Bellmore Blue Fire Wins LI Invitational Girls Softball Tournament

The following is from the Bellmore Little League:

Bellmore Little League is extremely proud of its girls fastpitch softball teams. During the weekend of June 25, the Bellmore Blue Fire U-14 entered a challenging fastpitch tournament hosted by the Long Island Wave.  

The tournament hosted five very competitive teams from throughout Long Island and the Bronx in the U-14 division. The tournament was played at Christopher Morley Park.

Bellmore had a 2-0-1 record in the pool play round on Saturday. All games were competitive and difficult. With the third seed entering the Sunday elimination round, the team had its day cut out for it facing the Wave in the first game.

The Wave jumped out to a 2-0 early lead on the Blue Fire team. To make matters worse, Bellmore lost one of its top pitchers after the second inning with a strained calf muscle. Having to change the defense around and work as a team, Bellmore looked to Brianna Maniscalco to take over on the pitcher’s mound.

“We have a very solid infield and the girls in the infield have been playing together for years. They know each other, communicate, back up and cover each other on every play”, says coach Joe Maniscalco.

To start the third inning with the team still down 3-1 at the time, Maniscalco had to battle a tough LI Wave lineup. She used her fastball, off-speed pitches and spotted her pitches to keep the LI Wave in check.

Bellmore started to make some noise off a great Wave pitcher in the fourth inning. The Wave then brought in their big righty to try and shut the door.

With the bases loaded and two outs, Bellmore’s Katie Grodski delivered a powerful double in the gap to score two runs and give the Blue Fire a 5-3 lead. After that, the BlueFire team never gave up the lead.

Timely hitting by Nicole Moccio, Kristina Barry, Sara Coluccio, Victoria Bova, Alexa Boscarino and Katie Grodski kept the Blue Fire ahead of the Wave. Stellar catching by Nicole Aliberti solidified the infield and the defense of Maniscalco, Barry, Moccio, Ashley Boscarino and Amanda Riveira was amazing. Mairead Ryan, Emily Madden and Jamie Kanner provided sound pinch running. 

Riveira came in and shut the door at the end of the game.

“They continue to go out there and surprise us on their ability to capture victory in the face of possible adversity," Bellmore coach Steve Boscarino said.

“The team plays because they love the game and their teammates.  They do not play because they need to win.  That is the main difference in their success.  They are out elite team and a wonderful group of girls.  Our success is not measured by wins and losses but how we play the game”, added Steve Kropp, the president of Bellmore Little League.

The Bellmore BlueFire U14 team consists of Ashley Boscarino, Alexa Boscarino, Mairead Ryan, Brianna Maniscalco, Amanda Riveira, Nicole Moccio, Nicole Aliberti, Amanda Steinberg, Emily Madden, Kristina Barry, Victoria Bova, Katie Grodski, Sara Coluccio, Jamie Kanner, and Tori Rinck.