Seaford Softball Faces Up To Early Season Adversity

It’s been a challenging season so far for the softball team, which has enjoyed amazing success on the diamond in recent years including seven conference titles in a row.

The Lady Vikings boast skilled ballplayers in several key positions and at the plate, and a pitching roster that, while not mowing down opponents, can be effective. But putting a whole game together -- defense that’s good enough to keep the team in a game and offense that can capitalize on that opportunity -- has so far proved fairly elusive.

With a 1-4 record in conference play (2-4 overall), the Lady Vikings’ stats reveal a team that, when they win, are dominating -- but when they lose, are capable of giving up a lot of runs.

There’s been two close contests so far, but pretty much in four games, it’s been a season of blowout losses or wins.

Seaford’s posted 8-1 and 9-0 wins against Sewanhaka and Jericho respectively. On the other hand, the Lady Vikings have posted a 14-0 loss at Plainedge and this past Saturday’s home 10-4 loss to Floral Park.

The difference between losses to Plainedge and Floral Park, however, suggest some promise for the Seaford girls. Against Plainedge, there was no contest -- the Lady Vikings were dominated from the get-go, giving up the long ball and showing very little sign that they had anything to counter with at the plate as the Lady Red Devils cruised to a 5 inning no-hitter.

By contrast, Saturday’s game against Floral Park remained a contest through seven innings. With Lauren Pfaff pitching the first four and Hannah Spinola relieving, Floral Park (3-2, 4-3) was only able to muster its lead playing small ball, taking advantage of walks, stolen bases, a few singles and the occasional defensive lapse -- a dropped throwout, or a grounder or two that sped underneath the mitt of an infielder.

To their credit, the Lady Vikings have faced adversity with resilience. Down by five runs in the first two innings and taking the field in the top of the third, a Seaford outfielder shouted to her teammates ‘we’re still in this!’

And while other teams might have folded their tents down by nine in the bottom of the seventh, this team staged an impressive rally, bringing eight batters to the plate, scoring a couple of runs and putting a little scare into their opponents as the entire bench stood up and cheered.

The never-say-die seventh inning rally was uplifting for Seaford fans and players alike.

Number nine hitter Ally Palazzo got things started with a clean single and a steal -- coming around for the first RBI when Victoria Wink sent a power shot into left field for a double. Wink came around to score on a sharp grounder by Lindsay Montermarano that the Floral Park second baseman couldn’t handle -- and came around to score, herself, on a single by Nicole Nulty.

Though the game ended with Seaford on the wrong end of yjr 10-4 score, it was proof enough that this is a team which has talent and pride to bring.

The Lady Vikings have a chance to improve on their season record in a home game on Tuesdayagainst Clarke (0-4, 1-4 overall) starting at 4:45 p.m.