ONONDAGA COUNTY – Another exciting week of area high school baseball saw Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse get involved in tight games, with differing results.
Liverpool was able to upend defending sectional Class AA champion Fayetteville-Manlius 7-6 last Monday in the first of two games with the Hornets.
Tyler Vivacqua, who pitched four innings before Aidan Bincoe and Anthony Testone worked in relief, led the attack, going three-for-four with two doubles and three RBIs to help build an early 6-1 advantage. Chris Baker and Alex Evans also drove in runs as Baker, Mike Henderson and Austin Burch had two hits apiece.
Despite all this, F-M, down 6-1, tied it with four runs in the fourth and another run in the sixth. But in the bottom of the seventh, Jack Hoppe reached on an error, moved to second and then took advantage of a pair of Sam Kuss wild pitches to dash home with the winning run.
A day later, Liverpool lost the rematch with F-M 4-3, a game where it led 3-1 but saw the Hornets rally with three runs in the bottom of the sixth to pull it out.
Prior to that inning, Nate Benjamin had pitched quite well, but Liverpool managed just three total hits, one each by Vivacqua, Baker and Hoppe. Benjamin and Gianni Toscano scored runs.
Hoppe would prove the central figure on Thursday as Liverpool went to Baldwinsville and, with an impressive 4-0 victory, avenge two earlier defeats to the Bees.
Only allowing one hit (to Aiden Milburn) and three walks, Hoppe was dominant on the mound, striking out seven and protecting a lead built by single runs in the first and second innings off Milburn.
Then two runs in the seventh clinched it, Vivacqua credited with a pair of RBIs as Evans and Chaz Anthony also drove in runs.
C-NS, meanwhile, had a series with West Genesee, the first game of which was a 3-2, eight-inning defeat at the Gillette Road complex.
WG got to Northstars ace Bryce Zicaro for a first-inning run, but was shut out for the rest of regulation. Meanwhile, Landyn Shaw put together his own shutout until the Northstars poked across a run in the fifth.
But the Wildcats kept it 1-1 until the top of the eighth, when Ryan Saroney’s bases-loaded single off reliever Lucas Thelen brought home two runs.
That cushion was needed since Andrew Davis drove home Carter King in the bottom of the eighth, but WG reliever was able to record the final out. Andrew Davis, Carter King and Shacory Williams had two hits apiece, with Davis earning an RBI.
When these teams met a day later, C-NS lost again, 6-1, its only run coming in the top of the first when Lucas Crystal singled and scored.
Battista Wood pitched and maintained that 1-0 led until the bottom of the fifth, when WG struck for four decisive runs, adding two in the sixth off reliever Justin Coyne as Jason Clifton and Vince Fireneze each had a pair of RBIs.
It took until Friday for C-NS to return to the win column, and even that was stressful as the Northstars edged Rome Free Academy 4-3 at NBT Bank Stadium as part of the ALS Classic.
Three first-inning runs did not hold up, the Black Knights scoring twice in the fourth and once in the fifth, then keeping it 3-3 until the bottom of the seventh, when C-NS pushed across the winning run.
King, Hayden Staab, Lucas Crystal and Mason Mingle each drove in runs, while Zicaro pitched 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief after Casey Gunnip got the start. The Northstars improved to 6-4 overall.
