Two days removed from seeing rival Liverpool erase a six-run deficit to beat them, the Cicero-North Syracuse softball team returned against Baldwinsville, and perhaps the loss to the Warriors had a lingering effect as it suffered an 8-3 defeat to the Bees.
Like C-NS and Liverpool, B’ville had got in a week of hard work at Myrtle Beach, and it jumped out to a 5-0 lead on the Northstars by the third inning. Eventually, the margin got to 8-1, and there would be no big comeback, despite the Northstars scoring twice in the bottom of the seventh.
C-NS had just three hits off B’ville pitcher Kayla Young, two of them by Victoria Dunn, who joined Morgan Iauco in the RBI column. Not content with her pitching efforts, Young also scored three runs and got three RBIs to lead the Bees’ hitting attack.
On Thursday, C-NS broke out of its doldrums and got a 6-1 victory over West Genesee, just as Liverpool was handling Fayetteville-Manlius 12-2.
In the Northstars’ win over the Wildcats, a two-run first inning was enough offense, but it added four runs in the fourth as Janelle Walters got three hits and two RBIs. Brandi Feeney also drove in two runs, with Ally Ciafratta and Sam Shallcross each getting two hits and one RBI.
The Warriors didn’t have it that easy with F-M, tied 2-2 before Liverpool scored twice in the fifth inning and then added eight more runs in the next two frames. Jenna Wike had three hits, walked twice and scored three runs, earning two RBIs as Dana Egan got three hits and joined Ashley Teixeira with three RBIs apiece.
Now both teams got ready for Saturday’s Northstar Classic, where they would each play twice against strong competition – and the Warriors would take its first blemish with a 7-1 defeat to Shaker, from the Section II ranks.
Much like C-NS did earlier in the week, the Blue Bison got to the Warriors early, but here the two-run first inning and five-run third inning were not answered as Teixeira pitched and took the loss, Liverpool only getting a single run in the bottom of the third as Wike drove home Gina Nash.
For the game against Fairport (Section V), Wike was back in the pitcher’s circle – and Liverpool was back in the win column, beating the Red Raiders 5-3 as once more it fell behind 2-0 in the first inning, but then countered with runs in each of the first three innings to go ahead for good. Myers, Wike and Delanie Alberici each got two hits, with Egan joining Wike in the RBI column and Olivia Hayden scoring twice.
C-NS, playing Shaker before Liverpool did, lost a 6-5, nine-inning decision, unable to hold on to the 4-0 lead it built in the second inning.
The Blue Bison used a run in the third inning and four runs in the fourth to go up, 5-4, and though the Northstars tied it, 5-5, in the fifth, it could not score again. Walters and Feeney each finished with two hits and two RBIs. Dunn added two hits and drove in the other run as Iauco scored twice.
Following that, C-NS took a 10-5 defeat to another Section II opponent, Averill Park, as again a lead got away, this one a 3-2 margin that AP erased with a six-run outburst in the fifth inning.
The Northstars still had 14 hits, three each by Dunn and Feeney, as Ciafratta got two RBIs, joining Shallcross and Walters with two hits apiece.
