Both with her left arm and with her bat, Jenna Wike was not going to allow the Liverpool softball team to suffer defeat at the hands of its rivals from Cicero-North Syracuse again.
From pitching all 10 innings to driving home the game-winning run, Wike helped carry the Warriors as it beat the Northstars in a 4-3 classic on Wednesday afternoon.
The last two times Liverpool had faced C-NS, it had lost, both in the 2017 Section III Class AA final and in a 5-1 decision at the Gillette Road complex on April 23.
A mere nine days since their last encounter, the Warriors and Northstars would wage another great battle, full of defensive gems from both sides that thwarted mulitple rallies.
But it ultimately came down to Wike overcoming her plate nemeis, Brandi Feeney, who had nearly carried C-NS to another victory with two big swings.
Liverpool was up 1-0 in the top of the fourth inning, having taken the lead in the second when Gina Meyers’ sinking line drive was not caught in left field, allowing Meyers to circle the bases.
In the fourth, Feeney got her turn, sending a Wike on a high arc that just cleared the left-field fence to tie it, 1-1. Then, in the top of the sixth, Feeney followed an Ally Thompson single by working the count full and then crushing a pitch well over the center-field wall for her second home run of the day.
Battling right back, Liverpool chased C-NS starter Ari Corasaniti in the bottom of the sixth. Wike’s single followed a Delanie Alberici walk, and after Ashley Teixeira’s sacrifice fly, Alicia Nash delivered a two-out, game-tying RBI double off reliever Lindsey Richards.
They would stay 3-3 through the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, Wike constantly putting runners on base, but continually stifling the Northstars’ batters when needed. And she did so again in the 10th, even with the international rule of putting a runner on second.
Then, with two out in the bottom of the 10th and Lourdes Soto on third base following Alberici’s sacrifice bunt, Wike drilled the first pitch from Richards into right field for a single to end it.
With the first two regular-season games between Liverpool and C-NS split, a third encounter will take place May 14 at Gillette.
