SYRACUSE – Perfect against every other opponent it faced during the 2022 season, the Cicero-North Syracuse baseball team found its undoing at the hands of a single, unlikely foe.
Fayetteville-Manlius, who only went 6-12 in the regular season, gave the 18-2 Northstars both of its previous defeats late in April – and then did it again a month later, with far more on the line.
The no. 5 seed Hornets stunned top seed C-NS 8-5 Thursday night in the Section III Class AA semifinal, going in front in the game’s middle stages as it seemed to take full advantage of every mistake and miscue the Northstars committed.
F-M hadn’t won in 2022 before it met C-NS on April 25. When the Hornets prevailed 5-4 on that day, and then again 11-2 just two days later, it signaled that the Hornets were capable of better things, even if its record didn’t reflect.
So when F-M was able to outlast Utica Proctor in eight innings, 5-4, in the May 24 sectional quarterfinal at Murnane Field, it set up an opportunity for the Northstars to finally get the best of its nemesis with a berth in the finals against West Genesee at stake.
And it looked good when starting pitcher Bryce Zicaro stranded a runner at third in the top of the first inning and then, in the bottom of the first, poked a two-run double to put C-NS in front 2-0.
Right from the outset, though, Zicaro did not resemble the strong, capable left-hander who had won so many big games this spring. F-M got a run off him in the second when Chris Hoalcraft’s seemingly harmless fly ball turned into a double when no one caught it, and Hoalcraft scored on Michael Dutch’s single.
Even after C-NS made it 3-1 in the third, the Hornets kept on pressing and, in the top of the fourth, went ahead for good with a three-run rally started by Hoalcraft’s double, continued when Max Danaher’s fly ball was not caught, and included a bases-loaded walk and error.
It got worse in the top of the fifth, another error leading to two runs brought home when Sam Kuss singled. Zicaro exited and, while Casey Gunnip escaped the threat, the Northstars trailed 6-3.
As it turned out, the bottom of the fifth was crucial. C-NS, with two out, loaded the bases against relief pitcher Colin Mott, who then exited and saw his replacement, Kuss, walk two batters home. But Kuss did get Jake Lukasiewicz to strike out, keeping it at 6-5.
F-M then hit for two more runs in the top of the sixth and watched as Kuss and Seth Albert blanked the Northstars the rest of the way, earning a chance to deny West Genesee (who beat Baldwinsville 2-1 in the other semifinal) its first sectional title since 1977.
And that’s exactly what the Hornets did, scoring in each of the first six innings and, led by Hoalcraft’s five hits (including a two-run home run), beating the Wildcats 13-8 to complete a rise from a sub-.500 regular season to the sectional title – and proving that what it did against C-NS was not a fluke.
