To repeat as Section III Class AA champions was sweet enough for the Cicero-North Syracuse baseball team.
But to do so at the expense of its most heated rival, Liverpool, only made it sweeter for the Northstars, especially in the way it all unfolded.
Trailing by three runs heading into the latter stages of Tuesday night’s title game at Onondaga Community College, C-NS saw its bats come to life just in time, rewarding the patient work of pitcher Luke Dziados and eventually beating the Warriors 5-3.
They came into the game as the top two seeds in the AA bracket, having survived tense one-run decisions in the semifinals at OCC – C-NS holding off Utica Proctor 5-4 on Sunday, Liverpool rallying to edge Baldwinsville 2-1 in eight innings a night later.
Liverpool sent Jeff DiStefano to the mound, and he got immediate help when the Warriors tagged Dziados for a run in the bottom of the first inning – yet it still proved an early turning point.
Two hits, by Michael Wright and Anthony Sgroi, plus an error loaded the bases with no one out. Liverpool did score on a fielder’s choice grounder, but Dziados worked out of further trouble, denying the Warriors a big inning.
A double play in the second inning off a liner caught by Mason White halted another possible Warrior rally. So even though Liverpool scored twice in the bottom of the third and extended its lead to 3-0, C-NS still was within range.
Everything changed in the top of the fifth. To that point, DiStefano had been masterful, throwing four scoreless innings, but he walked Chris Cramer and Mike Sciore to lead off the fifth.
Perhaps sensing that DiStefano was tiring, the Warriors replaced him with Nick Antonello – a move that backfired when Connor Stanton sent one to the warning track in left field, a triple that scored two runs.
Moments later, Nick Spinella’s fly ball was deep enough to bring Stanton home, tying it 3-3, just as Dziados was settling into a groove where he would ultimately retire the last 13 batters he faced.
In the sixth, C-NS took the lead, 4-3. when Dylan Frawley singled home A.J. Nesci. Then the Northstars got an insurance run in the top of the seventh when Spinella singled, moved to second on Dziados’ sacrifice bunt and raced home on James Salamone’s single.
Not only did Dziados complete the game, he struck out the last six batters he faced, Liverpool’s frustration boiling over when Wright, after taking a called third strike, threw his helmet, and was ejected.
Once the celebrations were done, C-NS considered the daunting prospect of Saturday’s AA regional final at Joe Bruno Stadium in Troy against Section II champion Shenendehowa.
The Plainsmen will likely start Ian Anderson, projected by some as a top-10 pick in next week’s Major League Baseball Draft, though he has committed to attend Vanderbilt University. Anderson threw a shutout in Shen’s 3-0 win over Albany CBA in the Section II final on May 26.
