Flying Horses fall in semifinal

DeCitise strikes out 14 in the defeat

Troy’s softball coach Sean Geisel summed it best.

“It was a great high school game. We competed,” the sixth-year coach said after his team fell 4-2 in the Class A state semifinal against Section IV champion Vestal at the Moriches Sports Complex.

Credit Vestal for making the big plays.

The Section IV champs rallied behind Kymora Wang’s offensive heroics to take a lead in the first inning then held off Troy’s rallies to earn a trip to the title game against Webster Schroeder.

Wang singled in the first run of the game for the Binghamton-area power, doubled and scored on a wild pitch in the fourth inning then reached on an error and scored in the pivotal sixth inning. Her run followed one by Caitlyn Petteys. The sophomore shortstop singled and broke the 2-2 tie that indicated how tight things were all game.

“It really hurts,” Troy senior Emma Thompson said moments after Geisel spoke to the team for the last time this season. “But you can’t look back on what we did or didn’t do. They had some big hits and we weren’t able to.”

Troy deserved much credit for staying in the game despite being one-hit by Vestal’s Reilly Storer. The sophomore did not overpower the Flying Horses, but she induced enough easy grounders and flyouts to have five 1-2-3 innings in the seven innings. It was enough to match the dramatics of Troy ace Olivia DeCitise. The junior fanned 14 batters to keep her team within striking distance all game.

“I felt I pitched pretty well and my team did really well,” the junior said. “We had some errors but we can’t be perfect.”

Olivia Ashline gave Troy hope after it fell behind 2-0. The freshman second baseman reached on an error and scored in the bottom of the fourth to get Troy within a run. Gianna Barringer then tied the game for the Section II champs as she singled in the fifth and scored on a throwing error by the Bears.

“We did the best we could,” DeCitise said. We shouldn’t be sad.”

“We stuck together through good times and bad,” Geisel said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the girls.”