By TONY BELLISSIMO
The Marines won Friday's finale, 10-4, as seniors Tim Wilson and Bill Cody combined for six hits and eight RBI, evening the series at 1-1-1. The Eagles captured the middle game, 4-2, a day after Long Beach rallied to tie the opener before it was called due to rain and darkness.
Salvaging the last game was big, Coach Carmine Lombardo said. It put us at 3-5-1 with six games left, so we're still in striking distance of a playoff spot. Four of our five losses are by one or two runs, but the kids keep battling.
Senior pitcher Billy Reiver scattered five hits and struck out eight to pick up the win on Friday. Wilson went 3-for-3 with a home run, three RBI and four runs scored, while Cody was 3-for-4 with five RBI. It was the first win for the Marines (7-5-1 overall) since April 19.
I can't say we're not playing well, Lombardo said. We've played well enough to win all but one conference game.
The middle game of the series against Central saw opposing pitcher Chris Martinez scatter four hits and strike out five in a 4-2 win. That came a day after the Marines rallied for a 1-1 tie that will remain that way in the record book. The Eagles took a 1-0 lead in the top of the sixth when Steve Kehoe drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. But Long Beach answered in the bottom of the inning when senior Marc Ferrante singled and eventually scored on an error.
The tie will either help us or hurt us, I don't know yet, Lombardo said. We're looking to win each of the last two series. If we can do that and go 4-2, I think that would be enough to get us into the playoffs.
Few teams would have the mental toughness to recover from three straight one-run defeats, but that's what the Marines were dealing with heading into the Central series. Long Beach lost to East Meadow, 5-4, 3-2 and 5-4 the previous week. The sweep occurred despite solid pitching by Reiver, Cody and senior Matt Taylor.
We led in every game, Lombardo said. Every error we made hurt, and we didn't hit enough.
The Marines sat one game out of the final playoff berth in Conference A-II as they began a three-game series with Port Washington on Tuesday, taking the opener 5-2 behind Cody's three-hit pitching and another home run by Wilson. Long Beach improved to 4-5-1. Port Washington is 4-6.
The Marines wrap-up the season with a three-game set next week against Plainview, which includes the home finale on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
The kids are still upbeat, Lombardo said. If we can build off this last win we'll be alright.
Softball teams jumps into wide-open race
By TONY BELLISSIMO
As the girls softball season enters the final week, teams are scrambling for playoff positioning in Conference I-A and Long Beach is right in the mix.
Though the Lady Marines are guaranteed a berth in the Nassau Class A tournament because they compete in the top conference, there's still a lot to play for as the regular season comes to a close on Monday, May 13 with a game at defending champion Hicksville.
Whichever teams make the fewest mistakes are going to keep playing, Coach Carmine Verde said after Long Beach continued its hot streak last Friday with a 6-2 extra-inning win at Massapequa. The race for the county title is even more wide open than it was last year. We've played really well the last three weeks, and the girls are excited. I'm really impressed with them.
After a 1-4 start, it didn't appear as though the Lady Marines were going to be included in the county championship picture. But the victory over Massapequa was their eighth in the last 10 games. Junior shortstop Jessica Henck went 3-for-5 and had the big hit, a two-run triple in the top of the eighth.
We've been beating all the top teams, Verde said. The only two games we've lost recently were 2-1 to Baldwin and 1-0 to Syosset. We've been right there in every game. I knew we'd eventually play better ball than we were playing, but I wasn't so sure it was going to show in our record.
The Marines (9-6) have the ingredients to go deep in the playoffs, in part because they've been battle tested all along. Coach Verde points back to the second week of April when they registered a come-from-behind triumph over Hickville and followed with a 10-0 win over Hewlett that saw junior pitcher Gia Brugueras throw a no-hitter. She added a second no-hitter April 29 against South Side.
It's a long season, and that's the philosophy we took after we started out slow, Verde said. The girls continued to work hard. I think the win over Hicksville was a big boost for their confidence. And we came one strike away from beating Baldwin.
Brugueras
