Hustle is Maria Dillingham’s game and it was on full display Tuesday afternoon at home in the season finale against first-place West Islip.
After bunting for a base hit, Dillingham was advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Katie McKillop. Danni Napoli followed with a fly ball that Dillingham tagged up on and scored after an arid throw came in from right field into third.
“She is, in my short time here, one of the most dynamic athletes that I’ve ever coached,” Riverhead head coach Jeff Doroski said. “She’s just non stop. She makes things happen with her speed. She’s a great player and a lot of fun to watch.”
That is until a fence gets in the way.
In the bottom of the second inning, a ball was hit deep to centerfield by West Islip’s Marissa DeMartino and Dillingham had a perfect read on it. She turned and immediately sprinted back towards the fence as the ball carried further. Right as it was about to hit her mitt, she went crashing over the fence along with the ball as the Lions tied the game up at 1-1.
“Why didn’t anyone say the fence was close?” Dillingham asked after she picked herself off of the ground. A reporter sat nearby but was completely oblivious to the play.
“At least I landed graciously,” Dillingham said, laughing it off.
Unfortunately it was the start of a big inning for the Lions (17-2 League II) as they scrapped together five runs and eventually came away winners, 7-2.
Danni Napoli hit a fugget-about-it home run in the bottom of the fourth inning for the Blue Waves (11-9 League II) that traveled a good twenty feet beyond the fence that prompted the West Islip center fielder to say, “Now that is a booommmb.”
Napoli is hitting well over .600 for the season to go along with five home runs, Doroski said.
“I think she’s the best player in our league in our opinion,” Doroski said. “She’s one of the best players in the county no doubt. We have our coaches meeting on Thursday so we’ll know more then.”
Thursday will also be the day the brackets will come out and Doroski has literally no idea where his team will be seeded.
“It’s like impossible to figure it out,” Doroski said, “Every coach in league I, II and III seeds each other. You don’t seed yourself. We could be somewhere in the middle a 12, 13, 14 team or be in the bottom like a 15, 16, 17, 18 team it depends how the other teams see us.”
“All that matters is that we got there and it’s a new season,” Doroski continued. “It’s time to make some noise.”
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Courtney Blasl.
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