Lady Dawgs Fall in Game One of Softball Finals

Four last-inning runs from the No. 2 Plainedge Red Devils erased a nearly flawless afternoon of softball for the Island Trees Lady Dawgs Wednesday, and gave the Red Devils a 4-1 win and a 1-0 series lead in the Nassau Class A finals.

The top-ranked Lady Dawgs (18-3) went up 1-0 in the bottom of the sixth after pitcher Alannah Basile singled to drive in Tori Tedeshi, who hit a bomb of a triple on the previous pitch.

The lead was short-lived, however, as a one-out walk to Plainedge's ninth hitter in the top of the seventh was followed by two straight hits to load the bases. Red Devils catcher Taylor Curran then hit a bases-clearing double to put her team up 3-1.

Curran scored on an error one batter later to bump the Plainedge (15-4) lead up to 4-1.

"You get the run that you need and you don't come up with the defensive plays behind it — you walk the nine batter," Island Trees head coach Mike Bongiorno said. "... They had the one big hit and that's all they needed."

The Lady Dawgs outhit Plainedge — eight to six — but were still outscored. Island Trees started the second inning with three straight hits to load the bases with no outs, but failed to score any runs.

Island Trees had another opportunity in the bottom of the fourth after Basile reached base with a leadoff single. However, a nice grab by Plainedge right fielder Christina Trombadore followed by a foul ball catch into the fence by first baseman Dolores Diemicke held the Lady Dawgs scoreless.

"It's tough when you leave too many runners on base. When we put the ball in play, we just couldn't finish it," Bongiorno said. "... [We had] the bases loaded and didn't put any runs across — that's huge."

Basile pitched a complete game, allowing six hits, while walking five and striking out eight. The pitcher also went 3-for-3 at the plate.

Tedeshi went 2-for-3 for the Lady Dawgs.

Island Trees was 2-0 against Plainedge during the regular season, but the No. 1 team in all of Class A now faces elimination in the best-of-three series Thursday afternoon.

"You lose, you go home," Bongiorno said. "I think they're going to be ready, they're going to be focused and they're going to realize what's at stake."

Thursday's game starts will be at Mitchel Field at 4 p.m.