EAST SYRACUSE – Everyone who wins a championship in any sport at any level is quick to point out how hard they worked and how much they sacrificed to make it all possible.
And few people ever illustrated this better than the Liverpool softball team during the course of beating rival Cicero-North Syracuse 8-7 Friday at Carrier Park to earn the Section III Class AAA championship.
Four times, the Warriors trailed in this game. Every time it came back, and then held on thanks to the tremendous pitching of senior Mackenzie Frani in the last two innings with her side clinging to a one-run lead.
Frani said the struggles of this game “makes the win that much more memorable and satisfying” and her senior catcher, Joelle Wike, agreed.
“I couldn’t be more proud of this team and the way everyone did our job,” said Wike.
In fact, it took the entire Liverpool lineup to rescue the game, since C-NS proved far tougher than the side the Warriors beat by 5-1 and 8-0 margins back in April.
Each of the first two innings had the Northstars grab the lead, 1-0 in the first and then 4-2 in the second as it took full advantage of Frani’s struggles finding the strike zone along with a couple of fielding mistakes.
The Warriors answered in the first with two runs off C-NS starter Mila Owens and then added three runs in the second, two of them driven home by hits from Maya Mills and Ava Falvo.
This back-and-forth struggle continued in the fourth, the Northstars’ Aubrey Coyle adding a go-ahead two-run single to the RBI single and bases-loaded walk she had earlier in the game to run her total to four RBIs, the Warriors loading the bases and tying it 6-6 on Wike’s sacrifice fly.
Then came the fifth, which would prove decisive. A fourth C-NS rally created a fourth C-NS lead as Peyton Bach doubled and Erica Hibbard’s single drove her home.
Down 7-6, in the bottom of the fifth Katia Flavin sparked the latest Warriors comeback, reaching on an error and then sprinting to second and third. Kiyara Bembry relieved Owens, but Lauren Ragonese doubled to the wall to tie it 7-7 and Mills, grounding out, brought home the go-ahead run.
Frani was charged to do the rest. She said that, through the early innings, she reminded herself that playoff games are never easy to win.
“Every pitcher goes through some adversity,” she said. “Once you get past it, you can really buckle down.”
Wike said that Frani kept a positive attitude, and the chemistry from playing softball together since age 8 helped them save their best work for the homestretch.
Against the 2-3-4 hitters in the C-NS order in the sixth, Frani coaxed three groundouts. Then, in the seventh, Frani struck out the side, fanning pinch-hitter Mia Farone, doing the same with Bach and then getting strike three from Owens for her 11th strikeout to end it.
Now Liverpool gets a full week to rest, savor its accomplishment, and get ready for a Class AAA regional final next Saturday at 5 p.m. at Malta against Section II champion Saratoga Springs, with a berth in the June 7-8 state final four at stake.
