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Softball: Cougars fall in playoffs
Team qualifies for first time in 10 years
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The Centereach Cougars put the wraps on their 2009 softball regular season with a 2-0 loss to visiting East Islip Friday afternoon. But instead of shaking hands to the words of "see you next year" it was to the tune of "good luck in the playoffs." That's right, for the first time in a decade Centereach made the playoffs.
The Cougars finished the season in fourth place with a 10-9 League III record, 12-9 overall and will played their first postseason game since 1999 this week. "It's a great accomplishment," said first year head coach Sal Santoro. "It's something no one gave us a chance to do this year and nobody can take it away from them. I am proud of the effort we had from the girls the entire season. We have high hopes for them. I think that we can play with anybody."
Unfortunately, the Cougars couldn't capitalize on their first playoff game, which was held May 19. Although they were accorded home field advantage by virtue of their regular season record, things just didn't pan out as they should have. The 17th seeded Half Hollow Hills West edged Centereach (No. 16) 2-1 in the opening round of the Suffolk County Class AA softball tournament.
Two costly errors allowed the Colts to plate two unearned runs in the fourth inning giving them a 2-0 lead.
Centereach rallied for a single run in their half of the fourth as Cassie Martinez scored on a DeCosimo single. But that would be the extent of the Cougars' offense. Martinez — as she's done all season — pitched well enough to win yielding just five hits while striking out six and walking three, but came up empty. Alyssa Bitzimis earned the complete game victory for Hills West allowing five hits, fanning two and walking one.
"It's a tough one for us to swallow," said Santoro. "We beat ourselves in the fourth. But we battled like we did all season. We want to be back again next year."
In their final game of the season on May 15 against East Islip, the Cougars fell 2-0. The defending league champs, who pounded the Cougars 19-5 on April 14, had their hands full Friday as Martinez and East Islip senior Megan Sweezy locked horns in a classic pitcher's duel. Martinez, whose compact motion was as powerful as a pitching machine in overdrive, yielded one earned run while scattering six hits, walking one and striking out two in taking the hard luck loss.
Sweezy, featuring a deceptive motion that was all arms and legs exploding from the ground was even better. Sweezy was dominant in keeping the Cougar bats in check on two hits while fanning 10 and walking one. At one point she had retired 11 in a row until the Cougars put back-to-back runners on in the seventh.
East Islip got the only run they needed in the third. Courtney Blake led the inning off with a sharp single to center. After Martinez retired the next two batters, Colleen Smith lined an opposite field double over the third base bag scoring Blake for a 1-0 East Islip lead.
The Redmen added another run in the seventh. With two outs Michelle McKinnon grounded to short for what should have been the final out of the inning. But a throwing error allowed McKinnon to continue to second base where she scored on Danielle Groneman's single.
Meanwhile, Sweezy had allowed only two Cougars to reach base through six innings, a two-out walk to Martinez in the first and a leadoff single to Jaclyn Binstock in the fourth. But with two outs in the seventh the Cougars mounted a rally.
With two outs Roxanne DeCosimo reached on an error. Then Amanda Burnett beat out an infield single to second putting running on first and second. But Sweezy remained unfazed. She enticed Amanda Feeney to ground harmlessly to first base to end the game.
Afterward, Martinez, who has suffered through three losing seasons with the Cougars, offered her thoughts on the game and her performance.
"I thought my location was good," she said. "The first time we played them they hit two home runs off inside screw balls, so I wanted to keep the ball down so I usually threw a drop curve. I was pretty satisfied today. They got their hits off pitches that were down the middle."
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