Saturday, June 21, 2025
Speaking midweek ahead of his team’s regular-season finale, Long Beach softball coach Carmine Verde pointed to his club’s most recent outing – a 13-4 league win May 7 over Nassau Conference 5 foe Valley Stream North – as suitable to serve as the perfect model of Marines dominance this spring.
Then the weekend happened.
Tacking on late to her Nassau-leading wins total, Marines right-hander Bella Gray gave Long Beach (16-1, 16-0 Conference 5) its signature win – adding an exclamation point – as the All-Conference junior fanned a career-high 13 in no-hitting non-league host South Side in a 4-0 victory last Saturday.
The finale win – which boosted Gray’s county-best record to 15-1 – sends conference champ Long Beach into this week’s playoffs sporting a 14-game win streak, while marking the Marines’ best regular-season showing since 2004.
“Bella sets the whole pace for our team,” said Verde, whose club this season won its first league title since 2019 (AA2). “We follow her lead offensively and defensively; she’s our only pitcher and also our leadoff batter.”
Before Gray’s no-no had placed an indelible stamp on her team’s breakout season, Verde held up last week’s Long Beach win against VSN as a kind of standard blueprint, as in it were displayed key hallmarks of Conference 5’s top offense (10.5 runs per game), alongside 11 strikeouts from Gray – league leader on the season with 124.
In addition to Long Beach second baseman Andie Spiteri going four-for-four with three runs batted in, the May 7 Marines win saw fellow co-captain Myla Sanchez club her conference-best seventh homer to rank No. 2 in Nassau. The senior first baseman – a shoo-in for first-time All-County honors – leads the Marines with 25 RBIs.
“Myla really matured as a player this year; she’s been really locked in,” Verde said. “She’s got such quick hands and so much power. I’ve been doing this 38 years, and she’s hit some of the longest home runs I’ve ever seen.”
“(Sanchez’s) hard work paid off,” Verde added. “But this year, lots of our players improved. Everyone’s a threat. Our lineup’s proven to be very deep, I think the deepest in the conference.”
A cursory glance at numbers leaves little wonder at Long Beach attaining its elevated perch. Sophomore center fielder Brianna Bothel leads the team batting a blistering .579, with Sanchez second at .488 ahead of Spiteri (.457) and senior outfielder Delaney Gravina (.452). Gray’s .413 clip from the leadoff spot has led to a team-high 23 runs scored.
Junior catcher Jorjia Domingo (.382) – an Honorable Mention All-County honoree last season – leads Long Beach with seven doubles. But, according to her coach, the second-year backstop has talents possibly even more valuable than her bat.
“Jorjia’s really great at framing Bella’s pitches,” Verde said. “Bella’s always around the strike zone. So if you have a girl good a framing, it’s even harder on other teams.”
Aware that his club heading into the playoffs may encounter stiffer tests than those it faced in Conference 5, Verde nonetheless paused to acknowledge the Marines’ fine achievement.
“We didn’t have to play the top conferences,” he said. “Now we will, and we’ll see what happens. But any time you go undefeated (in league), it’s special.”
