Thursday, October 1, 2026
A dominating All-County pitcher, backed by a young but explosive offense nearly led Clarke all the way to the finals of the Nassau County Class A softball championships this spring.
The No. 3-seeded Lady Rams finished 15-8 overall — their highest win total in coach Krissy Cutolo’s eight seasons — and took No. 2 Island Trees to three games in the best-of-three semifinals, dropping a 3-1 decision in the deciding game on May 15.
The Lady Bulldogs scraped together three runs off of Clarke’s sophomore All-County pitcher Sarah Cornell and fought off a late rally by the Lady Rams, who scored their only run on a two-out single in the seventh by freshman Sabrina Caputo that scored senior Charissa Perfect. “In game three we were unsuccessful getting the timely hit,” Cutolo said. “In the second game we put the ball in play but it was right at the defense and we didn’t get enough baserunners.”
Island Trees won the second game, 4-1, one day earlier, as starter Alannah Basile pitched a one-hitter, walked four and struck out 10. Behind Cornell’s pitching — a nine-inning complete game — and bat (she drove in Caputo tie the game in the seventh), the Lady Rams took the first game of the semifinal series, 6-5 in nine innings on May 13.
Cornell earned All-County honors after posting 216 strikeouts and a 1.04 earned run average over 124 innings (91 regular season, 24 playoffs.) She also recorded not one, but two 20-strikeout games (the second and third of her career), one no-hitter (sixth of her career) and five shutouts to go along with 15 runs batted in at the plate. Cornell wrapped up the season with 732 strikeouts in 392 innings already under her cap.
From the top down, the Lady Rams packed plenty of punch at the plate and it all started with freshman Kirstin Cox in the leadoff slot. On top of leading Clarke with an on-base percentage of .491 and 20 stolen bases, the All-County Honorable Mention also crossed the plate 25 times and batted .377. She, along with No. 2 hitter Nicole Randazzo, an All-Conference honoree, helped set the table for the big bats in the lineup. Randazzo did a little of everything hitting behind Cox, batting .375, driving in a dozen runs, swiping seven bases and perfecting the bunt as a way to move runners over. Perfect led the team in both batting average (.455) and on-base percentage during the playoffs and was an All-Conference selection along with sophomore Brooke Scherer.
“[The offense] made a difference,” Cutolo said. “The games last year we were losing by one run, we were [now] winning by one run. It was a matter of one or two [extra] hits.”
Caputo batted .462 during the regular season and led the Lady Rams in RBI during both the regular season (18) and postseason (seven), while junior Selena Ruiz cleaned up as the No. 4 hitter with a .385 average and 15 RBIs. Both players earned All-County honors. For Ruiz, while her defense didn’t show up in the boxscores, it was just as good as her offensive output that did. Ruiz caught half of the baserunners trying to steal. “Selina’s the kind of [player] that’s jumping eight feet in the air to catch a ball. She has worked hard to block pitches and pick off runners.”
