EAST SYRACUSE – For a lot of people inside and outside the fences at Carrier Park on Friday night, it will feel like old times.
Just as they have done so often over the last four decades or so, Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse will get together on a softball diamond, decide a Section III championship and see who would move on to the state tournament.
Six years have passed since this last took place – 2018, to be precise. While the two sides met in the 2021 sectional Class AA final, the lingering COVID-19 pandemic forced a cancellation of the state tournament for the second year in a row.
This particular match-up may have felt unlikely for much of the spring, given the presence of Baldwinsville with all of its experience gained from back-to-back finals appearances and winning the 2023 sectional title.
But in last Wednesday’s sectional semifinals at Carrier Park, C-NS ended the Bees’ hopes of repeating with an 8-5 victory that echoed what had gone on in the regular season.
Even through its ups and downs, what the Northstars had already proven was that it could beat B’ville, for it did so 3-0 back on April 16 and then rallied to win 3-2 in eight innings at the Gillette Road complex earlier in May.
Here, C-NS got the jump with single runs off Bella Hotchkiss in the first two innings, unfazed by the hour-long weather delay that pushed back the start of the game.
In the top of the third, though, Hotchkiss keyed a five-run Bees outburst with a two-run home run, all of which chased starting pitcher Kiyara Bembry, who had pitched 7 1/3 innings the last time these two sides met.
Taking over in the circle, eighth-grader Mila Owens got C-NS out of the third inning and then, for the rest of the night, proved masterful, limiting a potent Bees lineup to two hits and overcoming five walks with four strikeouts.
Meanwhile, the Northstars regrouped at the plate and, in the bottom of the fourth, answered with a five-run rally of its own, solving Hotchkiss and taking a 7-5 lead which it added to with another run in the sixth.
Of C-NS’s 10 hits, three came from Sydney Rockwell, who singled twice, doubled and drove in a pair of runs. Paige Pangaro also had two RBIs as Sydney Puttkamer got two hits and scored twice, with Aubrey Coyle, Eva Farone and Erica Hibbard also driving in runs.
While all this was going on, Liverpool, the top seed, earned its own trip to the sectional final with a comprehensive effort against no. 4 seed Rome Free Academy that resulted in an 8-0 win over the Black Knights.
Again it started with Mackenzie Frani as the senior pitcher shut down an RFA lineup which had not seen her all season. All that Frani allowed was a single hit to Kendiee Campbell and three walks while putting up 11 strikeouts.
For its part, Liverpool had to stay patient as, for four innings, Black Knights pitcher Madison Safin kept them quiet. But that all changed in the bottom of the fifth.
The Warriors broke out for four runs in that frame and then doubled that 4-0 lead in the sixth. Ava Falvo and Lauren Ragonese both got two hits and scored twice, with Joelle Wike adding a pair of RBIs as Emly Neston and Alivia Henty also drove in runs and Frani pounded out three hits.
