By Steven Zaitz
It ain’t over ‘til it’s over – but even then, it was still over.
Yes, it sounds crazy, even for a Yogi-ism, but so was the season finale – and the year as a whole – for the 2023 Suffolk County champion Smithtown High School East softball team.
On May 9, in their last contest of 2024, they ambushed Bay Shore with seven runs in the final two innings of the ball game. They trailed 8-4 entering the seventh and won dramatically when freshman shortstop Sam Brescia smacked a single to right center field with two outs. Brescia’s hit drove in the game-tying and winning runs from second and third. It was Brescia’s third hit of the day, and it capped a wild and improbable 9-8 win for the Lady Red Bulls, who ended the season with a record of 9-10; just one win shy of making the playoffs.
“There was a lot of pressure, but I didn’t really think about it too much,” Brescia said. “I just concentrated on making contact and hitting it hard somewhere in the gap.”
Until that point, most of the hard hitting in this game was by Bay Shore. The Lady Marauders took a 5-0 lead in the third inning on three hits, two walks, and some sloppy defense by the home team.
After Smithtown East took a small bite of the Bay Shore lead and made a 6-0 game into a 6-2 game after five, Bay Shore center fielder Isabella Petraglia blasted a homer to left center to start the sixth. The long ball gave her team a five-run lead and before the inning was done, they tacked on another and Smithtown East again seemed dead in the water.
The Red Bulls had been in that position before in 2024.
After winning five of their first seven in early April, they hit the skids by dropping eight of their next ten, the last of which was an 8-6 heartbreaking, come-from-ahead loss to Sachem East on May 6, that all but eliminated them from a chance to defend their title. They won their penultimate game against Lindenhurst and were looking to end their campaign on the high note with consecutive wins. It’s not a county championship or even a league title, but it was something to take into 2025, when they will have many returning players from this team’s roster.
Now, they faced a six-run deficit with only six outs left to play and even that small consolation seemed way out of reach.
RBI singles by Brescia, who was 3 for 5 on the day, and her double-play partner Casey Connelly in the sixth inning slashed the deficit to a more palatable 8-4 entering the seventh.
The Red Bulls were the beneficiary of two errors by Bay Shore first baseman Sydney Schaaf, who inexplicably lost the ability to catch the ball and make putouts in that final frame.
Throughout the game, Schaaf had performed admirably with her first baseman’s mitt, making all the plays around the bag and even had one nifty unassisted put-out on a Connelly smash in the fifth. But at crunch time, her glove transformed into oatmeal, as she dropped two seemingly unremarkable throws from her infielders that provided extra outs for the home team and ultimately an ending that would be very remarkable.
After one out, center fielder Amelianna Santinello and catcher Riley Connelly singled. Lefty swinging right fielder Brooke Hanson hit one back to the mound, but Schaaf could not handle the throw from pitcher Erin Wolfe. Left fielder Lana Cain, who made a spectacular, run-saving catch to help stifle Bay Shore in the fifth, singled with two outs and then Casey Connelly reached on another drop at first by Schaaf that would have ended the game.
With the Bulls now down 8-7, they had two outs and runners on second and third. Brecia laced a 3-1 fastball to right-center field.
Cain scored easily, and as she was moving with two outs, Connelly scored without a throw to win the game. After briefly piling on Cain and Connelly at home plate, the entire Red Bull team turned its joyful attention to Brescia. They hugged and screamed and celebrated between first base and home plate for a few moments, until they united with parents and friends in the stands to celebrate a win for the final time in 2024.
“It was an amazing feeling knowing we had won the game and finished the season with a win,” said Brescia, who was on the 2023 championship team as an eighth grader. “Everyone played their hearts out and we deserved to celebrate. Hopefully next year, we’ll celebrate in the playoffs.”
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