Carey stays hot, ousts Baldwin

Coach Anthony Turco remembers the precise moment Carey’s softball season started to turn around for the better, and there’s a good chance he’s never going to live it down.

“I took a faceplant rounding third base one day in practice,” Turco said after the sixth-seeded Lady Seahawks defeated No. 11 Baldwin, 8-1, in a Nassau Class AA first-round playoff game last Saturday. “I think the girls are still laughing about it,” he added.

There was nothing funny about Carey’s 1-7 start, but wins in five of the next six not only boosted its place in the standings but also its confidence level. The positive vibes carried into the postseason as the offense scored three times in the bottom of the first, highlighted by senior Marcella Castellano’s homer over the fence in left, giving the pitching tandem of sisters Ashley and Jenna Turato all the support it would need.

“That early homer took the butterflies out,” said Turco, whose team advanced to face No. 3 Massapequa in the quarterfinals. “Marcella has been one of our leaders with the bat all year,” he added. “She hits the ball hard every time.”

Castellano added a long sacrifice fly in the fourth and a two-run single in the fifth against Lady Bruins junior pitcher Carly Mertens, a two-time All-County selection who settled down after a bumpy start and scattered seven hits. The visitors also managed seven hits, with two coming off the bat of sophomore Jessica Pulis.

“I thought we hit the ball hard and had seven or eight line-drive outs,” Baldwin coach Tom Llewellyn said. “We hit it right at the defense and they made all the plays. It’s not like we played a bad game.”

The Lady Bruins scored their lone run in the third to cut the margin to 3-1. After senior Kamari Somers and Mertens lined out to shortstop and left field, respectively, freshman Jade Aponte doubled and scored on a single by Pulis. They would threaten again with two outs in the fourth after senior Jackie Fisher and junior Jill Bellovin singled, but Ashley Turato, a junior who started and went four innings, got a fielder’s choice groundout to third to end the threat.

“For the most part we alternated Ashley and Jenna all season,” Turco noted. “They usually went full games, but today it was just a gut feeling to use both. We’re confident no matter which one’s throwing.”

After Carey (8-11) upped its lead to 5-1 in the fourth when freshman Alyssa Jacobs knocked in a run and scored another, the Lady Bruins brought the tying run to the plate in the fifth before a bizarre double play on an infield fly rule allowed the hosts to wiggle out of trouble.

“The girls have stepped up defensively,” said Turco, who noted the work of senior Danielle Sorrentino at shortstop. “To win at this level, you have to keep mistakes to a minimum.”