CENTRAL NEW YORK – A full and important week of action for both the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse baseball teams would largely determine where they ended up seeded for the Section III Class AAA playoffs.
Both sides found themselves in a race against the weather last Monday – Liverpool playing at Baldwinsville, C-NS taking on Fayetteville-Manlius. As it turned out, both would see those games end with 3-2 defeat.
The Northstars were able to six innings against the Hornets, who went out in front with a run in the fourth inning and two more in the fifth.
And F-M did this against Kaiden Kalfass, who struck out eight but gave up four walks and three hits. Chris Williams and Ben Watkins scored the Northstars’ runs, Mason Mingle credited with an RBI.
Meanwhile, Liverpool and B’ville were tied, 2-2, when rain halted play in the sixth inning when the Warriors had the go-ahead run on base and had just scored twice in the fifth on Nate Benjamin’s double off Bees pitcher Ben Leaton that scored Anthony Testone and Colin Avery.
When the game resumed, B’ville reliever Jason Oullette got out of the jam, and it stayed even through the sixth and seventh innings, too, Dylan Wiggins pitching effective relief after Benjamin had gone the first five on Monday.
Liverpool was held off the board again in the top of the eighth by Oullette. Then, in the bottom of the eighth, Joey Gennario drew a two-out walk off Wiggins, and when Leaton doubled, pinch-runner Gavin Seeber, running with the pitch, raced all the way home to end it.
C-NS would get its own shot at B’ville on Thursday and, helped by Justin Coyne’s pitching and well-timed rallies, win 6-3 to complete a regular-season sweep, having routed the Bees 14-0 late in April.
Justin Coyne got immediate support when the Northstars scored twice in the bottom of the first, adding two more runs in the third for a 4-0 lead. B’ville cut it to 4-3 in the top of the fifth keyed by Jace Albero’s two-run single, but C-NS answered with a two-run rally of its own in the bottom of the fifth.
Coyne threw a complete game and held the Bees to three hits. Watkins and Shacory Williams both got a pair of RBIs, with Jaden Zimmer scoring twice and Andrew Davis adding two hits.
Then the Northstars won again on Friday against Utica Proctor, saving its best stuff for the latter stages of a 6-3 victory over the Raiders.
An early 1-0 lead disappeared when Proctor tied it in the fourth and scored twice in the fifth off Hunter Corkran. But as Battista Wood took over in relief in the sixth, C-NS regrouped.
Then, in the bottom of the sixth, the Northstars put together a decisive four-run rally. Mason Mingle’s go-ahead two-run single was the key blow, but two more runs followed.
Wood’s two scoreless innings gave him the win as Mingle and Carter King both finished with a pair of hits. Wood, Davis and Kalfass earned one RBI apiece.
Liverpool played two different opponents on Saturday – and lost to both of them to fall to 12-8 overall behind C-NS’s 13-6 mark.
A rematch with B’ville went 9-4 in the Bees’ favor as it built a 6-0 advantage by the third inning before the Warriors even got on the board, chasing Tyler Vivacqua in the second inning as Ryan Densmore went 4 1/3 innings in relief. Jameson Stevens and Anderson Roden joined Vivacqua in the RBI column, though Liverpool was held to five hits.
Then it was Christian Brothers Academy topping Liverpool 9-3, keeping the Warriors off the board until the seventh inning, when Austin Burch singled home two runs and Stevens added an RBI. Wiggins, Benjamin and Zach Zingaro all saw pitching stints as CBA’s Mike Giamartino twice homered and Cooper Marko added a round-tripper.
All this left Liverpool tumbling to the no. 5 seed in the sectional Class AAA tournament – and needing to win a rematch with CBA, the no. 4 seed, on Tuesday in order to advance to Thursday’s semifinal at Falcon Park in Auburn against top seed Baldwinsville.
C-NS, meanwhile, gained the no. 3 seed, meaning it would be home at Gillette Road to face no. 6 seed RFA in its sectional AAA quarterfinal, the winner going to Falcon Park Thursday for a semifinal against Utica Proctor or Syracuse City.
