By:Tony Bellissimo
The series stretched over six days and was played on three different sites. The third and deciding game, last Wednesday at Mitchel Athletic Complex, was rained out and rescheduled for the following day at Hofstra. The teams then battled through nine scoreless innings, only to have darkness postpone the crowning of a champion until Friday, or so they thought. More rain pushed the continuation of Game 3 to Saturday at Clarke, where it finally ended.
It wasn-t a happy ending for the Lady Falcons, who squandered a 1-0 lead in the 10th inning and eventually fell 2-1 in 11. The two-time defending county Class B champions took the first game before dropping the next two to the Lady Generals, the defending Class A champions.
MacArthur won it on Catherine Schmidt-s single off junior pitcher Diana DiPiano with the bases loaded and one out. South had intentionally walked two hitters to get to Schmidt.
I thought we played well in the series, Coach Dom Fontana said. Diana was super, our defense didn-t make many mistakes and we cut down on strikeouts. We put the ball in play as much as I hoped but we still didn-t score enough.
All-Long Island selections DiPiano and senior Leah Bogsted were practically untouchable in the wacky series and offered one of the greatest single-day displays of pitching anyone could imagine. They both found the mound at Hofstra to be quite cozy. In the nine innings played Thursday, DiPiano allowed two hits, walked four and struck out 13, while Bogsted gave up two hits, walked no one and fanned eight.
To have such an important game like that drag on was tough for everyone, Fontana said. It would-ve been nice to finish it Thursday night at Hofstra.
The international tiebreaker rule, under which teams get a runner in scoring position to start their at-bat from the eighth inning on, makes it easier to score, but games take on a different strategy at that point. It turns into a cat-and-mouse game, Fontana said.
Three innings into the tiebreaker, the Lady Falcons scored the first run of Game 3 when senior Michelle Cannata singled home junior Kaitlyn Amitrano in the top of the 10th. But with South three outs away from a meeting with Islip for the Long Island title, MacArthur tied it on Shannon Scudder-s RBI single in the bottom of the inning.
The game remained 1-1 until the bottom of the 11th, when MacArthur-s Whitney Vecchione started on second and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Jenna Strauss. After the two free bases on balls, to the third and clean-up batters, Schmidt hit a line drive into right-centerfield to drive home Vecchione with the championship run.
We-ve won playoff games in extra innings but I still don-t like using the tiebreaker rule, Fontana said. It-s almost like penalty kicks in soccer. The whole complexion of the game changes.
DiPiano, who tossed a two-hitter and struck out 14 in a 1-0 victory in Game 1, sent down 38 MacArthur batters on strikes in the series. She allowed 10 hits in 25 innings. She couldn-t have given us any more than she did, Fontana said.
The Lady Falcons, who finished 17-6 overall, will rely heavily on DiPiano and Amitrano to lead the way in 2005. Also returning will be Tanya Goldman, Jessica Corea and Nicole DeMarco. Among the soon-to-be graduates are Cannata, catcher Ali Hertling, shortstop Heather Respol, centerfielder Jackie Slevinski and leftfielder Jenny Field.
The seniors were part of a great run, Fontana said. We-ve got some rebuilding to do, but hopefully we-ll keep it going.
