Even in this season of turmoil, upheaval, wild comebacks and heartbreaking defeats, the familiar narrative of Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse battling it out with the Section III Class AA championship on the line will play out.
Getting there wasn’t easy, though.
The top-seeded Warriors had to endure 10 tense innings to get past no. 5 seed Baldwinsville 2-1, and the no. 7 seed Northstars needed a seventh-inning run to edge no. 3 seed Central Square 3-2, in Saturday’s pair of sectional semifinals at Onondaga Community College.
This sets up a title game played often over the years, but with more color in the background since, in both of their regular-season meetings (on April 24 and May 4), Liverpool rallied from six-run deficits to stun C-NS.
Against a B’ville side it defeated by 6-0 and 12-8 margins earlier this spring. Kayla Young, the Bees’ pitcher, kept up with Liverpool counterpart Jenna Wike through three innings, the Warriors putting runners on base in each of those frames but not converting.
Meanwhile, B’ville had its own chance in the top of the third, putting two on with two out, only to see Kaycee Hawk pop out. An inning later, the Warriors took a 1-0 lead when Gina Meyers, who had tripled earlier, singled home Wike, only to have the Bees throw out Ashley Teixeira trying to add a second run.
Still down by a run in the sixth, the Bees pulled even when Allie Hotchkiss tripled, Hawk walked and Young pulled off a perfect squeeze bunt that brought Hotchkiss home. Eventually, B’ville loaded the bases with one out, but Wike, with a strikeout and force play, limited the damage to a single run.
Defense again saved the Bees in the bottom of the seventh when Meyers hit a triple down the right-field line, but in an attempt to go home, realized she wouldn’t make it, turned around – and got picked off.
In the top of the eighth Young doubled with two out and Dunn singled, moving pinch-runner Jenna Kocik to third. Jillian Dunn then hit a hard liner – right at Wike, ending the rally.
With the game still 1-1 in the 10th, the international rule of putting a runner on second base was applied. Kocik was stranded, though, when Hotchkiss lined out and Hawk grounded out.
When Liverpool got its turn in the bottom of the 10th, Giana LaValle moved to third on Alicia Nash’s sacrifice bunt. Olivia Hayden then hit a hard bunt toward third baseman Chloe Branshaw, who hesitated before throwing home long enough to allow LaValle to slide home with the winning run.
After all that, C-NS faced Central Square, and while the Northstars owned a 5-1 win over the Redhawks earned on April 13, the rematch would prove far more stressful.
Central Square took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first as Courtney Horne singled, moved to second base and scored on Erin McCarthy’s hard grounder. Ariana Corasaniti answered the Redhawks’ first-inning tally with an RBI triple in the top of the second that scored Julianna Vassallo.
It stayed 1-1 through three innings as Corasaniti and Central Square pitcher Abby House coolly worked their way out of possible jams.
In the bottom of the fourth, Alyssa Payne doubled and, after a sacrifice bunt, scored on Brianna Mattison’s short fly ball, putting Central Square back in front 2-1. C-NS pulled back even in the sixth when Vassallo doubled to the gap to score Giana Wameling, pinch-running for Gabriella Corasaniti, who reached on an error.
Still tied, 2-2, heading into the top of the seventh, the Northstars would finally seize the lead. Ally Thompson beat out an infield hit, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and, with two outs, raced home when House uncorked a wild pitch and Brandi Feeney’s potential inning-ending grounder to short got mishandled.
Up against the heart of the Redhawks’ order in the bottom of the seventh, Arianna Corasaniti got a superb play from shortstop Victoria Dunn on House’s hard-hit grounder, followed by a pair of fly balls that sealed another C-NS trip to the finals – and another shot at dethroning Liverpool.
C-NS nearly didn’t make it out of the first round, trailing late against no. 10 seed Fayetteville-Manlius before prevailing, 8-5, over a Hornets side it scored 27 runs against in two wins the week before.
Yet with five runs in the first three innings, F-M was up 5-3, forcing C-NS to strike for five runs in the bottom of the fifth to take the lead for good and reward the relief pitching of Gabriella Corasaniti, who threw 4 2/3 shutout innings after replacing Ariana Corasaniti.
Vassallo singled, doubled, tripled and drove in a run, with Dunn adding three hits and an RBI. Brandi Feeney scored twice and Gabriella Corasaniti earned two hits,
Just 24 hours later, C-NS found itself at no. 2 seed Rome Free Academy in the AA quarterfinals, but this game proved more comfortable for the Northstars as it pulled away late to shut out the Black Knights 6-0. Ariana Corasaniti may have pitched her best game of the season, holding RFA to one hit while recording nine strikeouts.
Through three innings, it was 0-0, but C-NS pulled out in front by scoring twice in the top of the fourth. A run in the sixth, and three runs in the seventh, followed as Sam Shallcross doubled, singled and drove in two runs, with Gabriella Corasaniti adding an RBI as Ciafratta and Thompson also drove in runs.
While that was going on, Liverpool hosted no. 8 seed West Genesee in its AA quarterfinal, having won two narrow decisions over the Wildcats in recent weeks. This one was close too, but again the Warriors pulled it out, edging the Wildcats 2-1.
WG pitcher Deanna Shackleton kept Liverpool off the board until the bottom of the third, when it struck for both of its runs, the key blow Wike’s double. Then Wike had to protect that slim lead since Shackleton would blank the Warriors the rest of the way, only allowing five hits.
Still trailing 2-0, WG pulled within one in the top of the fifth as Emily Winton’s single drove home Shackleton. But Wike would keep the Wildcats from tying it up, overcoming six hits to help Liverpool advance to the semifinals where, with B’ville, another drama awaited.
