Kennedy Softball Falls Short Against Oceanside

The weather and the Kennedy Lady Cougars’ play seemed to go hand-in-hand on Thursday afternoon.

Kennedy’s slow start, thanks in part to the freezing rain which fell for the first four innings, left the Lady Cougars in too deep of a hole to climb out of, as they fell to the Oceanside Lady Sailors in a high-scoring Class AA-II matchup, 16-14.

The Lady Cougars led 2-0 early at Oceanside High School after back-to-back sacrifice flies from Heather Hulkower and Stephanie Bauman.

Oceanside took advantage of four walks and a hit batter with three hits to take a 5-2 lead after the first inning. The Lady Sailors tacked on three more in the bottom of the second to jump out to a six-run lead.

The Lady Cougars cut the lead to 8-7 on the strength of a two-run home run from Hulkower in the third and an RBI triple from Bauman in the fourth.

But Oceanside got four runs back in the bottom of the fourth after Jess Panzarino crushed a grand slam to centerfield.

The rain stopped after the grand slam and the Lady Cougars went on to outscore Oceanside 7-4 for the remainder of the game, but it was not enough.

“There are some teams that would just out there and fold and we didn’t do that,” Kennedy head coach Katie Speiss said. “We kept fighting to the very end, we kept getting the score closer and closer, and [they had] a few good catches at the end and that had them on top and not us.”

Despite the loss, Hulkower went 4-for-4 with the two-run home run, four RBIs and three runs scored. Bauman also went 4-for-4 with two RBIs and three runs scored. Senior center fielder Carly Thea went 3-for-4 with four runs scored.

Score: Oceanside 16, Kennedy 14

Records: Kennedy, 1-1; Oceanside, 2-0

Heroes: Panzarino’s grand slam was a huge boost for the Lady Sailors. Kennedy had scored five straight runs up until that point before the hit. Panzarino’s homer paved the way for a 7-0 stretch, which put the game out of reach for the Lady Cougars.

Hulkower was a threat each time she stepped up to the plate and kept Kennedy in the game with each swing.

“As my No. 3 hitter she has been nothing but line drive consistent,” said Speiss of Hulkower’s production at the plate.

Turning Point: The Lady Sailors five-run first inning set the tone for the rest of the game. In what turned out to be an offensive display for both teams, it was Oceanside that grabbed an early first-inning lead and never looked back.

Quotable: “I feel like the team, even when the chips were down, we came back,” Thea said. “Every time they scored, we scored. We were never ‘defeated,’ we kept persevering.”

Bottom Line: The weather certainly didn’t help the Lady Cougars’ cause, but Speiss said that her team still could have won.

“Obviously we wanted to win,” she said. “The conditions alone [were bad], but the other team had the conditions too. We didn’t play our best game, so there were some negatives, but at the same time we didn’t give up, so that was a positive.”

Kennedy showed a lot of fight despite trailing by six or more runs twice in the game. The Lady Cougars’ big bats at the top of the order did not stop swinging and will hurt quite a few of their opponents down the road.

“I’m lucky I got the bats all around that I have,” Speiss said. “My lineup is pretty solid so I think our bats are going to keep staying strong.”

Season Recap: The Lady Cougars defeated the Herricks Lady Highlanders 14-6 on Wednesday in their first game of the season.

Box Score