Cicero came into SunnyCrest Park on Friday night looking for their first win of the season. Instead they walked away on the losing end of game where pitchers struggled to throw strikes.
The game started out positively enough when Cicero came out strong. Alex Smith led off with a single, followed by a single by Nicholas Capece and another by Alex Sanes-Carmona. Unfortunately, the inning stalled after bringing in just one run.
Riffanburg followed up by scoring on a stolen base by West and a groundout by Lesh to put the score at 2-1.
Alex Smith toed the rubber for Cicero. He allowed three hits and four runs over one inning. Alex Sanes-Carmona and Connor Pearce entered the game from the bullpen, throwing two innings and one inning respectively.
The biggest challenge for the Cicero squad was in having patience at the plate. In the face of inconsistant pitching from Riffanburg, Cicero found it hard to resist swinging at poorly thrown balls. Overly-aggressive base running and fielding errors further doomed Cicero in their frustrating loss.
With the game still close in the last inning, Riffanburg scored seven runs to put it away. Riffanburg took advantage of multiple walks by Sanes-Carmona and Pearce, along with hits by Wes, Sanchez, Garcia, Hunter, and Welnick – who all knocked in runs.
Alex Smith, Nicholas Capece, Sanes-Carmona, Conor Downer, and John Wozniczka each collected hits to lead Cicero. MVP on the night was Conor Downer.
The final score was Riffanburg 12, Cicero 4.