CENTRAL NEW YORK – Even 10 months later, the memory of the Liverpool softball team’s epic comeback and extra-inning victory over Baldwinsville in the 2022 Section III Class AA championship game remained fresh for all the participants on both sides.

So the first meeting between these two rivals since that sectional final was bound to be important – and it was the Bees getting the best of it, paced by solid pitching and a decisive fifth-inning rally as it prevailed 5-2.

What happened in the first inning proved crucial. Liverpool’s Ava Falvo tripled with one out and Cassie Wiggins singled her home, but B’ville pitcher Bella Hotchkiss didn’t allow anything more – and would proceed to retire 17 straight batters.

Maddy Gulich tied it 1-1 by singling home Jenna Martin and, an inning later, the Bees went in front for good by loading the bases with one out and Martin’s single scoring Brianne Dzuba.

Wiggins constantly escaped trouble to keep the game 2-1 until the bottom of the fifth, when, with two on, Leah VerSchneider tripled to the wall in right, scoring both runs. Another run came home on Hannah Caughey’s grounder.

It stayed 5-1 until the top of the seventh. Liverpool, trying to pull off another unlikely late-game comeback, got three singles, including a run-scoring hit from Lily Stevens, to get the tying run to the plate.

But Hotchkiss, who finished with nine strikeouts, coaxed Emily Nestor to pop out and end the game, the two sides set to meet again May 16 at Liverpool.

Cicero-North Syracuse, who lost to B’ville on April 20, began a busy week of action by overcoming an early deficit last Monday to beat West Genesee 8-4.

It took three runs in the bottom of the third to erase the Wildcats’ 3-1 advantage, with two more runs following in the fourth and fifth as the Northstars finished with 11 hits.

Eva Farone, Mia Farone and Tahlia Gerardi led with two hits apiece, while Sydney Rockwell drove in a pair of runs. Sydney Puttkamer, Bella Julian and Isabella Moya had one RBI apiece as Lilian Hotaling earned the win, pitching 5 1/3 innings before Payton Bach took over in relief.

Liverpool had its own game against West Genesee a day later and prevailed 4-1, Wiggins only allowing four hits, one of them a solo home run by Alanna Bowman.

Still, with single runs in four of the first five innings, Liverpool never trailed, Maya Mills and Lily Stevens getting two hits apiece as Wiggins drove in a pair of runs and RBIs also went to Joelle Wike and Katia Flavin.

Then C-NS took on Auburn a day later, and it prove an exciting one, with the Northstars making a late-game comeback to pull out a 6-5 victory over the Maroons.

Having scored three times in the first inning, the Northstars watched Auburn tie it, 3-3, by the third, and add single runs in the fifth and sixth.

But it was C-NS using three runs in the bottom of the sixth to erase that 5-3 deficit and then saw Bach, relieving Hotaling, get the final three outs. Puttkamer was credited with an RBI as Eva Farone scored twice.

Another close game, on Thursday against Fayetteville-Manlius, went 4-2 in the Northstars’ favor when it broke a 1-1 tie with three runs in the bottom of the sixth, which the Hornets could not quite answer.

Hotaling pitched a complete game, helped by two hits apiece from Puttkamer and Erica Hibbard as that pair, along with Moya and Eva Farone, had one RBI apiece.

All of this might have taken a toll as reflected by C-NS falling 5-3 to Camden on Friday, the Blue Devils scoring twice in the bottom of the sixth to break out of a 3-3 tie, led by Avery Prevo’s three RBIs. Moya and Eva Farone had RBIs as Girardi was the only Northstars batter with two hits.