As the top of seventh inning of Saturday night’s Class AA regional final at Onondaga Community College unfolded, Liverpool baseball coach Fred Terzini said he was having a flashback.
Five previous times, Terzini’s teams had won Section III titles, only to get stopped in the regional round, none more painful than 2006, when the Warriors were one strike away from beating Colonie, only to surrender that lead and ultimately take a 10-inning defeat.
Now Liverpool was seeing a four-run lead against Niskayuna cut in half, and the visiting Section II champions had the bases loaded with two out, threatening to rip away the Warriors’ dream of reaching the state final four just like Colonie had done a decade earlier.
But then Nick Antonello struck out Liam Davison, and Liverpool sealed a 5-3 victory, plus its first regional title in 25 years.
“It means a lot, and these guys deserve it,” said Terzini. “We ask them to do a lot, and they answer every single time.”
Just as in the sectional final against Rome Free Academy, Nick Destefano pitched six strong innings and contributed at the plate, too, before having to leave the mound and watch it nearly get away.
“It was insane watching from the dugout,” said Destefano. “But I knew Nick would come through.”
Even though Liverpool had met with frustration in previous regional trips, at least it got that far. Niskayuna, prior to 2017, had never even won a Section II title, and the pressure appeared to get to Silver Warriors starting pitcher Nick Insognia.
Jonah Harder and Jake Evans each drew walks off Insognia in the bottom of the first, and Jake Sisto brought home Harder with an RBI single.
Niskayuna tied it on Angelo Spataro’s single and Jimmy Joyce’s double in the top of the second, but that 1-1 draw would not last long.
Insognia hit both Zach Scannell and Antontello with one out in the bottom of the second. No. 9 batter Zach Pieklik drilled a go-ahead RBI single and Joe Zywicki walked to load the bases.
Harder stretched the Warriors’ lead to 3-1 with a sacrifice fly that scored Antonello, and Destefano nearly took it out with a ground-rule double to left field, which forced Niskayuna to replace Insognia with left-hander Alec Ritzenhaler.
Evans greeted Ritzenhaler with a run-scoring single to make it 5-1, but from there, and over the next four innings, Ritzenhaler kept Liverpool off the board, leaving it up to Destefano to protect that lead.
Gaining strength as the night went on, Destefano finished with nine strikeouts. He said that he had all of his pitches – fastball, curveball, strikeout – working in a way that it wasn’t against RFA.
Niskayuna still trailed, 5-1, but stretched Destefano past the 100-pitch count when Jake Phillips walked and Conor Graham singled to lead off the seventh.
Taking no chances, Liverpool brought in Antonello to pitch, and he got Matt Toy to pop out on his first delivery. But Insognia walked to load the bases and then Antonello hit Ben Funyak, bringing in a run.
“I like to make it interesting,” said Antonello.
And it got more interesting when, after Spataro struck out, Antonello got two strikes on Joyce before walking him, cutting Liverpool’s lead to two. Now any hit by Davison could tie the game or even put Niskayuna in front, but Antonello’s two-strike curveball eluded Davison’s bat to end it.
So it’s on to the state final four, where on Friday at 3 p.m. the Warriors face Section IX champion Kingston at Maine-Endwell High School. The winner goes to the state final Saturday at 10 a.m. at Binghamton’s NYSEG Stadium against Rochester McQuaid (Section V) or Massapequa (Section VIII).
Terzini said his team’s vast skills set gives it a great chance at a state title. “We have guys that can throw, we can defend extremely well and we can swing the bats,” he said.
