Pine Plains headed back to state final four

Pine Plains High is going back to the state Class C softball final four after knocking off the No. 2-ranked team.

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. » Pine Plains High is going back to the state Class C softball final four after knocking off the state’s No. 2-ranked team Saturday.

The Bombers beat Long Island champion East Rockaway 6-2 to earn its berth in next Saturday’s New York State Public High Athletic Association tournament at Moreau Recreational Park in Glens Falls.

Pine Plains (14-5) plays Sandy Creek of Section 3 in an 11:30 a.m. semifinal. The championship game is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. On the other side of the bracket is Chautauqua Lake against Greenville, the team that beat the Bombers in last year’s state semis.

Jo Schmidt and Lourdes Belanger had two RBI apiece for Pine Plains. Alex McKenzie went the distance for the win, shutting East Rockaway over the final five innings.

Pine Plains jumped out on top in the first inning as Schmidt drove in the first run and Belanger delivered another on a bunt single.

East Rockaway capitalized on errors to get a run each in the first and second frames to tie,

The Bombers reclaimed the lead for good in the third when Haley Strang hit a leadoff triple and Cat Simmons beat out a bunt

to drive her in. In the bottom of the inning, Strang

made a diving catch in center and Simmons, the catcher, made a tough catch of a foul behind the plate.

Pine Plains added a run in the fourth when Sarah Carver singled, stole second,

went to third on an error and scored on Strang’s infield hit.

In the fifth, Simmons hit a leadoff single, went to second on a ground out, stole third and scored on Belanger’s

bunt.

After McKenzie survived a second-and-third, two-out jam unscathed in the sixth, the Bombers made it 6-2 in the seventh on Schmidt’s single.