Softball team shines in the sunshine
The Shelter Island junior varsity softball team was rained-out against Smithtown Christian on April 27, but the weather was beautiful for their 11 a.m. start the following day against East Islip.
The Islanders were poised and ready for some stiff competition from this notoriously strong team. Lauren Gurney took the mound, and with her game face on proceeded to send her fast ball over the plate. She retired the side with two nice throw-outs to first base, making the throw after being hit in the shin by a hard hit. Right fielder Jane Richards caught a nice high fly to complete the three outs.
Coach Brewer said: “Softballs are not soft,” as Gurney applied ice to her shin between innings.
Over the next three innings the game was scoreless with both pitchers retiring batters and fielders making nice put-outs at the bases. The Island girls found their bats in the fourth and the game took a drastic change.
Sarah Lewis led off with a walk and Dayla Reyes and Bianca Evangelista singled. With a runner on and two outs, Gurney, Bella Springer, Valeria Reyes and Angelina Rice all singled scoring 2 runs. Emma Martinez Majdisova hit a triple and Lily Page walked to make the score 4-0.
The fifth inning brought some scoring action by the determined Islip team. Gurney struggled on the mound, walking four and striking out two batters and with bases loaded and two runs scored, Dayla Reyes caught a hard hit to center field to end the inning for the Indians.
The first three batters — Caitlyn Binder, Lewis and Dayla Reyes all were thrown out at first base with no scores added in the sixth. Islip answered with a single and double steal with an error at second by the Indians allowing another run to score making the score 4-3 with runners on first and second.
Gurney went to work determined not to let the win slip away and struck out the next two batters to end the inning. There were cheers and high fives all around for a well played game by both teams.
