Sports
Miller Place Softball Falls 1-0 to Islip
Islip's Marissa Wilson and Miller Place's Jackie Gallagher pitcher's duel was decided by Gallagher's only mistake: a home run by Wilson herself in the seventh inning.
Eighth grade starting pitchers Jackie Gallagher of Miller Place and Islip's Marissa Wilson threw up zero after zero on the scoreboard Thursday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Suffolk A division softball playoffs at Miller Place High School.
Finally in the seventh inning Wilson had had enough. She smashed an offering from Gallagher to the opposite field and over the right field fence for a solo homer – and the game’s only run.
“She’s been our number five hitter all year, she’s really coming on as a pitcher,” Islip head coach Dennis McSweeney said. “She’s only going to get better for us. She’s the rock of what we do.”
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Wilson pitched the complete game shutout, surrendering only five hits and striking out five as Islip advanced to play Kings Park on Saturday in the semis.
Gallagher nearly matched her, going the full seven innings and striking out 11 while only allowing four hits. “She did a great job fooling us all day, she was tough as nails,” McSweeney said.
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Miller Place had runners in scoring position in each of the first three innings. In the first Lauren DuBois was hit by a pitch following a single by Torrie Gallagher but Marlaina Sherman was not able to get the run in. In the second Paige Matuk sacrificed to move Tori Carlo to second base but she got no further. In the third, a Torrie Gallagher single put runners on first and second with one out, but Wilson retired the next two batters to get out of the jam. After the third, Wilson did not allow a hit until the bottom of the seventh.
“We had opportunities and we didn’t convert,” Miller Place coach Liz Borsetti said. “We had first and second a couple of times and didn’t convert but credit to the pitcher, she put the ball in the right spot.”
Adding to Jackie Gallagher’s performance was the fact that she started the game with a 102-degree fever, according to Borsetti.
Both teams played solid defense and it felt all day that one mistake was going to make the difference in the game.
“There was one bad ball and she put it over the fence,” Borsetti said. “That was the way the ball bounced today.”
