Lady Rams very good against Lincs, very bad against Ossining in hair-raising softball trifecta

May 1, 2024 at 11:24 p.m.

The Port Chester High School varsity softball team members give the victory sign after beating Lincoln on Apr. 19 and Apr. 24. They are: Front row from left: Morgan Saunders, Melina Morban, Yvonne Santiago, Taby Sanchez, Karah Provenzano. Middle row, from left: Kathleen Scarola, Fiona Lovallo, Marisa Rodriguez, Tamara Correia, Fatima Coyt, Isabella Rivera, Skylar Sams, Kimberly Ventura. Back row, from left: Sofia Greco, Heidi Gonzalez. (Courtesy photo of Jeanine Maiolini)

It is not often that you can intertwine the words of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with jazz great Duke Ellington and throw in a Lincoln link at the same time in describing the Lady Rams’ latest softball trifecta that had more highs and lows than an airliner's ups and downs flying through stormy weather.

But here goes an attempt at that sports writing intertwining anyway in recounting the Lady Rams softball team's rare sweep of a home-and-away series slugfest against Lincoln. That outburst was followed by a shutout loss to Ossining that the locals lost by a football-like 16-0 score in the past week or so in which the Lady Rams had more strikeouts (9) than hits (6).

Wadsworthy words

Let us start counting the ways those games played out with the lines from a Longfellow poem that goes:

"There was a little girl Who had a little curl Right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, She was very good indeed, But when she was bad she was horrid."

It is hard to believe that the Longfellow (1807-1882) who wrote those playfully and seemingly knowingly innocuous lines had a life experience that included his beloved first wife dying after a miscarriage and his equally beloved second wife dying of burns suffered after dropping a candle on her dress that caught fire.

The Duke and Bubber

That brings us to the classic lines the great Duke wrote to a prophetic composition titled "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)” in 1931 during intermissions at the Lincoln Tavern in Chicago. Ellington said the song's title came from the credo of trumpeter Bubber Miley, who was dying of tuberculous at the time and died the year the song was released.

That leads in a roundabout way to how the Lady Rams very much had the swing going against Lincoln. Because Port Chester came though with homers, triples and doubles, oh boy, in taking two from the Lincs by scores of 17-16 and 24-11 (other than the scores, what did you think of the play, dear Lincs?) on Apr. 19 and Apr. 24 respectively) only for the winning streak to come to a sad ending two days later last Friday (4/26).

Swing and sway tale 

So all good things must come to an end. But that doesn't mean they didn't happen.

In that first 17-16 win over Lincoln, the Lady Rams didn't just win by an extra point as could and would be said if it were a football game.

Instead, they did some very good swinging.

Taby Sanchez and Sofia Greco were virtually a two-girl band with three hits apiece—Sanchez going three for five with three singles, three stolen bases, two runs batted in, two runs scored and three stolen bases. Greco went three for four with two singles, a double, two RBIs, three runs scored and five stolen bases.

Hits keep falling

But the hit parade didn't stop there.

Because four Lady Rams had two hits apiece, that quartet including Karah Provenzano, Kimberly Ventura, Yvonne Santiago and Fiona Lovallo who combined for 11 stolen bases with Ventura getting the big blow with a triple. And base hits came off the bats of Tamara Correia, Heidi Gonzalez, Marisa Rodriguez and Kathleen Scarola.

There was all that and more during the Lady Rams’ 24-11 beat down of the Lincs in which Sanchez, Greco and Correia really had the swing going, going, gone with homers—Correia had two, Sanchez and Greco both had one and the trio combined for nine RBIs. Sanchez had the perfect day going four for four from the leadoff spot in the lineup with two base hits, a double and a homer while scoring four runs, having four RBIs and stealing two bases. Correia was three for four with three runs scored, two RBIs and a base hit to go along with her two home runs and a sacrifice. And Greco had three RBIs along with a sacrifice and a base hit.

But they were far from alone.

More leading ladies

Because Provenzano, Ventura, Gonzalez and Scarola all had three base hits, combined for seven RBIs and 10 stolen bases. Rodriguz had two base hits and stole four bases and Melina Morban had a hit along with a walk, was hit by a pitch and had two stolen bases.

The result was best captured in the way head coach Jeanine Maiolini summed up the Lady Rams’ performance against the Lincs.

"The girls had two very good games against Lincoln," she said. "We had very minimal strikeouts and lots of hits. We had a combined 41 hits in a total of 11 innings of play. We had multiple home runs, doubles, and even a few triples. We circulated through all three pitchers (Morban, Scarola and Lovallo) and really played like a team and had lots of fun together. I tell the girls all the time I don't care what the scoreboard says, I just want maximum effort from them between the lines. We are truly a family, and we really enjoy each other's company. And along the way, we have lots of laughs and build memories that will last a lifetime."

Downside vs Ossining

But then there was the hair curling downside of all that swinging, a discordant downbeat with Ossining hitting all the high notes as the Lady Rams went down swinging and mostly missing during their 16-0 shutout loss. Rodriguez had two singles, Coyt had the only extra base hit (a double), and Provenzano, Correia and Morgan Saunders singled. Other than that, the bats went quiet.

"The bottom line is that we only had six hits total to their 13 hits, we were missing three of our starting outfielders...and Ossining just kept hitting the ball in the gaps. Ossining has a big open field and the balls kept rolling. Ossining had decent pitching and their lineup hit one through nine. We did the best we could do, but it wasn't enough, so we ended up on the wrong side of the W," Maiolini said, not making excuses but simply telling it like it was.

Rocky road ahead

Now it becomes what kind of Lady Rams team shows up during their upcoming games---the ones who were very, very good against the Lincs or borderline horrid against Ossining.

"We have a very tough week coming up because we have games against some very good teams," Maiolini said, describing upcoming games against White Plains (at home Thursday, 5/2, after press time) and Horace Greeley (away and home Monday, 5/6, and Tuesday, 5/7), all at 4:30 p.m.

"So we have our work cut out for us," Maiolini said.

But no matter how you cut it, it won't mean a thing if the Lady Rams don't have the swing.