South tops North on Senior Day

Keeping with tradition, Valley Stream South’s final home softball game of the season, played last Saturday morning against neighboring rival Valley Stream North, was all about the seniors.

This spring, the Lady Falcons featured 10 soon-to-be graduates and four of them accounted for all of their RBIs in the 5-2 Conference ABC-III victory played before a spirited crowd on a picture-perfect day. Victoria Martuciello went 2-for-3 and drove in a pair of runs, including the eventual winner in the bottom of the fifth inning with a two-out double. Briana Schippell had two hits and one RBI, while Lindsay Cook and Isabella Yeo added run-scoring singles. 

“It’s such a great senior group and I’m glad the girls got to experience a win in their last home game,” coach Demetri Adrhatas said after South improved to 8-4 in conference play. “We still have a chance to get to 10 wins, which would be nice. They’ve pretty much averaged 10 wins over their careers.” 

Though the day belonged to the seniors, an eighth-grader proved a major factor in the outcome. Pitcher Isabella Secaira-Cotto dominated in the circle, firing a two-hitter with three walks (two scored) and 11 strikeouts. She struck out the side in the seventh to close the game in style. Both hits by North (6-6) came in the fourth inning when it tied the game on junior Kelly Kroez’s two-run double.

“She threw well and had us overmatched,” North coach Dave Aguado said of Secaira-Cotto.

“We’re hoping to win our last two and finish above .500,” he added. “The first half of our season was better than the second, although we had a good win over East Rockaway yesterday. We scored 10 runs yesterday, but we didn’t hit today.”

South, which took the first meeting with North, 10-9, on April 9, behind senior Katie Shields’ two hits and three runs, struck first in last Saturday’s rematch in the bottom of the third against Lady Spartans freshman pitcher Victoria Rossetti. Schippell and Martuciello had back-to-back RBI singles with one out, but Rossetti limited the damage by striking out the next two batters.

The Lady Spartans, who less than 24 hours earlier had Kroez, junior Sam Estupinian (team-high 30 RBIs) and sophomore Cassie Saracino (three) combine for seven RBIs against East Rockaway, managed only one baserunner through the first three innings against Secaira-Cotto. “I knew she was going to be really good down the line,” Adrahtas said of the varsity rookie. “But she’s been tremendous already under the varsity lights.”

The Lady Falcons, also winners the previous day, 6-4 at Wheatley, snapping a three-game slide in the process, provided insurance runs for Secaira-Cotto in the sixth off the bats of Yeo and Cook. South finished with 11 hits.

“We started 6-1, but except for our second loss to Wantagh, we’ve been right there,” Adrahtas said. “It’s been a positive year.”

Both South and North close out the campaign with games this week against Carle Place and Jericho.