Softball: Riverhead falls apart late in 3-0 loss to North Babylon

Through five innings on Saturday morning, Riverhead’s sophomore pitcher Casey Plitt held North Babylon without a hit. Plitt, who’s not an overpowering pitcher, was crafty with her pitch choice and location throughout the day. The Bulldogs couldn’t really get a read on her. Riverhead’s offense however, failed to capitalize on opportunities to put runs up early on so entering the top of the 6th inning the game was still scoreless.

With one out in the 6th, North Babylon’s Nahtica Shepherd finally put an end to the no-hitter by hitting a deep double that slid under the fence.

The game-plan was simple from this point forward for North Babylon: bunt.

The next batter bunted and the ball hit her a few feet out of the box. “Foul!” screamed the home plate umpire. Riverhead’s head coach Jeff Doroski jumped out of his seat and pleaded for help from the field umpire. “It hit her out of the box,” he said.

It should have been an out according to the rule book but it remained a foul ball.

“You can’t control those type of things,” Doroski said afterwards.

Then after putting down the bunt on the next pitch, the batter was called safe in a very close call at first base that could have went either way. The No. 3 hitter received another bunt call by the coach and stabbed and missed at the ball as the runner stole second base. “Ball,” the umpire said.

“But she offered!” Doroski yelled.

“That’s just wrong,” assistant coach Dave McKillop said.

The call remained. They bunted again and scored two runs on an arid throw home.

“The tendency as a player is that you lose your focus and concentration when calls fall out of your favor,” Doroski said. “It’s tough to rebound from those things and I would strongly disagree with the calls that were made or not made but again you can’t go back and change those things.”

Riverhead (3-4 League II) couldn’t rebound. Karla Vanston started the 7th inning with a single but nothing came of it and North Babylon (6-0 League II) returned home with a 3-0 victory.

North Babylon’s head coach complained about a strike call in the 6th and Doroski shouted across the diamond, “hey I hear ya.”

Sometimes the players control the outcomes other times they’re not so fortunate.

Maria Dillingham went 2-3 with two singles in the loss.

“One thing I’ve said in all our losses this year was that every single one of those games has been 3-0, 3-1, 4-3 against teams I think we’re as good as if not better than,” Doroski said. “We just didn’t have some things go our way or get big hits when we needed to but we’ll bounce back and I think this loss will help us going forward.”

Riverhead play Central Islip in a rescheduled game on Monday.

RiverheadLOCAL photos by Peter Blasl.