Softball: Hen Hud's Buckner and Panas' O'Reilly Earn All-State Honors

Recent high-school graduates, Hendrick Hudson center fielder Rachel Buckner and Walter Panas’ catcher/shortstop Mary O’Reilly, may have taken different roads to softball stardom but the bottom line is they each reached the pinnacle of postseason honors as they were both named all-state recently.

Buckner was all-state third team while O’Reilly was all-state fourth team. Each player has been a varsity starter all four years of playing high-school ball.

Buckner plays softball just during the high-school season. She is going to Occidental College in Los Angeles, Calif. to play tennis, where she was all-state twice in doubles and a six-time all-section winner.

“It means a lot to be named all-state in softball, especially playing pitchers from Eastchester or Pearl River who are outstanding people and players and to be among them is really an honor because I don’t play year-round,” said Buckner, whose batting average was .540. “I pretty much just play it during the high-school season.”

O’Reilly, on the other hand, plays softball outside of the high-school campaign for the Jersey Inferno Elite Gold and is going to play the sport in college at the University of Delaware in Newark, Del.

“I was completely surprised that I made all-state,” O’Reilly said who added she was shocked and excited and that it had been a life-long goal of hers. “It’s a dream for me, I always wanted to be all-state. It was awesome. I was just really happy.”

“It’s a huge honor,” said O’Reilly, who hit this season for a .438 average and who views reaching her life-long goal as a major accomplishment.

Buckner said that what has enabled her to reach such a lofty status in two sports is simple work ethic.

“I was always looking to improve in whatever I was doing,” Buckner said. “I know I am a good softball player and I know what my potential is, which is to get big hits at the plate or make big plays in center field when my team needs it. So what motivates me is just to be the best for myself and for my team. I just have that mentality to try and be the best.”

O’Reilly says what has motivated her to be the best is playing around great players on her travel and high-school teams.

“I just always wanted to be the best of the best,” O’Reilly said. “I always wanted to be at the top of my game. I never wanted to stop, I never wanted anything to discourage me. I just wanted to get to be at the top level, where some the best players are. I watched college ball all the time, I did everything I could to get there. I am going to be playing at a Division I school next year, it’s just a dream come true.”

A dream that she will happily live out at Delaware. She will play for coach Jaime Wohlbach, who gave O’Reilly catching lessons when she coached at Iona College.

Wolbach was the coach for the New Rochelle-based school for three seasons, before taking the job at Delaware last year.

“I thought it was a great opportunity athletically but also Jaime Wohlbach is the head coach for Delaware, my catching coach for a few years now,” O’Reilly said. “She has always inspired me as a catcher. I just always wanted to play for her and this is my opportunity, my shot.”

As for Buckner, she explains why she is taking her shot at tennis in college 3,000 miles away.

“Where the school is located is beautiful, like the campus itself,” Buckner said. “Besides from that, the community around it is very creative and that’s what type of people I want to be around, more open-minded and creative people.”