Sports Recap: Fox Lane Reaps Awards

Fox Lane baseball

For Fox Lane it was an outstanding year on the diamond, as it finished 18-4, won its league championship and made it to the Section 1 Class AA championship game. There it lost a hard-fought contest to Ketcham 5-4.

Having a season like that, the Foxes deservedly so earned postseason honors. Being named all-section were seniors, pitcher/catcher Chad Stroud (.377 batting average, 17 RBI, 2 home runs), second baseman and co-captain Jake McGrath (.443, 24, 1) and center fielder and co-captain Donny Castaldo (.452, 25, 3).

Those three also earned all-league honors in addition to sophomores, first baseman Matt Oniffrey (.430, 30, 7) and shortstop Richard Slenker (.423, 13, 1) and junior pitcher T.J. Hallock (.394, 30, 4).

On the mound, Stroud was 5-0 with 30 strikeouts and a 3.39 earned run average while Hallock finished 4-2 with 44 strikeouts and a 1.55 ERA.

McGrath said that it was a gratifying feeling for him and his teammates to see that the job they did on the field was recognized with those awards.

“It’s definitely nice to be acknowledged like that,” McGrath said. “We always worked hard at every practice and at every game. We just wanted to go out and play as hard as we could, right from the beginning of the season.”

That hard work put the Foxes in position to win its league championship.

McGrath said a key point in the season came when Fox Lane avenged a 4-1 loss at Harrison on May 12 with a 13-12 victory against the visiting Huskies four days later.

“It was great for the program to win the league, especially being able to bounce back from the loss to Harrison and come back in a rough game to beat them,” McGrath said. “It showed that we could win and that we would never give up.”

McGrath, who played two years on the varsity for Fox Lane, said it’s that type of attitude that he is going to miss being around.

“I am going to miss how exciting it is to play a home game,” McGrath said. “I am going to miss the fans on the hill. I am going to miss the way we approached the game. I am going to miss coach (Matt) Hillis and the way he made us better baseball players and better people.”

McGrath will meet new people this fall when he attends Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT. There, he will try to walk on to the school’s baseball team.

“It was a tough decision for me to make but it just came down to a gut feeling about the school,” McGrath said. “The main thing for me is school and then baseball will come with that. I have to focus on my grades. Hopefully I will be able to be on the team there and have a good time.”

Fox Lane Softball

Fox Lane enjoyed its best season in recent memory as it recorded a 14-5 record and earned a berth in the Section 1 Class AA tournament.

Like the baseball squad, the softball team also earned well deserved awards for their efforts. Winning all-section honors was senior pitcher/first baseman ToniAnn Licata, who will play next season at the University of Maryland and sophomore catcher Christie Lombardi. Junior pitcher/first baseman Allison Lombardi, Christie's sister, was named all-section honorable mention.

Those three were also all-league as were juniors, shortstop Isabella Rago and third baseman Jenna D’Adamo.

“It’s so great for us because we feel like as a school we never get that much recognition, Fox Lane sports in general, so we are really happy that this year we got so many people who were all-section and all-league,” Allison Lombardi said.

There were a few reasons why the Foxes were as successful as they were.

“This year we had a lot of talent and we played together, we got along so well,” Allison Lombardi said. “We had one of the best lineups in the section and we played strong defense for most of the year.”

A year that the Foxes will never forget.

“Our coach (Anthony Rodrigues) said he can’t remember a team at Fox Lane that got 14 wins before, it’s been a really long time,” Allison Lombardi said. “It’s really great for us. We are definitely moving in the right direction. We are a well established team that people have to look out for now."