53.0°,
Light Rain Seven straight for Lady Eagles
Playing its fourth softball game in six days, Valley Stream Central kept the bats going last Saturday with Corrine Protasiewicz, Melanie Ruderman and Alexis Callao all cracking home runs to lead a 7-5 Conference AA-III victory over Calhoun at Firemen’s Field.
The Lady Eagles (8-3) took a five-run lead into the seventh inning and held on for their seventh straight win when junior pitcher Deandra Ramkarren got Tara Bugden on a grounder to first base for the final out. Ramkarren allowed only three hits and struck out eight.
“We’re a better hitting team than we were earlier in the season,” VSC coach Arty Riccio said. “We spend a lot of practice time on batting and the girls are coming through with clutch hits.”
Each team scored twice in the first inning. Down 2-0, Ruderman, a senior bound for Lafayette, singled with two outs and Protasiewicz followed with a two-run homer to erase Calhoun’s only lead. Central broke the tie in the third by scoring three times. Ramkarren drew a walk and Ruderman ripped her fourth homer of the year. Protasiewicz followed with a single and eventually came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Jackie Mancini to make it 5-2. In the sixth, Mancini singled and scored on Callao’s two-run blast.
“All three home runs were line drives in the gap,” Riccio said. “It was tremendous.”
The win capped a perfect week for the Lady Eagles, who beat Uniondale on April 19, Great Neck South a day later and Freeport on the 22nd. Their bats produced 42 runs in the three games, while Ramkarren gave up only nine.
“Deandra has pitched every inning and does a great job,” Riccio said of Ramkarren, who also is among the team’s leading hitters and has five homers. “She works as hard as anyone and throws five different pitches.”
Ramkarren got last week started on the right foot by one-hitting Uniondale in a 16-1 victory. The only batter she didn’t retire, Siera Lowry, hit a home run in the third. Ramkarren had a homer of her own, Ruderman drove in three runs and Protasiewicz knocked in a pair.
