Nothing that happened in the last week of the regular season contradicted the prevailing wisdom that the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool baseball teams are heading toward a Section III Class AA championship rematch.
In fact, the Warriors would start out the nine-team sectional tournament as the top seed, awaiting a quarterfinal against Central Square or Utica Proctor, while the no. 2 seed Northstars would meet Fayetteville-Manlius in its quarterfinal. It all leads to a title game Sunday at Onondaga Community College at 7 p.m
Having won two of three in its series with Liverpool the week before, C-NS turned its attention to the combined Syracuse City team last Monday and, with Chris Cramer on the mound, put together a 3-1 victory in the series opener.
C-NS only had five hits against Syracuse’s pitching duo of Jacob Sardino and Darien Olivo, but got to Sardino for all three of its runs in the first two innings as D’Ante Zapanta earned an RBI double, with Dylan Frawley and Brendan Reilly also driving in runs.
Cramer, following up his eight-inning 1-0 shutout win over Liverpool on May 8, gave up a run in the fourth, but otherwise stymied Syracuse, holding them to just three hits and earning 11 strikeouts to negate a pair of walks.
The second game against Syracuse allowed Luke Dziados to make his last start of the regular season, and once again Dziados was superb as the Northstars prevailed 4-1, the right-hander holding Syracuse to two hits and striking out eight.
Despite a number of scoring opportunities and 11 hits, C-NS’s run production was modest, but it proved enough as Frawley hit a solo home run, while Reilly and Tristen Cummings both got two hits and one RBI. Tim Schinto also had two hits.
A non-league game followed Wednesday against Oswego where C-NS bashed the Buccaneers 13-0, accumulating 17 hits as Cummings doubled twice, joining Frawley and Stanton with two RBIs apiece. Eight different Northstars drove in at least one run as Logan Persse pitched five shutout innings before Ben Christian took over in relief.
For Liverpool, its series at Baldwinsville started last Monday with an all-around gem from Jeff Destefano as the Warriors shut out the Bees 5-0. In a complete-game pitching effort, Destefano limited B’ville to four hits, walking two but striking out five.
Not content to dominate on the mound, Destefano also slammed a three-run home run off Bees pitcher Nate Valentine in the third inning, adding to a 2-0 lead the Warriors attained in the first as Jake Evans and Jacob Sisto had run-scoring hits.
B’ville turned it around, though, and won at Liverpool 7-2 a day later, this despite the Warriors going up 2-0 by the fourth inning and Destefano hitting his second home run in as many days.
Jonah Harder maintained the shutout until the fifth, when the Bees knocked him out with a six-run rally and also got runs off relievers Andre Leatherwood and Jordan Brown. Meanwhile, Bees ace Cameron Morrissey limited the Warriors to four hits overall and earned six strikeouts.
During an interlude in the series, Liverpool hosted West Genesee on Wednesday and prevailed, 10-6, doing most of the damage in a seven-run second inning that wiped out the Wildcats’ early 2-0 advantage.
Zach Scannell roared to life with a home run, single and three RBis. Sisto drove in two runs, while Harder, Evans and Joe Zwicki had one RBI apiece. Nick Antonello pitched and went the full seven innings, striking out nine to overcome seven WG hits.
Following Thursday’s stormy weather, play resumed on Friday with Liverpool closing out against B’ville and C-NS facing Cortland.
The Warriors had an easy time of it, handling the Bees 11-1 as it scored all of its runs in the middle stages – five runs in the third, followed by three-run rallies in the fourth and fifth innings.
Tom Bianchi led the way, twice clearing the bases with a double and triple that led to five RBIs. Zywicki scored twice and drove in three runs as Zach Pieklik added an RBI, Meanwhlie, Owen Valentine pitched five shutout innings, only allowing one hit before Jordan Brown worked the rest of the way.
C-NS, meanwhile, would beat Cortland 5-2, getting 4 2/3 innings of solid pitching from Justin DelVecchio before Christian worked the last 2 1/3 innings in relief. Frawley and Reilly each had two hits and one RBI as Zapanta and Joe Mallaro also drove in runs.
And both teams would win on Saturday, too. C-NS completed its sweep of Syracuse with a 17-0 shutout that included an eight-run first running and runs in each of the next five innings, too.
Zapanta, with two doubles and five RBIs, led the charge as Mallaro and Joe Brisson each got two hits and Brisson scored three runs. Josh Ludden pitched four innings, giving up just two hits before Persse and Mason White threw three no-hit innings of relief.
As that went on, Liverpool beat Christian Brothers Academy 12-3, quickly getting rid of a 3-0 deficit with five runs in the bottom of the second and adding four runs in the third. Destefano doubled, singled and drove in three runs, with Matt Rioux adding two RBIs as Gerard Mouton, Andre Leatherwood and Devan Mederios combined for pitching duties, Leatherwood earning the win with 1 2/3 innings of scoreless work.
