Back from a busy spring-break week of games in Florida and Albany, the Liverpool softball team was ready to pound the local opposition. And the Warriors picked up a key early-season win on Wednesday afternoon, surviving the cold to beat Rome Free Academy 3-0 as pitcher Tiffany Sampere nearly got a no-hitter. Nine days earlier, RFA had gained its first-ever league win over Cicero-North Syracuse, meaning that Liverpool knew it would be tough to get runs off the Black Knights’ pitching ace, Amelia Casalenuovo. Only once did Casalenuovo break — in the bottom of the fourth inning. With the game still 0-0, the Warriors tagged her for all three of its runs, as Beth Lamison got credit for an RBI. Meanwhile, Sampere worked on her gem. Through six innings, she hadn’t surrendered a hit and, even more amazing, was fanning RFA’s hitters at a stunning rate. Allyson Eagan doubled in the top of the seventh, ending the no-hitter, but that was the only ball hit into the outfield. Sampere allowed nothing more as she finished with 18 strikeouts, a career high, with the other three hitters grounding out. The Warriors hosted Fayetteville-Manlius last Tuesday and did not let up at the plate in the course of a 16-0 wipeout of the Hornets. As Erin Squairs pitched her way to a one-hitter, Liverpool managed to score at least one run in each of the first six innings, capped by four runs in both the fifth and sixth innings. Kalyn Howard was four-for-four, including a double, and finished with five RBIs. Coryn Curtis wasn’t far behind, with a double and four RBIs, while Sampere drove in two runs. Lamison, Abby Romano and Darci Muldoon each had one RBI.