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Cougars lose hard fought battle to Bulls
Centereach pitcher Cassie Martinez, a junior, goes the distance in 10-inning game
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April 09, 2009 | 02:07 PM
An errant throw to home in the bottom of the 10th inning gave Smithtown East a hard fought 3-2 win over visiting Centereach in League III softball action last Wednesday.
Senior Courtney Mason went the distance in picking up the win for the Bulls. Mason allowed one earned run over 10 innings while fanning 10, walking two and surrendering 11 hits. Junior Cassie Martinez was the hard luck loser for the Cougars. Martinez whiffed seven, yielded 11 hits, walked two and gave up one unearned run in also going the distance. In fact it was the longest Martinez has gone in a game in her high school career.
Martinez deserved better from her offense. Indeed, this was a game the Cougars just as easily could have won. In all, Centereach left 14 runners on base, including the bases loaded twice.
The Bulls broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the third. Eighth-grader Mackenzie Buckley doubled home Andrea Eaton from second who reached on an error earlier in the inning to take a 1-0 lead. Smithtown added a run in the fifth following a double to the left field fence by Buckley and a ground single to left by Mason.
Trailing 2-0 the Cougars rallied for a run in the top of the sixth. Martinez led off with a ground single to left. Then with Danielle Hamlin running for Martinez Hamlin moved to second on a wild pitch. Monica Pcipol then delivered a clutch single to right scoring Hamlin. The Cougars would go on to load the bases against Meade but failed to plate any more runs as Meade fanned Kelly Stevens to end the uprising.
Centereach tied the game in the seventh. Roxanne DeCosimo led off with a double into the left field gap. An error on a sacrifice attempt put runners on second and third with no outs. Pcipol then came through again as she singled home DeCosimo with the tying run.
The game remained knotted at 2-2 until the bottom of the 10th. Using the international tie-breaker rule of starting an inning with a runner on second, Fran Busa led off with a single to center putting runners on first and third with no one out. Martinez then enticed Emily Cisternino to pop out to short center field. Maggie Engellenner was intentionally walked to load the bases. Nicolle O'Donnell then grounded sharply to short, but the throw home sailed over the head of Centereach catcher Caitlyn Caputo allowing the winning run to cross the plate.
"I thought the kids battled," said first year varsity coach Sal Santora. "We have to learn how to play in these tight games and come up in the clutch."
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