Lady Seahawks drop semifinal

Second-seeded Carey had at least one baserunner in every inning of last Friday’s Nassau Class AA softball semifinal playoff game against No. 6 MacArthur at Mitchel Athletic Complex, but none touched home plate.

Kristen Brown pitched her second straight shutout as the Lady Generals upset the Lady Seahawks, 5-0, and advanced to meet No. 1 East Meadow in the best-of-three championship series. Brown, who blanked defending county champion Long Beach in the quarterfinals, scattered five hits and four walks and struck out five.

“We ran into a hot pitcher and a hot team,” Carey coach Anthony Turco said. “You want to peak at the right time and that’s exactly what they’re doing. 

“It’s disappointing to lose, but it’s the fifth year in a row we’ve been to the semifinals and I’m can’t be more proud of our program,” he added. 

MacArthur scored once in the top of the first and blew the game open in the fifth with four runs—three unearned. Jen Cozza went 3-for-3 with two runs scored to lead an offense that managed five hits against Lady Seahawks senior pitcher Patty Callahan, who struck out 10.

“We beat them in a tough 2-1 game during the regular season,” Turco said. “We knew we had our work cut out for us.”

Cozza singled to leadoff the game and promptly stole second. She advanced to third on a one-out single by Kate McNamara, who also stole second. Callahan struck out cleanup batter Stephanie Erbacher, but her 1-1 offer to Sam Uvino found its way to the backstop and Cozza scored on the wild pitch.

Callahan would allow only one hit over the next three innings, and just two hits in a fifth inning that saw the infield defense behind her uncharacteristically commit four errors—one at each position.

The best scoring chances for Carey (13-6) came in the fourth when it had runners on second and third and two outs, and in the sixth when Callahan and senior Nicole Turato were on the corners with nobody out. 

“When we hit the ball, we hit it right at them and they made all the plays,” Turco said. “And we had that one bad inning in the field where we threw the ball around. That’s not what we’re about. We usually make those [plays].”