Construction’s Alicia Gonzalez throws to home plate. (Denis Gostev)
Tottenville’s league game against James Madison was rained out and the Pirates just played Staten Island rival Susan Wagner last week for the first time. They have had precious few games against top-notch competition, mostly due to inclement weather.
There was no rain Thursday afternoon, though. Tottenville got a chance to prove itself as the dominant team in the PSAL and succeeded with a 10-2 win over Construction in non-league softball in Huguenot. The Red Hawks were no slouches – they own a win over Wagner this season – and coach Cathy Morano was sure to tell her team that afterward.
“This is probably somebody we’re gonna see down the road,” she said. “They’re gonna be one of the top seeds in the end. To win this way gives [us] a little confidence. But that team is only gonna get better.”
Tottenville took advantage of some porous Construction defense in the first inning and scored four runs. Albany-bound center fielder Victoria McFarland put an exclamation point on the inning with a long home run over the fence in left center field.
The Pirates got 11 hits off precocious Red Hawks freshman Britney Rodriguez, but she gave up just four earned runs. This Tottenville lineup isn’t like past years with power one through nine. Leadoff hitter Jen Palase (3-4, two runs) is a slapper and there is speed up and down the lineup. Morano has urged her team to put pressure on the opposing team’s defense and that worked Thursday.
“The defense is gonna have to move to who gets up,” McFarland said.
She was 3-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored and sophomore pitcher Cheryl Lopez gave up two runs on seven hits and struck out four in seven innings. Morano was impressed with the way Construction swung the bat against Lopez. The Red Hawks weren’t intimidated. She also thinks Rodriguez is a future star.
“She’s only a freshman,” Morano said. “She’s gonna get a lot better. She did a nice job. To come and face a lineup like that I thought she kept her poise.”
Construction coach Marco Migliaccio was disappointed with his team’s defense. It showed some weakness earlier in the week at the Mudville Softball Missy Lasowski Breast Cancer Awareness Tournament in Herkimer, N.Y., but the floodgates opened against Tottenville, a team that cannot be given extra outs. Still, he was pleased with how his young team played overall against the city powerhouse.
“The girls got it out of the way to play Tottenville, the myth of playing Tottenville,” Migliaccio said. “So that’s the good part about it. I would like to see what happens if we make some plays. Even if it was one or two plays. It was craziness. I’ve never seen us like that.”
The Pirates should see their level of opponents increase in the coming days. They host Wagner on Wednesday and head to upstate to Mudville themselves next weekend where they will meet powerhouses like Horseheads and Windsor.
Tottenville is the only team to have never lost in its nine years going up there. Morano’s team doesn’t do much losing in the city either. But it was nice to see the Pirates win against a quality opponent Thursday.
“It‘s great that we’ve finally seen competition,” McFarland said. “They’re a good team. They hit the ball well.”