Garden City's Late-Inning Rally Sinks South Side, 7-6

Garden City capped off its perfect season with a wild come-from-behind victory on Seniors' Day at home to rivals South Side on Thursday.

The Trojans rallied from 5-1 down to beat the Lady Cyclones, 7-6, booking their place in next week's Class A playoffs. The victory gave Garden City a perfect 10-0 record in Conference 4 and eliminated South Side  — whose only two losses were to Garden City — from the playoff picture.

Shortstop Nicole Storz went 3-for-4 with a game-tying, two-run single and the go-ahead run, Senior Cat Dorn  — one of four Trojans graduating this summer — went 3-for-4 with an RBI and Kimberly Ryan added two hits, a run and an RBI.

For South Side, Jane Dragovich was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and Lauren Jansen had two hits, a run and an RBI in the losing effort.

Starting pitcher Sam Maselli fanned six, walked one and hit two batters across six frames for the visitors. Trojans Brigid Reina struck out nine and walked four over seven innings. Garden City will now meet Class A No. 1 seed Plainedge May 13 in the first round of the postseason.

South Side coach Shannon McEntee said: "If we had split with them, it would have been a race to the playoffs, but this concretes them in now.

"The fifth and sixth innings are our struggle points, but the girls did almost everything right up to a couple little errors here and there that cost us. They're a really good team and I wish them luck."

The Trojans took the lead in the bottom of the second inning. Second baseman Ryan was hit on the leg with the bases loaded on the first pitch she saw, forcing home Katherine Vaughn who drew an eight-pitch walk with one out.

South Side, however, rallied for five runs in the third, batting around the lineup to take a commanding 5-1 lead. The five runs were the most surrendered by the Trojans in any one inning this season.

Lauren Joyce led off the inning with a walk and No. 9 hitter Kasey Ng reached on Storz's fielding error. Jansen then bunted for a base hit to fill the bases and Joyce slid home ahead of Ryan's throw home on Jessica Heckman's ground ball to second.

Ally Leonard walked to plate a run and give the Lady Cyclones the lead, and Antonia Modica made it 3-1 with a run-scoring grounder to third. Dragovich added two more on a booming double, but Trojans pitcher Reina struck out the final two batters to minimize the damage.

Garden City clawed one back in the bottom of the third inning when Dorn plated Schieck from second, but South Side regained its advantage in the fifth.Three consecutive singles loaded the bases, and after Joyce struck out and Dragovich was thrown out at home, Jansen made it 6-2 with an RBI single.

Gabby Zafonte kept the Trojans alive with a two-out RBI single to center field to bring home Storz in the home half of the fifth, and the team completed its comeback one inning later.Trailing 6-3, Trojans' first baseman Amanda Ferraro was hit by a pitch, and Ryan singled up the middle to bring the tying run to the plate.

Claudia Holub struck out and Reina popped out to short, but the middle of the lineup came through in a series of clutch moments. Schieck's RBI single cut the lead to 6-4, and Storz tied the game with a two-out, two-run base hit through the middle, advancing to second on the throw home.

Storz then stole third base and scored what proved to be the winning run on a pitch in the dirt. Dorn almost slugged her fifth homer of the year, but she missed it by inches after driving a 3-2 fastball off the left-center field fence and cruising into third.

Down to their final three outs and needing a run to keep their season alive, the Lady Cyclones sent their seven, eight and nine hitters to bat in the final  inning. Dorn threw out Sam Maselli on a bang-bang play at first, but Joyce and Ng each singled to put the tying and potential winning run on base.

Joyce was caught stealing third by several steps on a perfect throw from catcher Zafonte for the penultimate out, and Jansen lofted a fly ball to center field to end the game. As the ball settled into Holub's glove, the Trojans rushed in to celebrate while the Lady Cyclones were left wondering what might have been.

South Side, who will say goodbye to graduating seniors Lauren Lopresti, Maietti, Jansen and Modica this summer, will travel to Roosevelt to complete its season Monday.

"It was a developmental year for us," coach McEntee said. "We have a lot of young girls on the team and we will come back next year."