WPCNR PRESS BOX. By John F. Bailey. June 7, 2008: Caitlin Schell leaped high in the circle after just getting Yorktown’s big boppette, Cassie Reilly Boccia swinging on a 2-strike pitch with the tying runs on first and second for the second out in the last of the fifth in Saturday afternoon’s Class AA Section 1 Championship game.
Schell still had a 2-0 lead and had to get the Husker cleanup hitter, Tori Matzura to get out of the inning without having to face Casey O’Connor and Reilly-Boccia again for the rest of the way. The crisis seemed past.
However, she walked catcher Matzura on five pitches, not even close, loading the bases. Stepping in was Alia Afifi who had singled sharply and walked previously, a dangerous hitter.
Schell made the first fastball (obviously trying to get ahead), a little too good, a little too up, in the wheelhouse and Afifi got a LOT of it – right on the button with a quick sweet swing, blasting a screamer “on a LINE” (as Met broadcaster Lindsey Nelson used to say) into the gap in right centerfield. But the outfielders were playing straight and not deep.
Chaos!
Huskers Porcelli, O’Connor and pinch runner Laura Pirogi (the potential winning run) were wheeling around the bases at top speed.
The ball got down in a hurry rolling, rolling, rolling all the way to the fence, one run scored, the tying run scored, and the rightfielder’s throw to the plate to head off the go-ahead runner streaming around third, all the way from first was up the first base line and late. It was not close.
Three runs came across to give the Huskers a 3-2 lead. On the walk that followed, the inning ended on a look-back violation. But Arlington which had given Yorktown a great battle was not done.
With Yorktown’s crafty Dana Bisaccia – master of speeds -- just about out of gas in the 95 degree and humidity, Emily Peltz walked and Olivia Reeves (who was 3 for 3 and nearly threw out Yorktown’s Porcelli at second on O’Connors sharp single to center in the last of the fifth) singled up the middle, putting the equalizer and the go-aheader on the bases with no one out for the Admirals.
Erin Weinberg was up next, the Designated Player. After a conference on the hill. Action resumed. Arlington chose not to bunt and move the runners up. Weinberg swung away.
Crack! Disaster! 1 Swing 3 Outs.
The first pitch was lined to the right side, ankle high at second sacker Kasey O’Conner! O’Connor in the baseline, made an instinctive backhand spear of the ball off her right ankle at her shoetop. What a play! OUT!
Arlington’s Reeves, off with the crack of the bat thinking hit all the way, was 30 feet off first. O’Connor slung the softball to first sacker Reilly-Boccia for out number two!
Reilly Boccia seeing the lead runner at third fired the ball to shortstop Porcelli for the TRIPLE PLAY, A 4-3-6 trifecta, crushing the rally in one pitch. It was electrifying.
Going Quietly
In the seventh, Arlington had two outs with the bases empty. Their last hope got on base via an error, but inexplicably the last hitter, bunted into an championship-winning third to first out, close, but out on a solid play by the thirdbaser Elayne Dombrowski under great pressure.
The Huskers had come from behind like Champions, showing strength in their lineup from top to bottom had won their second consecutive Section 1 Class AA Championship.
The Huskers threw their caps into the air celebrating a great victory.
A Lesson in Heart in the Heat
Arlington's Caitlin Schell, pitched terrifically, heroically, valiantly in the heat as did Yorktown’s crafty diminutive rightside windmiller, Dana Bisaccia, who pitched out of a 2 on, no one out jam in the second by striking out the side, and threw a triple play ball when she needed it (that is a softball joke, fans.) You rarely see a triple play in the bigs, and never see it in fastpitch, but we saw one today.
Arlington scored a run in the third to break the ice in this ballgame on a single by Jessie Chapman who moved to second on a passed ball. After a flyout, Schell lashed a single to right to take a 1-0 lead. Arlington added another run in the fifth when Valerie Nelson singled and took second when the leftfielder bobbled the ball. She moved to third on a bunt by Jesse Chapman and leadoff hitter Dombrowski ripped a single in the shortstop hole to left for a 2-0 lead.
Game of Inches
The Yorktown winning rally started with one out, when Porcelli singled to center on a 3-2 pitch. Then Kasey O’Connor whacked a sinking liner to left center. Reeves tried for a shoestring catch, and short-hopped the ball getting off a quick throw to second that just missed getting Dombrowski at second, who had had to hold to see if Reeves was going to catch the ball. It was a very close play. That set the stage for Affifi’s heroic bases-clearing double.
It was a Section Championship to remember in weather as hot and as tough to play in as you will ever see and feel. The sweat just dripped off you in the blaze of heat and humidity. But everyone was on their game. Lots of banger calls at first base. Courageous, reach-back-for-that-something-extra pitching and opportunitstic plays. Paige Murray, the Arlington rightfielder stopped a run from scoring from second on a single in the 4th uncorking a teriffic charge and throw to the plate. The teams were a testimony to the heart and grit of these two fine fastpitch programs.
Schell walked five and fanned four, allowing 7 hits, only one for extra bases – the game winner. Bisaccia, going the distance, mixed speeds well, used her fastball sparingly, scattering 7 hits, walking 2 and recorded 5 strikeouts, none after the third inning. She was economical, too throwing only 77 pitches. Schell threw 89 in six innings of work.
