Oceanside in county finals

Oceanside’s Taylor Eisel is an accomplished bunter and no stranger to moving runners along, and when she came to the plate against Mepham in the bottom of the 10th with one out and the tying run 60 feet away in Game 2 of last week’s Nassau Class AA softball semifinal series, Lady Sailors coach Joe Supple said a squeeze attempt came to mind.

“Taylor has great bat control and bunted well all year,” Supple said. “But I wanted to give her a few pitches to swing. As long as the ball left the infield, we’d tie it.”

Eisel did more than just get the ball out of the infield. She blasted the third pitch she saw from Mepham standout Tonimarie Valeriano to deep center for a two-run homer, giving No. 3 Oceanside a wild 7-6 walk-off win that ended the series May 14 and moved it into the finals against defending county champion East Meadow.

“Just incredible,” Supple said. “It’s by far the best win we’ve had in my three years here. 

“We just took things one at-bat at a time,” he added. “Against one of the best pitchers on Long Island, we knew we had to try to manufacture as many runs as we could.”

Senior Ellen Derr, who scored in front of Eisel’s homer and was one of the first Lady Sailors in the celebration pile, had a three-run triple in the fifth to give them a 4-3 lead. Mepham tied it in the sixth, and the score stayed that way until the 10th when the International Tiebreaker rule, where innings begin with a runner on second base, went into effect.

The second-seeded Lady Pirates took a 6-4 lead in the top of the 10th on Amanda Fucci’s two-run homer. “Both lineups produced from top to bottom,” Supple said. In the bottom of the inning, junior Brittany Teman started on second base and came around to score on a single by Derr. After Derr stole second and advanced to third on a groundout, the stage was set for Eisel’s heroics.

“It’s weird to say, but being down by two runs helped us in the end,” Supple said. “If we start the inning down one, Derr is probably bunting and at best we’ve got a runner on third and one out. Instead, she singles in a run and gets in scoring position to tie it.”

Oceanside (14-8) won Game 1 on the road, 3-1, the previous day behind sophomore pitcher Elizabeth Campo and junior twins Claire and Megan McNamara. Claire McNamara went 4-for-4 and scored twice, Megan McNamara knocked in two runs and scored on senior Jeannie Callanan’s single. Campo scattered seven hits.

Next up is the best-of-three championship series against top-seeded East Meadow, led by the battery of pitcher Kerri Shapiro and catcher Madison West. “They shut us out twice and also have a lineup that produces,” Supple said of East Meadow. “But we’re excited to be in the finals and we’re taking the same approach as we did against Mepham.”