Cicero-North Syracuse dug itself into a four-run hole heading into the bottom of the fifth inning of Tuesday's Salt City Athletic Conference baseball matchup with Baldwinsville.
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The Northstars climbed back into the game with eight runs over the final two innings to take a 12-8 victory over the Bees.
"It was a good win for us and the kids really battled and never gave up and they played good team baseball tonight," C-NS coach Kevin Rockwell said. "I was really happy with our club tonight because we got down and didn't quit."
The Northstars pitching unit struggled to start the game but junior reliever Hunter Corkran pitched two shutout innings to close out the game for his team. He didn't allow a hit and he struck out three batters.
Rockwell said Tuesday's game was a microcosm of his team's overall season. He credits his player's ability to overcome adversity.
"We tell them it's a game of failure and successful teams work through that failure," Rockwell said. "We've really struggled to work through a lot of failure this year. And the kids have stayed with us and they battled."
Junior Mason Mingle led C-NS with two singles, three RBIs and a stolen base. Junior Carter King had a single, three RBIs and a stolen base. Senior Sean Lawler finished with a double, a single ana a stolen base.
Senior Reid Rachwal hit two doubles and a single for Baldwinsville, and junior Logan McIntyre and freshman Gavin Seeber each had a pair of singles.
The Northstars trio of pitchers — senior Casey Gunnip, junior Justin Coyne and Corkran — combined for seven strikeouts, while allowing 11 hits and eight earned runs.
Baldwinsville's pitchers — seniors Gavin Miller and Colin Ray, and sophomore Joey Warner — struck out five batters and walked 10.
The Northstars have now beaten the Bees in all three games they have played this season. C-NS won 4-2 on April 20 and 6-0 on Monday.
C-NS (9-8) closes its regular season with a matchup against Liverpool at 4:30 p.m. Thursday and another against West Genesee at 4:30 p.m. Friday.
"West Genesee beat us twice already and Liverpool beat us twice already," Rockwell said. "In our league, anybody can beat anybody on a given night, and we were just on the wrong side of a lot of those games and fortunately for us with Baldwinsville, we were on the right side of it."
