East Rockaway dips below .500

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South Side junior battery mates Mary Macre and Emma Wagner combined to go 5-for-6 and had three RBIs apiece to help Lady Cyclones put up crooked numbers in four consecutive innings last Saturday and avenge an early season defeat to East Rockaway with a convincing 15-3 home victory in a Conference ABC-II softball game.

Macre’s third single of the afternoon drove in freshman Daniela Waldron (2-for-4, three runs) with the game-ending run via the mercy rule in the bottom of the fifth. Wagner, the winning pitcher who retired the last seven batters she faced, went 2-for-2 and also squeezed in a run as South Side (2-6 in ABC-II, 3-7 overall) won its second straight following a seven-game skid. Senior Michele Sheridan went 2-for-3 and scored twice for the Lady Rocks (3-6, 5-7), who took the first meeting on March 29, 6-2.

“We’ve played our best two games of the year this week,” said South Side coach Kristen Aksionoff, who two days earlier saw her team snap the losing streak with a 9-4 win over Valley Stream North. “We’ve dealt with a lot of injuries and had some major defensive blips that hopefully are behind us. We still have hopes of making the playoffs.”

East Rockaway’s playoff fate was predetermined since it’s the lone Class C school in Nassau County and it will try to defend its L.I. title against the Suffolk representative in about a month. Competing in a challenging ABC-II, coach Joe Lores said, can only help in the long run.

“The idea is to be ready and playing our best come playoff time,” Lores said. “We graduated a lot of our bats from last year when we went 10-8 in Conference III. We started slow offensively, but we’re starting to come around. When we play error-free, we’re in the games.”

Defense wasn’t the issue for the Lady Rocks at South Side. “Every kid in their lineup hit the ball well and it was carrying today,” Lores said. “Give them credit.”

After junior Sarah Donnelly gave East Rockaway a 1-0 lead with her team-leading 13th RBI of the year in the top of the first, the Lady Cyclones answered with a three-run second. Junior Stephanie Masotti capped the rally with a two-run triple.

Sophomore pitcher Emily Chelius (.571 average) hit a two-run homer in the top of the third, her third of 2017, to tie it for the visitors, but was touched up for five runs on four hits in the bottom of the frame. Senior Madelyn Ajello’s single with the bases loaded was the key hit for South Side, which built an 8-3 lead and never looked back.

East Rockaway was minus three starters, including senior Jessica Loyer (.380 average) due to illness. Loyer, who had a pair of RBIs in the first meeting with South Side, tripled home sophomore Lia Gladstone and freshman Hunter Vertuccio in the bottom of the sixth to provide the difference in a 3-1 victory over Division on April 18. Chelius allowed just three hits and fanned five.