Lady Eagles improve to 6-2

With an interesting mix of seniors and youth, Valley Stream Central is making plenty of noise on the softball field this spring with six wins in eight Conference AA-III games.

 “It’s a great group of girls we’ve got here,” Lady Eagles coach Art Riccio said after an 11-1 victory over Elmont last Friday at Firemen’s Field. “We’ve got mostly seniors, but also some juniors and some very young talent. We’re striving to get to 10 wins, and if we can make it happen it would be tremendous.”

Three of Central’s up-and-coming standouts had a big game against Elmont, which avoided being no-hit and shutout in the top of the sixth inning when Bria Duhiney had a leadoff single and scored on Jammy Ayala’s single. Lady Eagles pitcher Tiffany Longarzo, an eighth-grader, was in complete control all day and struck out eight and walked none, freshman catcher Jasmine Garden had three hits and erased two baserunners, and freshman shortstop Randi Ruderman reached base all four at-bats. “They’re our future,” Riccio said of Longarzo, Garden and Ruderman. “It’s fun to work with them and watch their progress.”

Garden and Ruderman are the offensive table-setters as well, and they came out swinging against Elmont to stake Longarzo with an early cushion. Garden and Ruderman singled and scored in the bottom of the first as Central took a 2-0 lead. Senior Heather LaBarbera, who tripled twice later in the game, singled home Garden, and senior Alexis Collao knocked home Ruderman with her first of two run-scoring hits.

The lead swelled to 4-0 in the third when Longarzo drove in a run with a fielder’s choice and scored on Ruderman’s single. It was the first of four straight innings of offense for the hosts. Senior Melissa Maci (four RBIs) keyed a three-run fourth with a run-scoring single, Collao cracked a RBI-double as part of a two-run fifth, and LaBarbera and Maci had RBIs in the sixth.