Garden City Softball Edges South Side, 13-9

Garden City took a giant step toward the playoffs Tuesday with a 13-9 victory on the road against rival South Side.

Both teams came into the Conference 4 clash unbeaten, and with only the league winner getting a direct pass into the county championships following a preseason conference realignment, it is the Lady Trojans who now have one foot in the postseason door.

Garden City third baseman Cat Dorn homered, tripled and plated six runs and Virginia Schieck and Brigid Reina each had three hits, two runs and two RBIs in the victory.

The Lady Cyclones were led by second baseman Lauren Jansen, who reached base safely five times and drove in three runs.

The Trojans took a 2-0 lead in the first inning and extended its lead to six with a four-run third. South Side rallied to tie the game at 6 in the bottom of the fifth, but Dorn topped a six-run sixth inning with a three-run homer to make it 12-6.

The Lady Cyclones clawed three back in the bottom of the frame, but the Trojans sealed matters with an insurance run in the seventh.

"It was great to have a really challenging game," Garden City coach Marisa Reichman said. "We got ahead and they tied it up, but we were able to come back. We could have turned around and put our heads down when they made it 6-6, but we scored six runs ourselves and that was huge."

The victory lifts Garden City to 5-0 in league play and 6-3 overall.

Reina, who threw 146 pitches, recorded her fifth Conference 4 win of the year, scattering 11 hits, nine walks and two hit batters. Samantha Maselli, who threw a perfect game against Westbury last time out, yielded 18 hits, two walks and a hit batter in the loss for South Side.

South Side coach Shannon McEntee said: "We were expecting a good game and we were excited to play them. They had a great hitting game today, they hustled and they made the plays.

"Their shortstop was phenomenal and she made a couple big stops that could have been runs for us."

Facing a potential blowout down 5-0, South Side (5-1, 6-2 overall) fought back into the contest. Maselli set the Trojans down in order in the fourth and fifth on 15 pitches and their bats came alive. "I was really excited about how hard the girls fought," coach McEntee said. "They didn't get down and they dug themselves out of a hole."

Shortstop Lauren Lopresti scored from second base when Storz misplayed Lauren Maiette's grounder in the third and the Cyclones sent eight to the plate in the fourth.

Third baseman Antonia Modica ripped a bases-loaded single and Lopresti's two-run double — the fourth consecutive hit of the inning —  brought the Cyclones within one.

Joyce walked to lead off the fifth and she advanced to second on Jansen's soft ground ball down the third base line. Dorn's throw across the diamond sailed on first baseman Amanda Ferraro and Joyce hustled home to tie the game.

South Side's momentum, however, was short lived.
 
Holub singled, stole second and scored on Reina's RBI single to make it 7-6 and Reina crossed the plate after wiggling her way out of a rundown between third and home on Schieck's base hit.

Storz then drove home Schieck to make it a three-run game before Dorn legged out an inside-the-park home run to pad the advantage to 12-6.

A bases-loaded walk to Jansen and Jessica Heckman's two-run single cut the lead back to 12-9 in the home half of the sixth, but Trojans center fielder Schieck completed the scoring with an RBI single in the seventh.

The teams will face each other in Garden City on May 5 — the final game of the season.

"They're really pumped for it," coach McEntee said. "Like I said at the beginning of the season, it will be between us and them. We play them next week and if we get a split it will be an exciting race to the playoffs."

South Side is on the road Wednesday, away at Great Neck North. First pitch is 4:15 p.m.