Seaford Drops Game Two of Softball Finals

If Seaford’s Lady Vikings softball squad is going to win the Nassau County Class A championship, it’s going to take three games.

One day after shocking regular season conference champion Plainedge with a  3-1 win, the Lady Vikings dropped game two of the best of three set Tuesday afternoon by a 5-1 margin, setting up a winner take all third game on Thursday.

A key moment in the game came in the first, when Seaford ran themselves out of a rally which could have set their opponents on their heels. And it came back to haunt them. Nicole Nulty hit a leadoff double to get things rolling, and was bunted over by Val Insardi. But the scoring opportunity evaporated when she tried to take home on a sharp Lindsay Montemarano grounder -- and on the ensuing at bat, Montemarano was called out stealing second to end what would have otherwise been a promising inning.

After that, despite hitting Michelle Daubman (pitching for the second day in a row) solidly, the Lady Vikings only managed to scrape up one run. It came in the bottom of the fourth, and was somewhat of a manufactured affair -- Val Insardi beat out an infield hit and promptly stole second, and was driven home by Lindsay Montemarano on a clean single that bounced over the second base bag and into centerfield.

Meanwhile, Seaford pitcher Hannah Spinola kept her team in the game, pitching solidly for four innings.

Still, it was 1-0 going into the top of the fifth when things began to unravel for Spinola.

To that point Spinola demonstrated that she has grown to be capable of taking the mound for Seaford with authority, holding Plainedge to one hit through four -- but in the fifth, a clean single and a ball that took a terrible bounce in front of shortstop Victoria Wink set up a 2 RBI single for Kate Finnen.

Plainedge took a 2-1 lead into the top of the seventh. However in the seventh, Plainedge tacked on three more runs in a rally that was sparked by three hits and some fielding problems for Seaford -- on a Finnen RBI single, a Taylor Curren sac fly and a third run that scored on a throwing error.

“Hannah pitched well enough to win,” said Seaford head coach Rob Perpall. “But we ran ourselves out of that first inning, and we made mistakes in the field.”

Still, Perpall expressed determination about the game Thursday, on behalf of the team. How much determination? “We’re going to win Thursday,” he predicted. "We can hit them. We’re going to win.”

The two teams play in the deciding third game for the Nassau County Class A title on Thursday at 4 p.m. at Mitchell Athletic Complex in Uniondale.