ONONDAGA COUNTY – What the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool baseball teams shared during last week’s action was the challenge of trying to knock off undefeated opposition within the SCAC Metro division.
And both managed to pull it off last Thursday afternoon, C-NS doing so by rallying to beat Baldwinsville 4-2 and Liverpool upending West Genesee 6-1.
At the Gillette Road complex, C-NS fell behind 2-0 in the top of the first inning, but then pitcher Battista Wood blanked B’ville the rest of the way, only allowing five hits.
Single runs in the first and third tied it and the Northstars scored twice in the bottom of the fourth off Aiden Milburn to go in front. Joe Seliger and Shacory Williams led with two hits apiece as Hayden Staab scored twice and RBIs went to Carter King and Sean Lawler.
Liverpool was also at home, and against a 4-0 West Genesee side that had only allowed four runs all season it picked up eight hits, three of them by Tyler Vivacqua, who doubled and drove in two runs. Austin Burch also had two RBIs.
Jack Hoppe pitched quite well, going 5 1/3 innings and amassing 11 strikeouts while only allowing two hits before Anthony Testone took over in relief.
Before all this, Liverpool met B’ville twice early in the week, and in last Monday’s game made two different comebacks, only to fall just short in a 6-5 defeat.
Liverpool scored twice in the top of the first, only to have B’ville get a run in the bottom of the first and three runs in the fourth to seize a 4-2 advantage.
Now they went back and forth, Liverpool rallying to tie it 4-4 in the fourth and doing so again with two runs in the sixth after the Bees grabbed a 6-4 lead in the fifth.
Only in the bottom of the seventh did B’ville go in front for good, loading the bases before freshman Nate Georger singled home the winning run.
Alex Evans had two of Liverpool’s four hits, earning a single, double and two RBIs. Chaz Anthony also drove in a run as the Bees’ Braden Seeber got a home run, double and four RBIs.
When these same two sides met again at OCC a day later, Liverpool put up even more runs, yet could not overcome a rough start as it lost, 12-9, to B’ville.
A six-run third inning keyed the Bees’ early charge, but Liverpool chipped away at that large deficit thanks to four B’ville errors along with run along with two hits apiece from Vivacqua and Nate Benjamin, who also pitched two innings and took the loss, Burch giving up ust one hit in his four-inning stint.
C-NS had started its week with a setback against undefeated Christian Brothers Academy, whose pitching kept the Northstars quiet in a 6-1 defeat.
Bryce Zicaro gave up three runs in the bottom of the first. CBA added two runs in the third and a run in the fifth as Mike Giamartino had a home run, triple and four RBIs.
Meanwhile, C-NS managed only five hits off starter Luke Boule and reliever Casey Vaughn, two of them by King as Staab scored the Northstars’ lone run in the top of the fifth.
But after defeating B’ville, the Northstars had gained plenty of confidence, which carried over into Saturday’s game, when it went to Section IV’s Ithaca and rolled past the Little Red 11-1.
A four-run third inning got C-NS in front, and it added four runs in the fifth plus three runs in the sixth, led by Andrew Davis, who went three-for-four, scored twice and got a pair of RBIs.
Staab’s triple and single helped drive in three runs. Brayden Shannon also got two RBIs, with single runs driven home by Williams, Crystal, Wood and Seliger/ Casey Gunnip pitched five innings, struck out six and held Ithaca to three hits.
