ONONDAGA COUNTY – Not until early this week did the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse baseball teams finally get to meet one another, doing so in a turbulent moment in the season for both sides.
C-NS was 6-4 in the first half of the season, and was poised to win again last Tuesday at Fayetteville-Manlius before a late comeback by the Hornets handed the Northstars a 7-6 defeat.
Even though an early 2-0 lead got away, C-NS appeared to recover all of it when, in the top of the fifth inning, it scored three runs and took a 6-4 advantage.
But the Northstars were blanked late, watching as F-M put across a run in the fifth and then, in the bottom of the seventh, got the tying and winning runs off Bryce Zicaro, who had relieved Battista Wood.
Andrew Davis led C-NS at the plate, going three-for-four and scoring a pair of runs. Hayden Staab singled, walked twice and drove in two runs, with RBIs also going to Zicaro and Chris Williams. F-M’s Seth Albert drove in a pair of runs and pitched well in relief of Dan Swift.
When Liverpool took its turn against F-M two days later, it wasn’t decided until the bottom of the seventh inning when, with one out, the hosts got the winning run on a wild pitch in a 4-3 victory.
They were tied, 3-3, going to the bottom of the seventh. Chaz Anthony singled, then went to second on Anthony Testone’s bunt attempt when the throw was not in time.
Nate Benjamin’s successful sacrifice bunt moved Anthony to third, and when F-M pitcher Max Danaher threw wildly to Tyler Vivacqua, Anthony dashed home to win it.
Overall, Anthony singled, walked and scored twice in support of pitcher Jack Hoppe, who went 5 2/3 innings and limited the Hornets to three hits. Aidan Bincoe pitched in relief as Alex Evans was credited with an RBI and runs were scored by Nate Benjamin and Anthony Testone.
On Saturday afternoon, C-NS took another turn against F-M at the Gillette Road complex and, again, lost to the Hornets, this time by a score of 3-1.
They traded third-inning runs, Lucas Crystal driving home Williams for the Northstars, but the Hornets got in front by scoring twice in the top of the fifth off Casey Gunnip.
Throwing a complete game, Gunnip limited F-M to four hits, yet the visitors held on helped by three shutout innings of relief by Albert and Sam Kuss after Max Werde got the start. The Northstars were held to three hits, two of them by Crystal, the other by Jaden Zimmer.
