Sports

Pearl River Softball Seniors' Championship Run Ends

Pearl River's senior class racked up a 98-10 record, played on four section softball championship teams and won one state title.

Pearl River's softball team arrived late at the school's Senior Varsity Athletic Awards Dinner Wednesday at the Pearl River Elks.

They had good reason, having played a state playoff game that that started less than an hour before the awards dinner began.

The Pirates, whose season ended when they lost that game to Elmira, 5-4, were welcomed with with applause and with good reason. Pearl River Coach Mike Carlacci calls the current senior group the most accomplished in the history of the program.

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Pearl River won four consecutive section championships while the current senior class was in school. Four of the seniors -- pitcher Katie O'Flynn, catcher Jamie DeGennaro, shortstop Gemma Mahoney and second baseman Kaity Goldrick -- were on the varsity as freshmen. A fifth, Amanda Schule, joined as a sophomore. They won a state championship together in 2010.

"The most impressive thing about this bunch, though, was that despite having so much prior success and having every team come after them this year, they were up for the challenge, playing and practicing with the passion of underdogs," Carlacci said. "They also built incredible team chemistry."

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"I would never want to go thorugh any of this with anyone else," DeGennaro said after Wednesday's game. "I wouldn't take any of it back (even though this game) is upsetting."

"It's really hard to say goodbye and leave all of this behind," O'Flynn said.

As freshmen, O'Flynn, DeGennaro, Mahoney and Goldrick were bit players on a team with another strong senior class.

"They played under our 2008 seniors, who were one of the best senior classes we ever had in terms of talent and leadership," Carlacci said. "They turned around and became better players and leaders than that amazing '08 group that taught them."

That offseason, Carlacci suggested to O'Flynn that she focus on winning a job at second base so the team could get her bat in the lineup. At the time, she was fourth in line to pitch.

"I tell the story all the time, and it shows you what I know," Carlacci said. "I told her, 'You won't pitch at all.' She comes back next year and upped her game 20-fold and pitches us to the state finals."

O'Flynn went from fourth-string to splitting the job in the regular season to taking over by the playoffs. The next year, she was dominant as Pearl River won a state championship. O'Flynn finished her career with a 0.77 ERA and 54-7 record, 18-2 in the postseason. She was an all-state selection as a sophomore and junior and third-team All-American her junior season. Rockland County AD's chose her as the top spring sport female athlete in the county in 2011.

O'Flynn had to rehab from a major knee injury suffered in July 2010 to play at all in 2011.

"I don't think she gets enough credit for how consistent she was over three years, how big she came up in big games," Carlacci said. "And how remarkable it is that she was able to come back and have this kind of year after having major knee surgery on July 19."

O'Flynn battled back to go 21-2 as a senior with a 0.73 ERA, 177 strikeouts and only 19 walks in 144 2/3 innings pitched. She also batted .361 with one home run,  seven doubles and 25 RBI.

She was not the only senior to be a full-time starter for three seasons. Mahoney started at shortstop as a sophomore from day one. DeGennaro was the Pirates' designated hitter and second-best hitter for most of that seasn. Then the Pirates lost their top hitter, catcher Krystina Poloni, late in the regular season, pushing DeGennaro into the full-time catching job for the playoffs, a role she has held since.

Mahoney batted .316 with a .432 on-base percentage and only two errors as a senior. DeGennaro was the Pirates' top hitter with a .432 batting average, two home runs (both in the playoffs), 11 doubles, three triples and 29 RBI.

"You don't replace a hitter like Jamie, but if everybody can do more, we'll be all right," Carlacci said.

Pearl River loses five starters and a dominant pitcher, but Carlacci has been there before.

"No doubt we lose a tremendous amount, but the same thing happened (in 2008)," Carlacci said. "If you look at that group, you had sluggers here and speed there. We didn't ask anybody to replace them.

"We try not to say somebody replaces this person or that person. We never consider ourselves to be rebuilding. We will always have some talented players. We have to hope that like that group had gotten some great lessons about life and sports from the 2008 group, that they passed (those lessons) along to these younger kids so they can compete in the same tradition."

The Pirates do return their entire outfield next season, including junior center fielder Kristyn Neroda, an outstanding defender who batted .410 with a .490 on-base percentage, stole 19 bases and scored 28 runs for the Pirates. Two more juniors, left fielder Nicole Leote and right fielder Shannon McKiernan make up a strong defensive outfield, though McKiernan rarely got to bat this season.

The lone returning infielder will be junior third baseman Amanda Hartigan, who Carlacci called the best defensive player in the county.

Freshman Mandy McCarthy emerged as a key hitter from the DP spot for the Pirates, hitting an inside-the-park home run against Elmira. She will be asked to share the pitching load with antther current freshman, Caroline Kardashian, in 2012.

"It's impossible to replace Katie O'Flynn," Carlacci said. "Caroline and Mandy are both very good pitchers. Caroline had tremendous success in travel ball., Mandy has come on of late. Both are works in progress, but they show good ability. We will not ask them to be superstars.  We will ask them to get us quality starts and let the offense and defense win us games."

Those are two of five freshmen who saw playing time this season. Diedre O'Malley played sparingly, but could step in at catcher. Second baseman Erin Woods and shortstop Sam Alicandri played mostly as courtesy runners this season, but will most likely be the team's middle infield in 2012.

In other words, for a program known for playing small ball very successfully, the speed should be there.


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