Softball: Lady Waves take down defending Suffolk County champs in extra innings

The Lady Waves proved they are a force to be reckoned with this season after handing the defending Suffolk County Champs their first loss of the season in extra innings Wednesday.

The Riverhead varsity softball team came from behind, overpowering East Islip in the bottom of the eighth to win the game 14-13, lifting their overall record to 2-1.

East Islip started out strong by scoring two runs in the top of the first inning. The Waves were unable to answer, walking off with a three-and-out.

In the top of the second, Waves pitcher Stephanie Falisi found her groove, dealing East Islip a three-and-out of their own.

Gaining traction, the Waves brought home five during their next up at bat. A missed ground ball to third put a runner on first to start the Waves’ first rally. After stealing both second and third, a walk put runners on first and third. Another steal put the tying run on second and a line drive triple to center field brought the tying run home. Of course, tying is not good enough, so the base runner on third stole home, a missed grounder by East Islip let another home, and a line drive double that literally pushed through the pitchers glove paved the way for one more. Now with a 5-2 lead, a grounder ended the inning for the Waves.

East Islip fought back hard, but could only muster one run in the third. It was the fifth inning when the defending champs showed that they wouldn’t go down easy. East Islip scored seven runs, although fans vehemently disagreed with two of them. It appeared that during one play, an East Islip runner was hit with a ball. If it was called that the runner was hit, the runner would have been out and the ball would have been dead, stopping two of the runners from scoring. Despite Riverhead’s Head Coach Bob Fox talking to the umpire and fans yelling from the sidelines, the call was not reversed.

Pitching was a difficult task yesterday due to the strong and gusty winds.

“When the wind is gripping the ball, trying to throw strikes [is difficult],” Fox said. “The wind took the balls all over the place.”

Waves pitcher Amanda Graziano  took over for Falisi during the top of the fifth. She ended the inning for East Islip, Riverhead now trailing 10-5.

Graziano then ripped a home run to center with no one on base to begin closing the gap.

By the bottom of the sixth, the Waves trailed 13-6 and needed some runs.

Coach Fox said that in this type of situation, his coaching style doesn’t change.

“I try to coach on the same even keel as we go,” Fox said. “I [went] back and told them, you can’t hit a 10-run home-run. Just get one or two and keep it working. A lot of times, one or two will start a snowball.”

Fox was right.

At the end of the sixth, one or two had turned into seven thanks to botched throws and catches by East Islip, a few walks and some solid hits by Riverhead. 

Riverhead held East Islip off in the top the seventh and put themselves in a position to win, needing just one run in the bottom of the seventh. Although Riverhead couldn’t get the run in the seventh, it took just one nerve-wracking extra inning to get it.

A walk put Graziano, the winning run, on first and a sacrifice bunt moved her to second. A ground ball up the first baseline, resembling the previous sacrifice bunt, put Graziano on third. With one out, Waves first baseman Karla Vanston popped up to center. On a missed catch, the waves scored to win 14-13.

“Even if [East Islip] caught the ball, I was tagging [Graziano] up anyway,” Fox said. “I told her, I don’t care where the ball is, you’ve got to go.”

“I was just trying to get a hit,” Vanston said in an interview after the game.

“You win by good pitching, good defense, and scoring on the other team’s mistakes,” Fox said after the game. “…and that’s what both teams did today.”

“That’s the story, no mystery to it,” Fox said.

RiverheadLOCAL photos by Emil Breitenbach Jr.
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