Calhoun seeks a strong finish

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At 6-6 entering the first week of May, Calhoun softball looks to win out in the final regular-season games and make a postseason run.

“If we can hit a little more consistently, we should be able to stay above .500 and make it into the playoffs and do a little damage,” head coach Jason Boland said. “We think we have the ability and potential to win every game we’re in.”

After sweeping their three games against Port Washington with a 4-1 win last Friday, the Lady Colts will host Plainview and Baldwin and go on the road to Farmingdale and Hicksville down the stretch in the competitive Conference AA-II.

The young team will lean on freshman pitcher Lindsay Roman. The right-hander pitched a complete game and struck out 16 batters in a come-from-behind 4-3 win in extra innings at home against first-place Farmingdale on April 21. A varsity player since she was a seventh-grader, Roman also helps lead the offense with two home runs, 13 RBIs and a .390 batting average. “Lindsay is a young kid but she carries herself like she’s a veteran,” Boland said.

Another offensive force is first baseman Jordan Walley, one of just two seniors on the team. Walley paces the Lady Colts in batting average (.463) and home runs (4) and has racked up 14 RBIs. Against Port Washington last Friday, she smacked a walk-off three-run homer and hit one out of the park in a 10-9 win against second-place Baldwin on March 24. 

“These wins against really strong teams I feel is going to help us in the long run,” Boland said.

The coach emphasized that if his team is to reach the playoffs, he’ll need his players to also show more consistency in the field, especially eliminating errors that factored in a few loses. Defensively, junior second baseman Keri McLaughlin has made her mark as a first-year varsity player by consistently stretching for grounders and fly balls.

“She dives and makes plays that are very impressive,” Boland said of McLaughlin, who is batting .378 from the fifth and sixth spots. 

Fourth-year varsity player junior Jennifer Imof, an All-County Honorable Mention last season, is another defensive model out in right field. She has thrown out batters at first base on line drives and cuts potential doubles to singles with her strong arm.

Boland will look to sophomore pitcher Heather Berberich to continue to compliment Roman on the mound. He hopes to see more of the stuff Berberich brought to the team’s first win against Port Washington on April 8, when she tossed a two-hitter. 

He also expects to rely on some of his other young players who have exceeded expectations, including Meghan Vecchione, an eighth-grade utility middle infielder and outfielder who has maintained a .300 or better average this season. Along with McLaughlin, Vecchione has also contributed on the mound in relief. 

“The fact that we’re a young team is in our favor,” Boland said. “Because [my players] are learning as they play together, which will only make us better in the end.”