East Meadow sets lofty goal

It was co-captain Kayla Wakely who broke the silence.

At an East Meadow softball preseason meeting, Wakely and her teammates were presented with a plaque honoring last year’s runner-up finish by the Jets in Nassau Class AA. “I handed out the plaque for them to pass around and didn’t say anything,” said second-year coach Frank Baglivo.

The All-Conference third baseman, Baglivo said, seemed to speak for all present when she declared – amid muted reactions to the hardware – that this year second-place status wouldn't do.

While the cleanup-hitting Wakely (.324 batting average) has done much this spring to give substance to her words, perhaps no one has taken the pronouncement more to heart than Honorable Mention All-County Jets junior Julia Parise. With her third straight double-digit strikeout performance last Saturday, the ace righthander whittled her ERA to 0.91 in hurling her third shutout in four starts as East Meadow (8-2 overall, 7-2 Nassau Conference 1) beat visiting rival Syosset 3-0 to stay 2 ½ games behind first-place MacArthur (11-0, 10-0).

Parise (7-2), whose seven wins rank second in Conference 1, has notched 91 punchouts in 61 innings – fanning a season-best 15 in an April 3 league win over Mepham – while sporting a .517 batting average with one home run and seven RBIs to hold the team triple-crown lead offensively, with Jets outfielder Arianna Maniscalco (.387 avg., one homer and six RBIs) claiming a share in homers.

“Julia’s been the main reason for our success,” Baglivo said. “She was good last year, now she’s taken that next step, both pitching and at the plate. What’s made her such a good pitcher is just being very accurate. We’re very confident when she’s pitching.”

A pair of one-run losses – which included falling 3-2 in nine innings at MacArthur – that left the squad sitting 1-2 at the outset raised no alarms for East Meadow, said Baglivo, as the young but seasoned Jets went coolly about their business. “The first few games you never know,” said Baglivo, whose club has won seven straight since March 31. “The girls competed and had fun. We were confident it was only a matter of time until we started heating up and getting the bounces.”

“We lost last year in the final,” Baglivo added. “This year isn’t about revenge; it’s about just being the best team we can be. When we’re doing that, we think we’re very hard to beat.”

Alongside Maniscalco, fellow junior outfielders Melia Campbell and Charlotte Viola have been two-way factors helping produce East Meadow’s league second-leading run differential, which stands at plus-34 (54-20) just past midseason, while Honorable Mention All-County senior catcher Lily Finucane continues nurturing a fine partnership with Parise. “Lily and Juila feed off each other,” Baglivo said. “They’re totally in sync.”

Further fuel for the Jets may soon become accessible with the expected activation off the injured list of first-year junior Brooke Errico – who had three hits and threw nine innings in earning East Meadow’s first victory, 6-5, at home against league foe Clarke March 29.

“I think that first team meeting set the tone,” Baglivo said. “The girls have embraced competing. They don’t want another runner-up plaque.”