Pearl River Pummels Nyack in Section Softball

Pearl River seniors Katie O'Flynn and Jamie DeGennaro wanted no part of discussing Nyack as a team they should beat in Friday's Seciton 1 Class A first-round playoff game at home.

The Pearl River baseball team's loss to a lower-seeded Nyack team Thursday was all the example the Pirates needed.

"Yesterday, we saw the boys were a top seed and they lost," O'Flynn said. "I don’t like coming into any game thinking we have it. We need to play every single play like it’s our last, especially because it can be now."

It wasn't. Pearl River took a more aggressive approach at the plate and O'Flynn stifle Nyack's offense as the Pirates defeated the Indians, 15-0, to advance to the quarterfinals. Pearl River will face No. 9 seed Beacon 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at home.

"We played well today," Pearl River coach Mike Carlacci said. "We like to think of the regular season as preparation. We play as hard a schedule as possible. We feel prepared for the new season."

O'Flynn was certainly prepared. She struck out three in four perfect innings to improve her career post-season record to 14-1. Nyack did not register a hit until Julie Breshin's single in the fifth against Pearl River freshman Caroline Kardashian, who struck out the side in that inning to end the Indians' only threat.

O'Flynn shrugged off coming out with a perfect game going.

"Jamie told me. I didn’t notice," O'Flynn said. "A game is a game to me. It is a good accomplishment, but I don’t really worry about the individual (things). It was more my team backed me up because I didn’t have a bunch of K’s."

A big part of that was Nyack trying bunt after bunt, all of which Pearl River handled cleanly.

"When you are facing Katie, you do whatever you can to get on, but obviously our defense was very used to that, too, so we executed everything perfectly," Carlacci said. "She was throwing well. The defense was sharp behind her and the offense put the kind of pressure on them we expect to."

Pearl River got that going in the first inning. With one out, senior Gemma Mahoney drew a walk and DeGennaro hit the first of her three singles in the game. O'Flynn singled to drive in Mahoney and freshman Mandy McCarthy came through with a two-out double to bring in courtesy runner Erin Woods. giving the Pirates a 2-0 lead.

"We faced some real tough teams at the end of the season, but we also sort of  felt like we weren’t hitting like we needed to, so we came out aggressive and really put pressure on them (by) swinging early in the count and driving the ball on them," Carlacci said.

Pearl River blew the game open with a six-run second inning. Mahoney got things started again with an infield single. She stole second and scored on an RBI single by DeGennaro. O'Flynn and Leote both reached on errors ahead of McCarthy's RBI triple. Senior second baseman Kaity Goldrick dropped an RBI single into the outfield, then came around to score on junior third baseman Amanda Hartigan's RBI single, which pushed the advantage to 8-0.

Pearl River took advantage of two more Nyack errors in a four-run third inning. DeGennaro, O'Flynn and Nicole Leote came through with three consecutive singles and senior first baseman Amanda Schule contributed an RBI double.

The Pirates completed their scoring with three more runs in the fourth. Goldrick came through with a two-run single and Woods added an RBI single for the final margin.

It was the third loss to Pearl River this season for Nyack, which managed to win an outbracket playoff game this season despite an extremely young roster. Starting pitcher Michaela Contreras is a seventh grader, as is catcher Megan Sneeden. Shortstop Tiffany Salcito is only a freshman.

"I attribute a lot of it to (Nyack coach) Stephanie (Antonelli)," Carlacci said. "She’s doing a great job. Even during the game, she was staying on them to work hard no matter what the score is. They are very young. They’ve got some players. It doesn’t happen overnight. You’ve got to build it. She seems like she’s on the right track."

Pearl River remains on a track that could lead to a fourth consecutive section championship. The Pirates improved to 20-1 on the season, the 15th consecutive year the Pirates won at least 20 games.

"I'm pretty proud of this for consistency purposes," Carlacci said.

McCarthy was 2-for-3 for the Pirates with a double, triple, two RBI and a run scored. Goldrick was 2-for-3 with three RBI, a run scored and a walk. DeGennaro finished the game 3-for-4 with two RBI.

"Now we know this is it," DeGennaro said. "Any game could be my last game because I’m a senior. We have great chemistry. We all love each other so much. Knowing every game could be our last game, we work so much harder. We came out today and knew we had to put everything into this game. If we don’t put everything into it, anything can happen."