By Tony Bellissimo
Valley Stream South and MacArthur High School were tied 1-1 in the best-of-three Nassau Class A girls- softball championship series heading into the decisive Game 3, scheduled for Wednesday at Mitchel Athletic Complex.
The third-seeded Lady Falcons took the opener, 2-0, on Monday, getting 14 strikeouts from junior pitcher Diana DiPiano. But top-seeded MacArthur stayed alive with a 1-0 victory on Tuesday, as pitcher Leah Bogsted allowed only one hit.
The winner of Wednesday-s game will face Suffolk champ Islip for the Long Island Class A crown June 1 at 4 p.m. at Mitchel.
Valley Stream South, the two-time defending Nassau Class B champion, moved into the Class A championship series with a 2-0 semifinal victory over Seaford at Mitchel last Thursday. DiPiano scattered three hits, walked one and struck out seven. Consecutive singles in the bottom of the third inning by senior Ali Hertling and DiPiano, followed by a two-out, two-run single from junior Kaitlin Amitrano, provided DiPiano with all the run support she needed.
It was our usual type of one- or two-run game, Coach Dom Fontana said after South advanced to the series with MacArthur. I don-t think we know how to play any other way. We-re always in close battles, and fortunately most of the time we come out on top.
The three singles were the only hits Seaford pitcher Gina Vivona allowed. We hit her better during the regular season, Fontana said. But Diana was just as good, if not better. She didn-t allow more than one base runner in any inning. They had only one runner reach third base.
On the adjacent field, MacArthur was beating Lynbrook 4-0 behind Bogstead. She-s got tremendous movement on the ball, and we-ll need to cut down on strikeouts, Fontana said. If we can put the ball in play a little more, that could be the difference between winning and losing.
The Lady Generals and Lady Falcons split regular-season meetings, with MacArthur winning 1-0 (a 13-strikeout no-hitter by Bogstead) and South getting even 5-2 in extra innings (with DiPiano fanned 15).
I think most people are expecting the series to go three games, Fontana said before the final series began. It-s going to come down to the little things, like moving runners over and manufacturing runs. It shouldn-t take more than three runs to win any game.
Photos by Frank Koester/Herald
