Sports
Big Inning Propels South Softball Past Scarsdale
Clarkstown South won 8-1 in a Class AA first-round playoff game played at Clarkstown North.
Even after hanging white and yellow streamers and balloons, the home team wasn’t home and was still surrounded by purple.
Still, for the Clarkstown South softball team, playing a home game at North isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“This has happened once before and it was in 2004,” said South Head Coach Maura Heebink. “We ended up playing John Jay-East Fishkill here and beating them for the first time ever, so it wasn’t a bad omen.”
The third-seeded Vikings won again as the home team on their rivals turf Friday afternoon, beating No. 14 Scarsdale, 8-1, in their first round matchup in the Class AA playoffs.
After a week with heavy rain and delayed games, the Vikings home field wasn’t playable by Friday, so they had to play somewhere else. Friday saw grey skies accompanied by some actual heat, but no rain, which Heebink said was a nice change for her team of late.
“It’s tough with all this rain. We’ve been in the gym for five days,” she said. “We’re coming off a high from , so you want to make sure you can keep that going and it’s tough on a day like this. It’s hot and humid, they’ve been practicing indoors.”
It didn’t really take that long for South to get going, however, as the Vikings scored six runs in the second inning to give them a comfortable lead they held throughout the game.
“It was key because it definitely put me in a better place and I think it put the whole team in a better place,” said South starting pitcher Sami McDonald.
Scarsdale threatened to score in both the first and second, but McDonald used some timely fielding and clutch pitching to keep the Raiders off the board. In the first, Rachel Halperin led off with a single, advanced to second on a fielder’s choice and stole third. Scarsdale Coach Dave Scagnelli then called for a squeeze play, having Libby Gross bunt. Gross laid one down, McDonald raced off the mound and flipped to Allie Tobias, who tagged our Halperin right before she crossed home.
“That was a designed play. Out leadoff batter was on third, who has got a lot of speed. Libby handled the bat great. It was an ideal situation for a squeeze play,” Scagnelli said. “Their pitcher did a good job getting to the ball and their catcher did a great job blocking the plate.”
In the second, Yuki Sekine led off with a single, followed by a single from Greta Bodine and a sac bunt by Taylor Mancini, putting runners on second and third with one out. McDonald bounced back to strike out the next two batters and end the threat.
“I definitely struggled in the beginning. I think it was just sections jitters,” McDonald said. “As the game went along I started to relax a little more and settle down. I think the runs from my team definitely helped me a lot.”
The bulk of the runs came in the second. After a flyout to lead off the inning, the next six batters, and nine of the next 10, reached base. The Vikings used a combination of singles, walks and poor defensive play by Scarsdale to score six runs in the inning.
“Anytime you give a team that can hit like this team can hit, anytime you give them extra outs, it’s going to cost you,” Scagnelli said. “We knew coming into today we needed to play a clean game in the field, and in that inning we gave them probably three extra outs.”
Tobias, who led off the inning with the flyout, capped it off by belting a two-run double over the left fielder’s head. The Vikings added two in the fifth on RBI singles by McDonald and Brittany Montana.
Scarsdale’s lone run came off the bat of Halperin, who belted a homer to dead center field to lead off the top of the third.
McDonald pitched five innings, giving up one run on four hits while striking out four and walking two. She retired the last two batters she faced. Montana pitched a scoreless sixth and seventh for South.
“All of my pitchers have the potential to throw a good game, to be excellent pitchers and they all seem to come through when they’re needed,” Heebink said. “Today, it was great to be able to pitch both of them to prepare, hopefully, for the rest of the tournament.”
The Vikings will play their next game at home Tuesday against the winner of matchup between No. 11 Mahopac and No. 6 Yorktown. Heebink wasn’t sure yet what time the game will be.
