Clarke rallies for L.I. championship

With only one loss in its previous 20 games, Clarke was in unfamiliar territory last Friday night trailing Mount Sinai by a run through five innings of the Long Island Class A softball championship at St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue.

Brooke Scherer changed all that with one swing of the bat. She followed Sabrina Caputo’s leadoff walk in the top of the sixth with a two-run homer over the fence in dead-center to put the Lady Rams ahead for good in an 11-4 victory. The blast, which traveled about 230 feet, gave Clarke a 4-3 lead and it pulled away with two more runs in the inning and five runs in the seventh.

“I challenged the girls before we came to bat in the sixth inning,” Clarke first-year coach Rachel Barry said. “I told them to get ready for the most miserable bus ride of their lives unless they found a way to win. Two batters later, we’re in the lead and the whole stadium is shaking.”

Kirstin Cox added a sacrifice fly and junior pitcher Sarah Cornell followed with a run-scoring infield single to extend the lead to 6-3. “It was important to add to the lead because Mount Sinai had so much energy, they weren’t going away,” Barry said.

Cornell had rare control issues, walking five, but she struck out 16 and scattered seven hits for the Lady Rams (22-3), who won their first-ever L.I. crown and advanced to face Starpoint at 9 a.m. this Saturday in a state semifinal game at Moreau Park in Glens Falls. The state championship is set for 1:30 p.m.

“It was our turn as an offense to take it up a notch and give Sarah as much support as we could,” Barry said.