Softball title on the line

The Nassau County Class AA softball championship series is headed to a third and deciding game.

Defending champ MacArthur scored seven runs in the bottom of the sixth inning Tuesday afternoon to defeat East Meadow in a wild Game 2, 9-6, at Mitchel Athletic Complex. Katie Fitzsimmons’ two-run single with two outs put the second-seeded Lady Generals ahead to stay.

The final game is set for Thursday at 4 p.m. at Mitchel.

The top-seeded Lady Jets trailed 2-1 entering the sixth when they sent 10 batters to the plate and scored four times. Pitcher Kerri Shapiro, who struck out 12 to lead the way in an 8-2 victory in Game 1 on Monday, got the rally started with a single to right. Catcher Madison West gave East Meadow a 3-2 lead with a long homer to left, and both Dina LaRosa and Tianna LaRosa reached base and scored in the inning.

But MacArthur, which rallied from a four-run deficit in Game 2 of its semifinal series win over Mepham last week, wasn’t done. Pitcher Ashley Massoni cut East Meadow’s lead to 5-4 with a two-run single, and she and Kirsten Kelly came around to score on Fitzsimmons’ clutch hit.

Trailing 9-5 in the seventh, the Lady Jets scored on a fielder’s choice grounder by Tianna LaRosa managed to get the tying run to the plate before Massoni induced a game-ending double play.

MacArthur scored in the top of the first in Game 1 on a Jena Cozza homer, but East Meadow built a 5-1 lead after three innings. West had a two-run double in the bottom of the first, and in the third Shapiro had a run-scoring triple and Claire Travis belted a two-run homer.