Prior to last weekend, the 2017 edition of the Liverpool baseball team was a special group, but still part of a long string of fine teams this program has produced over the decades.
Now, though, these Warriors stand alone.
By defeating Massapequa 4-1 Saturday at Binghamton’s NYSEG Stadium, Liverpool earned the first-ever state Class AA championship in its history, completing a 23-3 dream season years in the making.
Some of these players have been on teams together since Little League days, and their work went far beyond the spring and summer, even practicing on Liverpool’s football stadium turf during the winter in order to hone their defense.
Then, this spring, the Warriors would impress from the outset, sweeping all four of its games in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in April and going 12-3 in a tough CNY Counties League, with two of the losses to rival Cicero-North Syracuse.
But when the Northstars got knocked out of the Section III Class AA playoffs in the quarterfinals, the path opened up for Liverpool, and it swept past Utica Proctor, Baldwinsville and Rome Free Academy to claim the sectional title.
Tough wins in the state playoffs followed – over Niskayuna in the regional finals and over Kingston in the state semifinals. Each of those times, Jeff Destefano took the starting assignment on the mound and earned the win.
But with a turnaround of less than 24 hours between the semifinal and final, it was Nick Atontello’s turn on the hill for the title game against the Long Island champions from Masspequa, and the right-hander came through in the biggest start of his career.
It was a game where all of the Warriors’ strenghts – clutch hitting, strong pitching and air-tight glove work – was on display. Antonello retired the first Chiefs six batters he faced, helped in no small part by Liverpool claiming a quick 2-0 lead.
Joe Zywicki got it going in the top of the first, reaching on a Massapequa error, and then racing around to score when Jonah Harder, a member of Liverpool’s state final four basketball team that played in Binghamton in March, banged an RBI double.
An inning later, Tom Bianchi and Zach Scannell singled before a wide throw on Zach Pieklik’s grounder allowed Bianchi to score. Then, in the third, Destefano and Jake Evans singled, and Jacob Sisto was hit to load the bases, leading to another run.
Antonello finally allowed a hit in the bottom of the third, but cruised from there, against retiring the Chiefs in order in the fourth. Liverpool then made it 4-0 in the top of the fifth when Evans triple and trotted home on Bianchi’s single.
The defense came through in the bottom of the fifth. Massapequa had broke up the shutout and had a runner on first with one out, but Antonello induced a ground ball that Evans, at shortstop, snared, fired to Pieklik at second base, who turned and threw to Scannell for an inning-ending double play.
Over the course of the last two innings, Antonello never let the Chiefs mount another serious threat. and his third strikeout with two out in the seventh set off a celebration that lasted long after the state championship trophy and medals were handed out.
When the bus carrying the team returned to Liverpool High School, it was accompanied by Liverpool Fire Department trucks providing a hero’s welcome. The journey that started in childhood for these Warriors players had the best ending possible.
