For the second time in as many weeks, the West Genesee softball team came awfully close to toppling a major Class AA power. The Wildcats went to Gillette Field Tuesday night and had defending Class AA champion Cicero-North Syracuse in trouble before the Norhtstars escaped and beat them, 5-4, in eight innings. They exchanged first-inning runs before CNS scored in the bottom of the second. Down 2-1, WG kept it there for a while as Ashley Amidon contained a tough Northstars lineup. In the top of the sixth, the Wildcats scored twice to seize a 3-2 lead, beginning another tense exchange. CNS tied it, 3-3, in the bottom of the sixth, only to have WG get a run off relief pitcher Sarah Salamone to go back in front, 4-3, in the top of the seventh. Needing just three outs for victory, the Wildcats (who had fallen to Liverpool 2-1 a week earlier) could not get them. The Northstars tied it in the seventh, then won it with an eighth-inning tally. WG’s total of eight hits included Gabby Lustrinelli’s solo home run. McKenzie Glynn had two RBIs as Kailey Ritch doubled. A day earlier, the Wildcats’ offense was on full display against Oswego as it earned 13 hits in the course of a 12-2 rout of the Buccaneers. Steadily, WG built a 6-0 lead through four innings, then put it away with six more runs in the bottom of the fifth as Ashley Divorro pitched and got the win. Deanna Apps finished with four RBIs, with Chelsea Sedlacek driving in three runs. Lustrinelli, Ritch, Jordan Arsenault, Jacki Bovay, Gabby Rivers and Lexie Bovay each had one RBI. Before all this, Wildcats warmed up by putting together a solid effort at Nottingham, shutting out the Bulldogs 12-0. WG got at least two runs in five of the first six innings on its way to 13 hits. Trish Andrews hit a home run and earned two RBIs as Lustrinelli doubled twice to support her own two-hit pitching effort. Apps drove in three runs as Ritch, Glynn and Sedlacek each had one RBI.