By TONY BELLISSIMO
But as it turned out, it was the Lady Marines' bats that made the difference. They pounded out 11 hits en route to capturing their third title in five seasons with a 5-3 victory in Game 3.
Junior Ashley Passaro, who was 5 for 10 with four RBIs in the series, cracked a towering two-run homer to centerfield in the top of the fifth inning to give second-seeded Long Beach a 5-1 lead. Passaro, seniors Valerie Brittell and Kristina Dara and juniors Lauren Urbont and Rebecca Sanger had two hits apiece.
"I've been very impressed with our lineup," Long Beach Coach Carmine Verde said after the game. "These girls really developed into consistent hitters. They hit good pitching all season long. Viola's tough, but we didn't let her have any easy innings today."
Long Beach (17-6 overall) advanced to face either Walt Whitman or Bay Shore in the Long Island Class AA championship game on Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Mitchel.
"I'm so proud," Verde said. "We played tough and inspired softball. The girls felt they had something to prove, and they came up big."
The team that scored first won each of the three games, and the Lady Marines, who took the opening game 5-2, struck early on Tuesday. Brittell led off the second with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch. With two out, Dara smacked an RBI single to right and eventually scored on one of two crucial East Meadow errors. "You always want to score first, especially in a series like this," Verde said.
The lead increased to 3-0 in the third inning when sophomore Madison Asher alertly broke for home on a wild pitch. Meanwhile, Donnelly, who had 19 strikeouts in a 1-0 loss to the top-seeded Jets during the regular season, was cruising along until some trouble arose in the fourth. East Meadow's Meghan McKillop and Alyssa Angelino opened with back-to-back singles, and McKillop scored and Angelino took third when Donnelly's attempted pickoff throw to first sailed wide.
But some clutch defense by Donnelly and Brittell followed. Donnelly fielded a squeeze bunt by Courtney Garland and cut down Angelino at the plate on a bang-bang play. "I didn't think we were getting her because she was halfway home when the ball came off the bat," Verde said. "But Melissa's a shortstop by trade, and she's so quick off the mound. When the umpire asked Val to show the ball, I knew we made the play."
Two pitches later, Brittell snagged a popped bunt by Kelly Ruckdaschel and doubled up Garland off first.
East Meadow, which stayed alive with a 5-2 win in Game 2 last Friday, came back to score two runs in the fifth inning, as Lindsay McKillop answered Passaro's blast with a two-run homer to center, but Donnelly retired the side in order thereafter and allowed only one hit in the sixth.
The Lady Marines failed to provide any insurance runs in the seventh despite loading the bases with no one out, but benefited from a miscue by the Jets in their final turn at bat, when Brittell picked a runner off first base for the first out. Dara threw out Angela Ruffini and Lindsay McKillop on consecutive grounders to third to end it.
