North Shore nabs first win

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North Shore’s softball team added a win to it’s challenging schedule last Friday at Cold Spring Harbor, taking a 12-5 victory from the Lady Seahawk due in large part to the stellar pitching of Lindsay Bonn.

“She really started finding her groove and found a lot of success, her teammates trusted her to get the job done,” North Shore head coach Toni Papetti said. 

Bonn’s teammates lifted her offensively, as well. Amber Diaz delivered a solo home run in the top of the second inning. Taylor Berry finished 3-for-4 on the day with four RBIs. Abby Ricardo finished 3-for-5 with three RBIs. With this offense, Bonn was able to keep her full composure on the mound. “She looked confident,” Papetti said.

Bonn pitched a complete game for the Lady Vikings (1-6 overall/1-4 Conference ABC-V) and struck out seven while only allowing four hits. Resulting in North Shore’s first victory of the season, this is the first win on Bonn’s 2018 record, but Papetti knows that it isn’t for a lack of effort.

“She was really coming off of a solid game just a few days before,” Papetti said. In fact, Bonn’s last two starts had started precisely how a coach would want.

On April 11, North Shore dropped a crossover game to Valley Stream South, however Bonn only allowed two runners to cross the plate through her first five innings of work. In the game prior to that, Bonn had only allowed two runs through her first four innings against Manhasset. However, Manhasset would pile on eight runs in the fifth inning.

“That game really just got away from us late,” Papetti said. Although down 13-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Lady Vikings began a rally that would push 8 of their own runs across the plate in the home half of the game’s final inning. Although these late-game rallies failed to lead to a victory, Papetti doesn’t believe these efforts were all for naught.

“My girls came out of the game feeling great and they told me ‘Coach it’s if as though we won this game’,” Papetti said. “We said that we wanted to capture that feeling of playing for every out for the rest of the year.”

Upon being asked whether this rallying experience and possible team turnaround moment meant more than just a midseason win, Papetti agreed. “I definitely would say that it has shown our team to fight and claw for every out…it was important,” Papetti said.

Papetti knows this squad, mostly comprised of juniors, has the potential to play much better, and with continued experience, it should. “With this group, I think getting these kinds of experiences are key,” Papetti said. With solid talent, flashes of impressive play, and a newly focused perspective, the Lady Vikings are looking for a momentum shift for the second half of this season

North Shore continues crossover play when it hosts Conference ABC-VI’s Floral Park this Friday at 4:45 p.m.