ONONDAGA COUNTY – Humbled by its April 27 defeat to Baldwinsville and rested after rains wiped out a possible game with Shenendehowa two days later, the Liverpool softball team made sure its other main rival didn’t match what the Bees did.
The first of two regular-season showdowns between Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse last Tuesday would go 5-1 in favor of the reigning sectional champions.
Cassie Wiggins recovered well from her B’ville showing, pitching a complete game. She held C-NS to five hits and one walk while recording five strikeouts.
At the plate, Liverpool was anchored by Maya Mills and Mackenzie Frani, who each delivered three hits as Mills and Alivia Horton both scored a pair of runs.
Lauren Ragonese and Lily Stevens joined Frani in the RBI column as, for C-NS, Lillian Hotaling pitched 4 2/3 innings and Payton Bach worked in relief. Aubrey Coyle drove in the Northstars’ lone run as she and Sydney Rockwell had two hits apiece.
When Liverpool hosted Fayetteville-Manlius two days later, it proved a showcase for Frani in the pitcher’s circle as it prevailed 8-1 over the Hornets.
All game long, Frani frustrated the F-M hitters, setting a career mark with 15 strikeouts against five hits and two walks, the lone Hornets run coming in the fifth inning.
By then, Liverpool led 6-0 thanks to a big bottom of the third where it got to F-M pitcher Natlaie Mayne. Two runs in the fifth followed as Mills and Ava Falvo both had two hits and two RBIs, while Wiggins and Ragonese also drove in runs and Mills scored twice.
Now, on Saturday at the Gillette Road complex, Liverpool faced Section IV’s Maine-Endwell, and was able to pull out a tense 1-0 victory over the Spartans, who on this same day would blank Baldwinsville 9-0.
Wiggins pitched again and kept the game 0-0 until the top of the fifth, when Liverpool nabbed its lone run when Katia Flavin reached base and raced home on Gracie Zankowski’s single. Making it hold up, Wiggins limited M-E to two hits and struck out nine.
Then, against Section II’s Saratoga Springs, Liverpool prevailed 4-3 improving its overall record to 11-2.
A three-run first inning nearly held up the rest of the way, but Liverpool still needed a run in the sixth as, down 4-2, Saratoga put up a run in the top of the seventh, but Frani got the final out. Ragonese and Mills each got two hits as Flavin, Wiggins and Stevens all drove in runs.
C-NS, meanwhile, was contained Friday in a 6-0 defeat to Chittenango, victimized mostly by the bat of Stephanie Huckabee, whose home run and double led to five RBIs.
The Northstars only got four hits off Bears pitcher Caroline Porter, one each by Bella Julian, Isabella Moya, Erica Hibbard and Tahlia Gerardi.
A day later at Gillette, facing Saratoga, C-NS lost, 9-5, to the Blue Streaks, shut out until it scored all of its runs in the seventh inning. Girardi and Hibbard had two hits apiece as the Northstars also fell to Shenendehowa 15-3 despite Eva Farone’s pair of hits.
