Lady Bruins come up big

Good teams aren’t good every inning of every game, because that’s impossible. Some sports allow that kind of perfection, but not any game that involves hitting a round ball with a round bat squarely. That’s why no one ever bats 1.000. Instead good teams scuffle from time to time, just like everybody else, but then find a way to excel in the big spot. The Baldwin Lady Bruins are a good team.

That was true last season when they went 16-3 and won the Conference AA-II softball title. It is true now that they are 4-2, including 2-1 in conference play. It was never more true than in their 9-7 victory over Port Washington on April 2. 

For all their talent — and there is plenty to go around with a roster that includes Carly Mertens, Liza Ueno, Olivia Phillips and Jessica Pulis -- the Lady Bruins were staring at a .500 record as they headed into the fourth inning locked in a 4-4 tie with Port Washington. They’d dropped two of their previous three games -- 16-5 at Long Beach on March 26 and then 20-5 at Farmingdale four days later -- after starting the season with wins over Oyster Bay and Manhasset.

A 6-2 win over Plainview JFK came in between the two losses. But if things had gone the wrong way in the latter half of the game against Port Washington, then Baldwin would be 3-3. The Bruins had not been good every inning of every game, but they would find a way to excel in the big spot. Four straight Baldwin hits in the fourth plated three runs.

They were hitting the ball squarely in the clutch. Later, after Port Washington again closed to within a run and had runners on the corners, Ueno, the catcher, erased the runner on first as she tried to steal second. Baldwin added a couple of insurance runs and then Pulis closed out the win in relief. Instead of 3-3, the Bruins were 4-2. Mertens went 3 for 5 and scored three runs, and Phillips had two hits, two runs and two RBIs.

“There are no easy games in our conference,” coach Tom Llewellyn said. Baldwin will host Sewanhaka in a non-conference game, then play Freeport (4-2), Hicksville (0-3), Bellmore JFK (3-3) and Plainview (2-1) in succession.

Just as they did last season, Mertens, Ueno, Phillips and Pulis have hit consistently and caused havoc on the base paths. Ueno, the No. 4 hitter in the lineup, has six stolen bases. The team is about to get a boost with the return of leftfielder Kamari Somers, who has missed the early part of the season with an ankle injury. Somers, a senior, is a speedy base runner and a terrific defender. 

“We have a dangerous lineup,” Llewellyn said. 

They showed against Port Washington that they are especially dangerous in the clutch. It’s the sign of a good team.