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Mount Sinai scores two wins over Sayville in double-elimination series to win fourth county title

The Mustangs have been on a mission since letting a four-run lead slip away in a second-round playoff loss to Sayville.

While the path the Mount Sinai softball team took this season may have been different from previous years, the outcome was the same. With a 10-3 win against Sayville Tuesday, May 29, the Mustangs earned their fourth straight Class A title with another chance for the Mustangs to grab the elusive Long Island crown.

Mount Sinai’s softball team hoists up its fourth straight Suffolk County championship plaque. Photo by Desirée Keegan

Mount Sinai (22-4) faces Nassau champ Carey (15-7) at 3:30 p.m. Friday, June 1 at Hofstra University.

“This is what I’ve been working for since my freshman year — a four-peat,” short stop Lové Drumgole said. “I was looking to keep everyone’s energy up because I knew we could do it, and I needed to make sure everyone believed in themselves as much as I did.”

It’s hard not to love the senior with love in her name.

She went 4-for-5 with two runs, two RBIs and two stolen bases and accounted for two of the Mustangs’ outs in the bottom of the fourth, one in the fifth and threw out a Sayville runner at the plate to end the game.

“We had to keep the pedal to the metal,” Drumgole said. “I knew the title was ours. They had to take it from us, and I wasn’t  letting go.”

Starting pitcher Julia Golino said she felt like she redeemed herself after her seventh-inning showing in the May 23 8-7 loss that sent Mount Sinai into the double-elimination bracket.

Mount Sinai’s softball team has won three more Suffolk County titles since earning the program’s first in 2015. Photo by Desirée Keegan

“We knew we had to fight back, and we also knew we weren’t going to go down easy,” the junior said. “I wanted to show what I had, because I felt like I let the team down a little bit. This time I wasn’t going to give it up easy.”

Golino scattered 10 hits, allowed three runs with two strikeouts and one walk. She even made several catches on come-backers to help her own cause, like when Sayville threatened in the bottom of the sixth with the bases loaded and two outs. She’d made the first out of the inning, grabbing the ball as it passed her right ear before completing the play at first. A two-run double right after gave the Mustangs a scare of falling victim to the same late-game comeback, but Golino said she quickly shook it off.

“We have big bats,” she said, smiling. “And we make amazing plays in the field.”

The dual threat right-hander also went 3-for-4 with a single, double and triple and two RBIs at the plate.

Mount Sinai’s softball team huddles around Julia Golino after Mount Sinai’s fourth straight Suffolk County championship win. Photo by Desirée Keegan

After Mount Sinai entered the losers bracket, the team beat East Islip, Kings Park and Miller Place to make it back to Sayville. The Mustangs edged the Golden Flashes 3-2 in the first double-elimination game a day prior to force the winner-take-all final.

Holly McNair went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Ilexa Skulnick finished 3-for-4 with a double, but no one got the crowd going as much as Alaina Reilly. The freshman left fielder smashed a two-run home run in the top of the third to give the Mustangs a 7-1 lead. She said she hesitated for a moment, wondering if she’d really just knocked the ball that deep into right center.

“I felt so proud, and hearing them chant ‘She’s a freshman,’ it’s indescribable,” Reilly said. “We’ve worked really well together, and I’ve felt so welcomed this season — they really are just a great bunch of girls. We were so pumped because this was anyone’s game. Who cares what the stats say, it’s what you do in moments like this that make an impact.”