Thursday, October 1, 2026
Plainview JFKs and East Meadow’s softball teams met for a fifth time this spring on Saturday with a trip to the Nassau Class AAA semifinals on the line.
The best-of-three quarterfinal series went the distance after the fourth-seeded Hawks and fifth-seeded Jets traded walk-off victories, setting the stage for a win or go home Game 3.
The finale also required extra frames.
Plainview rallied from a three-run deficit with three runs in the bottom of the sixth before prevailing, 5-4, with a walk-off grounder that scored Ava Franges with the winning run in the 10th. Senior Katelyn Coffey blasted her third homer of the series and drove in all four runs for East Meadow.
“Of course we’re disappointed, but what a high school softball series this was,” Jets coach Becky Mattia said. “Three one-run games and three walk-offs, you can’t get any closer than that. We went toe-to-toe against the team that won our conference and lost just one game coming into playoffs. Both of us had multiple chances to win all three games.”
Plainview advances to face top-seeded Oceanside in the best-of-3 semis that would conclude this Friday if three games are necessary.
The Jets (8-14) were looking good through five innings thanks in large part to Coffey, who doubled home junior pitcher Gabi Shepherd and sophomore Allie Barnwell in the top of the first and blasted a two-run homer over the fence in left in the fifth, scoring junior Ariana Rosa in front of her, as the visitors built a 4-1 lead.
“Katelyn returned to us about two weeks ago after getting injured during soccer season and was just unbelievable,” Mattia said of Coffey, one of four seniors on the roster along with Gianna Ventura. Madelynn Harrison and Hailey Lipack. “Her last two at-bats, the unintentionally intentionally walked her,” she added. “The way she was hitting I couldn’t blame them.”
Shepherd, who along with freshman Grace Moone won four games in the circle this spring, threw seven scoreless innings in the finale. The Hawks tied it at 4-4 with four straight hits to open the bottom of the sixth. Leyla Elkhatib led off with a homer and Sophia Elkhatib hit a game-tying, two-run double.
The Jets had two runners on base in both the ninth and 10th innings but couldn’t push any across.
East Meadow had lost three straight to the Conference 2 champion Hawks before keeping its season alive with a 5-4 home victory in the second game of the series two days earlier. Sheppard’s homer in the bottom of the seventh won it. Coffey provided the majority of the rest of the offense with a pair of homers. Sophomore Emma Smith also homered,
In the series opener May 13, Plainview, which defeated the Jets 10-8 and 6-3 during the regular season, pulled out a 2-1 victory in extra innings on a bases-loaded walk. The game was scoreless through six as Shepherd and Nadia Cho dominated in the circle.
“We’re going to miss the seniors, but this was a great experience for the younger girls,” Mattia said.
