At many different points this spring, the very notion of a traditional late-spring post-season showdown between the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse softball teams was easy to dismiss.
The Warriors, after all, were reigning Section III Class AA champions, seemingly a step or two ahead of every challenger, while the Northstars kept getting into close games – and kept getting beat.
Yet when the sectional title is decided Wednesday at the Gillette Road complex, Liverpool and C-NS are, yet again, battling for a championship, having taken very different paths to this latest season-defining clash.
Cruising through its two sectional tournament games, the Warriors watched as the Northstars, behind in all three of its playoff matches, rallied to win them by a single run – the very games it was losing earlier this season.
The events of Saturday’s semifinals further added to this narrative. Liverpool rolled past no. 6 seed West Genesee 8-3, while C-NS pulled out more late-game magic to upend no. 4 seed Baldwinsville 2-1.
Twice, the Northstars had faced the Bees in the regular season, and lost them both, by margins of 4-1 and 1-0. Both times, it had difficulty solving B’ville pitching ace Keeanna Wolcik.
For a long while, the third encounter followed the same path. Wolcik blanked C-NS over the first five innings and was working her way to 12 strikeouts.
Meanwhile, Ariana Corasaniti was just as stingy, with one exception. In the bottom of the third, with the game still 0-0, Corasaniti hung a pitch that the Bees’ Kayla Young sent over the fence for a solo home run.
Though Corasaniti gave up six hits, she didn’t allow any more runs, patiently waiting for her teammates to solve Wolcik – which they finally did, just in time.
In the top of the sixth, a Northstars run tied it, 1-1, and in the seventh it got the go-ahead run. Beth Bonin and Sam Shallcross drove in those runs as they combined to account for four of C-NS’s five hits. Janelle Walters had the other, scoring a run.
All of this followed the Saturday-morning sectional semifinal between Liverpool and West Genesee, where the Warriors, who at times this season got off to slow starts, didn’t do so against the Wildcats.
Liverpool tagged WG pitcher Deanna Shackleton for three runs in the first inning and four runs in the second inning. Katie Yudin doubled, walked and drove in three of those runs, with Peyton Bellrose adding two RBIs. Gina Meyers and Jenna Wike also drove in runs.
Given all of that early support, Bellrose was cruising until the top of the fourth, when WG tried to fight its way back, scoring three runs, two of them driven home on Mallory Kovacs’ single.
Once Bellrose got out of that jam, though, she settled down and finished with eight strikeouts, only allowing four hits overall. Hours later, she and the rest of the Warriors found out that it would have to beat C-NS again if it wanted a sectional three-peat.
Due to a coin flip, the Warriors, despite its no. 4 state ranking, ended up as a no. 2 seed. Had it gained the top seed, Liverpool would have needed to beat C-NS for a third time this spring during Thursday’s AA quarterfinals.
Instead, the Warriors got the Syracuse City team in Thursday’s quarterfinals. Syracuse had played Class B foes in the OHSL Liberty division all season, and Liverpool proved too much for them, rolling to a 12-0 victory.
Bellrose only pitched three innings before Wike and Yudin worked the rest of the way. Combined, they threw a one-hitter with 13 strikeouts, a cause made easier because the Warriors built an 11-0 lead through three innings.
At the plate, Bellrose doubled, walked twice and drove in two runs. Erika Sadowski added two hits, two runs scored and two RBIs, with Yudin also getting two RBIs. Wike, Meyers and Joelle Nesci had one RBI apiece.
C-NS, meanwhile, would have an opportunity to upend the unlikely top seed, Central Square, but that only was made possible by surviving a harrowing opening-round match last Tuesday where it needed a big comeback to top no. 9 seed Auburn 5-4 in eight innings.
Auburn got to Corasaniti for two runs in each of the first two innings to establish a 4-1 lead as Breanna Hamilton earned a pair of RBIs. Corasaniti blanked the Maroons from there, only allowing three total hits while striking out six, but she needed help.
Just in time, C-NS provided it, scoring twice in the bottom of the sixth off Auburn pitcher Taylor Stearns thanks to Meghan Bocyck’s home run. Then, three outs from elimination, tying it in the bottom of the seventh on Jessica Callisto’s RBi single.
With all of the momentum, the Northstars got a runner in the 10th when Victoria Dunn singled, and Bonin’s triple allowed the winning run to sprint home. Bonin had already scored twice in the game, Callisto, Bocyck, Dunn and Shallcross got two hits apiece.
Perhaps steeled by what happened there, C-NS maintained that playoff magic at Central Square, making a late-game comeback and withstanding disappointment to pull out a 4-3, nine-inning decision over the Redhawks.
Central Square took a 1-0 first-inning lead, but over the next five innings Corasaniti kept it that way, waiting for her teammates to do something at the plate against Redhawks pitcher Abby House.
It finally happened in the top of the seventh, when C-NS struck for three runs, only to see Central Square stay alive with two runs in the bottom of the seventh. The drama stretched until the ninth, when the Northstars reclaimed the lead and then Corasaniti got the final outs.
Bonin and Brandi Feeney drove in all of the Northstars’ runs, combining for five of the team’s seven hits, and set up C-NS for more drama against B’ville – and more success, all of it leading to the most unlikely final between C-NS and Liverpool.
