No matter that it had snowed mere minutes before the first pitch – the Liverpool softball team was about to see its first local action of the 2018 season.
And it turned into quite a battle, the Warriors having to make two different comebacks against visiting Baldwinsville and then withstanding a pair of rallies from the Bees before pulling out a 6-5 victory.
Even with the 3-1 record it notched at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in and around Easter weekend, Liverpool still had plenty to work on, which proved difficult as bad weather lingered into the first week of April.
And while the temperatures took time to rise, enough sunshine dried the fields so that games could happen – and B’ville, who had won two of three games in its most pre-season tournament in Pigeon Forge, Tenneseee, proved quite a tough test.
A first-inning run got B’ville in front, but Liverpool tied it in the bottom of the third. Then the Bees got to Warriors pitcher Jenna Wike for a pair of runs in the top of the fourth.
Up 3-1, B’ville didn’t see that lead last, Liverpool using a run in the third and two more in the fourth to go in front 4-3. An exchange followed, the Bees tying it 4-4 in the top of the sixth, the Warriors again grabbing the lead with a tally in the bottom of the sixth.
When B’ville cleanup hitter Kayla Young smashed a solo home run to lead off of the seventh, it was 5-5. Yet the Warriors absorbed this blow and, in the bottom of the seventh, won it with three hits – Alicia Nash’s single, Ashley Teixeira’s double and, after a walk to Gina Meyers, a single by Sophia Harris that scored Nash.
Delanie Alberici paced Liverpool with three hits and scored twice. Harris already had an RBI before her game-winning single as Wike, Meyers and Alberici drove in one run apiece.
Young, who split pitching duties with Brittany Cole, finished with three of B’ville’s 10 hits. Claire McAllister doubled, singled twice and drove in two runs as Kaycee Hawk added a double and RBI.
A day later, the defending sectional Class AA champions from Cicero-North Syracuse debuted, and it proved just as exciting as the Northstars won a 3-2 decision over Oneida at the Gillette Road complex.
Timely hits made the difference for the Northstars, who were trailing the Indians1-0 in the bottom of the third inning when Brandi Feeney stepped up to the plate and, with Victoria Dunn on base, belted one over the fence for a two-run home run.
Though Oneida tied it, 2-2, in the fourth, C-NS pitcher Ariana Corasaniti blanked the Indians the rest of the way, overcoming seven hits and four walks by striking out five and constantly escaping trouble.
Still, it took Corasaniti’s RBI single in the bottom of the sixth to decide it as McKenzie White scored the winning run. Overall, Corasaniti had three of C-NS’s six hits to go with her pitching effort.
Liverpool returned to action Friday at Auburn and beat the Maroons 12-4, scoring twice in each of the first two innings and using a five-run fourth inning to break the game open, adding three runs in the sixth.
Teixeira tripled as she and LaValle both earned three RBIs. Wike, w ho pitched six innings and struck out eight, scored three runs as she and Alberici both notched a pair of hits and OliviaHayden scored twice.
