Liverpool baseball gets pair of wins over C-NS

By PHil BlACKWEll

Over the last two weeks of the regular season, the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse baseball teams, already quite familiar with one another, would square off three times.

In the first of these games last Monday afternoon, Liverpool combined timely hitting with solid, consistent pitching to produce a 5-3 victory over the Northstars.

C-NS got in front 1-0 in the top of the second inning, only to have Liverpool counter with a decisive three-run rally in the bottom of the third off pitcher Battista Wood.

Single runs in the fifth and sixth innings followed against relievers Lucas Thelen and Justin Coyne, which provided Liverpool with its winning margin as the Northstars, trailing 5-1, scored twice in the top of the seventh before Aidan Blincoe got the final out.

Tyler Vivacqua pitched 6 1/3 innings, strik- ing out seven and limiting the Northstars to four hits. At the plate, Liverpool got a home run from Jack Hoppe as Anthony Testone and Alex Evans had two hits apiece, Evans joining Chris Baker and Nate Benjamin in the RBI column. Jaden Zimmer and Hayden Staab scored runs for the Northstars.

They met again 24 hours later at the Gillette Road complex, but though the venue changed, the result did not, Liverpool again getting the best of C-NS, this one in a tense 2-1 battle. A pitching duel between Benjamin and Northstars ace Bryce Zicaro unfolded, Liverpool getting a run off Zicaro in the top of the second, the Northstars answering an inning later as Staab scored on Shacory Willams’ single. Quickly, Liverpool broke the 1-1 tie in the top of the fourth, having seen Chaz Anthony and Gianni Toscano drive in the runs that, thanks to strong pitching from Benjamin, proved enough.

Both pitchers threw complete games

L’pool boys lax battles past c-NS, 11-10

By PHil BlACKWEll

All indications going into last Tuesday’s game at Bragman Stadium was that the Liverpool boys lacrosse team had a major advantage over its rivals from Cicero-North Syracuse

Since Mason Ciciarelli was lost for the season with a torn ACL, the Northstars had not won, and now it was facing an LHS side that beat them 12-10 in April even when Ciciarelli was there, getting two goals and an assist.

Again, though, the neighborhood rivalry proved close – all the way to the final horn, in fact, as Liverpool had to hang on to turn back C-NS 11-10.

Here, no one on Liverpool’s defense could contain Northstars forward Ian Leahey, who led both sides with six goals, more than half his team’s output.

Helped by Elijah Martin’s two goals and two assists, plus two goals from Donovan Chaney, C-NS offered a direct challenge, with Leyton Sullivan stopping 17 of the 28 shots he faced.

Still, Liverpool pulled through anchored by Joe Sacco’s two goals and four assists. Often, his passes went to Dom Osbeck, who scored four more times.

Brady Michaud and Aaron Clouthier also had two-goal outings, while Owen Michaud tacked on a goal and each of Owen Salanger’s 11 saves proved important.

Another game for Liverpool on Thursday brought another close result – only this time it was on the wrong side of it as it fell 5-4 to FayettevilleManlius at LHS Stadium.

This same F-M side which had netted 14 goals in a win over West Genesee earlier in the week was contained most of the way and shut out in the fourth quarter.

A lot of this was a tribute to the work of Salanger, who piled up 21 saves, but watched as his teammates were blanked in the third quarter, the Hornets scoring twice to break out of a 3-3 tie.

In fact, only Clouthier, with three goals, and Sacco, with one goal, found the net for the hosts, with assists credited to Osbeck and Owen Michaud.

Liverpool’s regular-season would conclude Tuesday against Jamesville-DeWitt, a day before C-NS hosts West Genesee.

c-NS track teams earn sweep of Liverpool, F-M

By PHil BlACKWEll

Leaving little question as to who stood on top of the SCAC Metro division, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls track and field team earned a clean sweep of last Wednesday’s showdown with Liverpool and Fayetteville-Manlius at Bragman Stadium.

But the boys Northstars won all sides of it, too, taking out Liverpool 95-46 and F-M 102-39 as, on the girls side, it was C-NS defeating Liverpool 9249 and handling F-M 105-33.

Taking both of the boys sprints, C-NS’s Jayceon McGrew beat Davine Bennette, 11.22 seconds to 11.32, in the 100-meter dash while going 23.14 to top Jordan Ballard (23.78) in the 200-meter dash.

Dan Henry got first in the 400-meter dash in 53.45 seconds as James McConnell (54.02) was runner-up, with Camron Ingram speeding to 14.93 in the 110 high hurdles and Ballard first in the 400 hurdles in 1:01.40, with Andrew Potter (1:04.16) in second place.

In the 1,600-meter run, Dante Melfi, in 4:31.14, pulled away from Liverpool’s Michael Purvis (4:37.61) as Joshua Vang was second in the 3,200-meter run in 10:23.28 to F-M’s James Ditre (10:20.18) and Austin Ziegler was second in the 800-meter run in 2:07.33, edging Roman Murray’s 2:07.87.

and only allowed five hits. Zicaro had seven strikeouts more than twice Benjamin’s total of three, but the Liverpool hurler only surrendereed one walk and got consistent defense behind him.

Once this ended, C-NS turned elsewhere and, trailing again Thursday against Fayetteville-Manlius, made quite a late comeback to edge the Hornets 3-2.

It took a run in the fifth inning and two runs in the bottom of the seventh to erase a 2-0 lead F-M built in the first two innings and reward Casey Gunnip for his completegame effort as he held F-M to six hits. Crystal, Zicaro and Andrew Davis drove in those late runs, C-NS only managing just four hits against three different Hornets pitchers, with MasonMingle, Lucas Thelen and Kyle Gancarz crossing the plate.

In Friday’s action, Liverpool lost, 8-3, to Elmira, from Section IV. A two-run second inning and four-run rally in the fourth put the Express in control as Hoppe took the loss. Benjamin and Lucas Crawford both drove in runs.

This was a prelude to a big Saturday doubleheader against Christian Brothers Academy, who started the season 10-0 before defeats early last week against West Genesee and Cazenovia. Liverpool then gave the Brothers its third defeat in the opener, winning 9-3 largely on the basis of a six-run fourth inning that broke open a 0-0 game. Adding three more runs in the sixth, Liverpool saw Vivacqua not only pitch 6 1/3 innings for the win, but drive in a pair of runs as he and Evans both scored twice. Hoppe piled up three hits.

CBA would salvage a split by taking the second game 20-5. a power surge that included home runs by Zach Mulhern and Jack Landau as Vivacqua went deep for Liverpool and got two RBIs, with James Tearney and Mike Henderson also driving in runs.