You play every team twice in high school softball.
Newfield got the better of Riverhead, 4-3 the first go-around. They weren’t so lucky the second.
Tied at 4-4 entering the bottom of the sixth inning at Riverhead High School, head coach Jeff Doroski hyped his team up before they went out to hit.
“Make it happen here,” he said. “Then we get three outs and we go home.”
It was as if he had the script to the game because that’s exactly how it went down.
Freshman Ally O’Kula hit a rocket to right-center field to start off the inning with a double. It was her second double in as many at-bats and both were crushed.
“Ally has struggled this year to be consistent at the plate,” Doroski said. “We did a lot of work with her this week and she’s been very coachable and some of that work paid off today. I hope this is a confidence builder for her.”
Maria Dillingham then reached base on a walk and Katie Mckillop took care of the rest. The senior ripped the ball down the left field line to put the Blue Waves up 5-4 but Dillingham was thrown out at the plate for the second out of the inning. With two outs on the board, the damage was just beginning.
Dani Napoli followed up and knocked a single into left field to bring Mckillop in to score and then Kim Ligon hit a ball up the middle that nicked off the pitchers glove for an infield single and another RBI.
Riverhead (7-5 League II) closed out the top of the seventh inning in one-two-three fashion and the Blue Waves walked away with a 7-4 victory over the Wolverines.
That marks three straight wins for the Blue Waves as they make a push for the playoffs. With eight games remaining, they need just three more wins to qualify.
“We’ve got to get to 10 wins,” Doroski said. “But with the way we’ve been playing we shouldn’t be content with just 10 wins. Most of the games we lost this year were close and a lot of these teams that we think we can beat we’ll see again.”
Newfield’s coach had one sentence for her team as they sat in the dugout with long faces.
“We play every team twice,” she said.
Walt Whitman travels to Riverhead for a 4pm start tomorrow.
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