unloaded on the Hornets in a 23-1 romp where it put up 15 runs in the first two innings, helped in no small part by a porous Hornets defense that finished the day with eight errors.
Amid the carnage, DiStefano, Wilkinson and Jake Evans led with three RBIs apiece. Sgroi had two hits and scored a team-best four runs as Evans and Leone each scored three times. Joel Ciccarelli pitched and, getting all kinds of run support, held F-M to three hits in six innings on the mound while striking out seven.
Liverpool and F-M ended their series on Thursday, with the Hornets nearly recovering from that 23-1 drubbing. In fact, it was tied in the bottom of the sixth before the Warriors poked across a run and then held on, 4-3, when Antonello pitched a scoreless seventh inning.
Prior to that, Harder had pitched 5 2/3 innings, holding F-M to three hits. Liverpool had scored three times in the bottom of the first, but were then shut out by Hornets pitcher Anthony Nucerino before that sixth-inning tally. Sgroi led the Warriors with three hits as Evans drove in a pair of runs and Terzini also drove in a run.
C-NS, meanwhile, visited East Syracuse for a non-league game that same night and, still mad about the loss the day before, shut out the Spartans 12-0, doing most of the damage in a five-run second inning and six-run fifth inning.
Chris Cramer pitched six innings, striking out nine and holding ESM to four hits. He also tripled and drove in three runs at the plate as Dziados, Frawley and Reilly earned one RBI apiece. A.J. Nesci, James Salamone and Mike Sciore each scored twice.
