Softball: Horsemen Overcame Injuries, Finished Strong In 2011

It's not how you start, it's how you finish.

Sleepy Hollow subscribed to this motivational maxim from the very beginning of the 2011 season. At first, the chances of the Headless Horsemen skyrocketing into the league's upper crust seemed nil.

Why?

The youth-laden club was an accurate depiction of the walking wounded, with three projected starters on the shelf due to nagging injuries.

The Horsemen' roster included an infusion of J.V. players. Many were called up to take the place of missing pieces. Each were thrown into big-game situations for the first time. The experience certainly paid dividends for them down the line. During a crucial juncture in early May, the Horsemen rattled off three out of four to earn a berth in the Section I playoffs.

Last year, it was one monster inning by the opponent that ultimately did Sleepy Hollow in. This year, a no.12 Sleepy Hollow team bolstered by speed on the base paths and a newfound ability to keep errors at a minimum, looked to send shockwaves down no.5 Pelham's spine.

Ultimately, they were one-run short in a barnburner. Two tight defenses (Sleepy's outfield moved in because of Pelham's proclivity for knocking the ball into seams in shallow field), several eye-popping plays, and a flat-out pitchers' duel between the Pelicans' Kelly Keith (who piled up 12 strikeouts and yielded two earned runs in seven innings of work) and Jamie Bucci (who fanned three but induced a number of ground balls and stress-free fly outs) made for a down-to-the-wire battle.

"I've done coaching for 20 years, it was one of the best softball games in the history of softball," said Milewski. "It was just a great, great, game. No errors. Anybody that didn't see it, they missed a treat. There wasn't any fireworks, it was a game defined by great defense."

Bucci, who has been the catalyst, scored both runs for the Horsemen (10-11). She stole home with two outs in the top of the sixth. Taylor Zayas made a number of acrobatic plays at first as the defensive-minded Horsemen kept a hot-hitting team in check.

In the end, the Pelicans--which hung seven runs in a five-run win against Ardsley on May 31 (prolonging their run into the sectional playoffs) gutted out a 3-2 win. 

Sleepy Hollow made the Pelicans, which blasted Roosevelt-Yonkers in a 15-0 walloping the prior game, look like the Day of the Dead Bats.

Bucci and the infield kept turning defensive plays and negating Pelham's top three hitters. They were on the way to scripting their own version The Taking of Pelham 123.

"There was no scoring, no hitting, nothing," said Milewski. "Taylor made grade plays at first. They had a bunch of speed demons. But they couldn't really drive the ball against us. So I put my outfielders in the infield."

In the top of the seventh, Pelham steered the playoff pressure cooker. They erased a 2-1 defecit and plated two runs, eking out a wire-to-wire battle.

While spitting out a lead as they were eliminated from the playoffs was tough, Sleepy has nothing to hang their heads about.

The Horsemen will bid adieu to a pair of seniors in Brittany Brand (a four-year starter and defensive stalwart who deposited several big hits) and Mariana Tolentino, who played a significant role as a considerable threat to snag bases. Both players will be claimed by June 2011 graduation.

The team returns arguably the best all-around player in the league Jamie Bucci, who is a junior. They also return power hitter Jen Onwe, the aforementioned others, and a slew of players who will step into bigger roles.