Cicero-North Syracuse baseball's blazing hot start to the season was put on pause thanks to a weeklong break prior to Monday's clash with Baldwinsville.
The Northstars entered the contest with a perfect 4-0 record. The only team they trailed in Class AAA was a 5-0 Bees squad.
It was a shaky start for C-NS, but the Northstars managed to shake off some early rust to nab a 5-3 victory in the battle of unbeatens.
"Going into this game we knew Baldwinsville was undefeated on the season and playing a really good style of baseball," C-NS coach Stephan Bailey said. "We knew we were going to have to bring it."
Baldwinsville's perfect record through five games was its best start since 2019. The Bees were rolling behind one of the most prolific defenses in Section III.
Baldwinsville got off to a hot start against C-NS. In the first inning, the Bees got multiple runners on base due to some early walks from Northstars ace Kaden Kalfass. Baldwinsville junior Tyler Hawthorne drew an errant throw when stealing third base and capitalized on that to secure a 1-0 lead.
Bees starting pitcher Ben Leaton kept the Northstars' bats at bay early on. The senior shut down C-NS his first time through the lineup.
The Northstars started to find their flow in the third inning. Hits from Chris Williams and Jaden Zimmer put runners in scoring position. C-NS junior Carter Petranchuk knocked in one of those runners with a single, and a combination of errors and passed balls put the Northstars up by two runs.
"Not to say these guys didn't work their tails off, and they did, but when you're not competing against somebody with a different color jersey, we do lose focus a little bit," Bailey said. "But I give them credit. We were behind early and battled back."
The squads traded rallies over the next couple of innings, with C-NS taking a 5-3 lead in the fifth.
Landon Cook replaced Kalfass as the Northstars' hurler for the final three innings. The senior started off solid and managed to improve as he faced more batters. Cook struck out the side in the seventh to seal the game for C-NS.
"I felt confident," Cook said. "Not just because I had my stuff working, but because I had guys behind me that would make every play."
Kalfass fanned eight batters while giving up just one hit for the Northstars. Cook's outing was just as impressive with five strikeouts and no runs allowed.
C-NS's offense was propelled by another stellar outing from shortstop Jaden Zimmer. The junior walked in his first at-bat and singled in his other two. Zimmer bumped his season batting average up to .600 thanks to the multi-hit performance.
"I'm just trying not to do too much at the plate and do my job all the time," Zimmer said.
The win was C-NS's tenth-straight victory over Baldwinsville. The Northstars' last loss to the Bees was in 2021.
C-NS and Baldwinsville don't have to wait long before another clash. The Bees have the chance to even up the season series against the Northstars in Baldwinsville on Tuesday.
"We're a veteran squad that has a lot of pieces back this year and we're still figuring it out," Bailey said. "We're still finding those little ways to continue to get better each and every day."
