When the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse softball teams collided on Monday in the makeup of their rained-out April 11 showdown, they did so having spent the previous week in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, facing tough competition – but also having memorable experiences.
For the Warriors, who opened with Jenna Wike’s no-hitter on April 15, the shutouts continued with a 10-0 dismissal of Gatlinburg-Pittman (Tennesee) where Wike allowed just two hits and recorded six strikeouts.
A four-run first inning gave Liverpool all the production it needed, but it kept going as Wike doubled and joined Ashley Teixeira in earning a pair of RBIs. Gina Meyers also drove in a run. Dana Egan got two hits and scored twice, with Teixeira and Delanie Alberici also scoring two runs.
Yet another shutout took place with the Warriors beating Paul VI (New Jersey) 11-0 in five innings, with a seven-run first-inning outburst the main highlight as, this time, it was Teixeira and Myers pitching and giving up just four hits.
Egan tripled and drove in three runs. Alberici and Sophia Harris got two hits apiece, while single RBIs were credited to Meyers, Teixeira, Alicia Nash, Gianna LaValle and Lourdes Soto.
It wasn’t until the fourth game at Myrtle Beach did Liverpool allow a run – four of them in the first two innings of a rematch with Gatlinburg-Pittman, mostly due to poor defense, but it still recovered to earn a 5-4, eight-inning victory.
Facing its first deficit all season, Liverpool quickly got rid of it, scoring once in the second inning and twice in the bottom of the fourth as Wike settled down, allowing just five hits overall while striking out five and also earned three RBIs at the plate.
Gatlinburg kept it 4-4 through the end of regulation, so it required an eighth inning. In the bottom of the eighth, Liverpool loaded the bases for Alberici, whose ground ball back to the pitcher’s circle was bobbled, allowing the winning run to score.
Meyers went three-for-four, with Olivia Hayden getting two hits and scoring twice. LaValle and Teixeira added two hits apiece, with Teixeira earning a triple.
This proved the only close call for the Warriors in Myrtle Beach, for in its last two games it recorded two more shutouts, blanking St. John’s Jesuit (Ohio) 10-0 and then closing out its week with a 16-0 romp over Marietta (Georgia).
Against St. John Jesuit, Liverpool scored all 10 of its runs in the first three innings. Teixeira , who pitched a complete game and allowed just three hits, doubled and earned three RBIs, while Nash and Dana Egan both drove in two runs. Wike had a single, double, triple, three runs scored and an RBI as Sophia Harris also drove in a run.
The game with Marietta was more lopsided, and completed in four innings, enough time for the Warriors to earn 14 hits, three of them from Wike, who augmented her latest shutout in the pitcher’s circle with two RBIs, a total Teixeira, Nash and Egan matched. Harris and Avery Marcy drove in single runs.
C-NS had begun play last Monday with a 7-6 victory over South Columbus where it scored all of its runs in the first two innings, four of them in the second after South Columbus had tied it 3-3. Brandi Feeney and Janelle Walters each tripled and earned two RBIs, while Ally Ciafratta also drove in a run and Victoria Dunn scored twice.
Given that 7-3 lead, Gabriella Corasaniti did all she could in the pitcher’s circle to protect it, and though South Columbus struck for single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, the Northstars did hang on.
A day later, C-NS fell, 6-3, to Gatlinburg-Pittman another instance of the Northstars taking a lead, this time 3-0 mostly due to a two-run rally in the bottom of the fifth, but then surrendering that edge when the Highlanders scored four runs in the top of the sixth and added two insurance runs an inning later.
Corasaniti struck out six, but allowed eight hits and two walks. She also doubled twice at the plate as Feeney and Jessica Gonzalski also had two-hit outings, earning one RBI apiece. Dunn and Julianna Vassallo scored runs.
But C-NS rebounded to beat Georgetown (South Carolina) 6-2, accumulating 15 hits along the way. Dunn, Walters and Sam Shalcross each got three hits, with Ciafratta and Shalcross driving in two runs apiece. Single RBIs went to Walters and Feeney as Corasaniti, despite allowing eight hits, kept pitching out of trouble, striking out six.
Improving to 3-1 on the trip, C-NS won, 13-0, over Start High School, from Toledo, Ohio, as Feeney led with two hits and three RBIs. Juliana Sculco and Jordyn Maldonado also drove in runs as Dunn, Corasaniti, Feeney and Jessica Gonzalski each scored twice.
Then the Northstars blanked Marietta (Georgia) 8-0 in Thursday’s action, a combination of tremendous pitching by Corasaniti, who struck out eight and only allowed one hit while her teammates scored in each of the first five innings.
Dunn led the bats, going three-for-four, including a triple, scoring three runs and gaining three RBIs. Walters also had three hits as Vassallo drove in two runs, with Ciafratta, Corasaniti and Maldonado earning one RBI apiece. Feeney tripled as she and Shalcross both got a pair of hits.
