SHEN SOFTBALL WALKS OFF RUNS AND MEMORIES
Plainsmen sweep ‘Forever Missed’ tournament in dramatic final
CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. >> The fifthannual Forever Missed softball tournament is held to honor the memories of two former Shenendehowa Softball players and on Saturday afternoon the bonds that were so important to both Christina Massa and Deanna Rivers came to life as this year’s installment became one for the ages as the Plainsmen swept defending AA champion Binghamton (Section IV) and downstate powerhouse Massapequa.
The weekend perfect for softball on all four Miss Shen fields between Shenendehowa, Columbia, Massapequa and Binghamton, moved from its previous date due to weather and the Plainsmen made the most of Saturday and the memories that they girls will share forever.
After a quality 6-2 win over Binghamton to open the afternoon’s slate of games, the Plainsmen rallied from a six-run deficit in its final scheduled atbats to tie the Chiefs, 7-7 and then come away two innings later with a walk-off single by junior outfielder Olivia Murray.
“When I was walking up to the plate I was very nervous,” Murray said. “Coach (Farquhar-
son) came over to me and kind of calmed me down. He reminded me that this is just batting practice, we do this every day and I just zoned it in and it felt good.”
Amaya Vlacich singled to start out the bottom of the ninth inning to left and advanced on Nicole McCarvill’s single to left. The pair advanced on Sophia Caputo’s groundout setting up Murray’s heroic line drive to right field.
Murray would not have had another trip to the plate without becoming a hero two innings earlier when she knocked in a pair of game-tying runs on a double to left field, again driving in Vlacich and McCarvill to knot the contest at seven runs apiece.
After seeing her teammate’s plate three runs before her at-bat in the seventh inning, Murray was confident that the tide had turned for Shenendehowa.
“It was the bottom of the seventh and we got in the dugout and we were like ‘We don’t want to lose, we’re not ready to go home, lose 6-1?’ and it was just hit after hit, they all just added up and eventually it was tied and we were ready to go,” Murray said.
Katherine Cornell led off with single to right, misplayed by the outfielder before Kayla Green stroked a one-out single to center and Ella Hammes loads the bases with her hit through the left side of the infield.
Kira Konarski reaches safely on a grounder to short and scores Cornell. Vlacich reaches on a single to center that drives in both Green and Hammes, cutting the lead, 7-4. McCarvill hits a line-drive RBI single to left, scoring Konarski, setting up Murray’s opening heroic act and the send the game to extra innings.
“I think we played well in our first game versus Binghamton,” Shenendehowa coach Chris Farquharson said. “We made the plays, pitching between (Emily) Albanese and ‘Nails’ (Nicole McCarvill) together kind of kept a good hitting team down.
“I was quite impressed with how we handled a pretty solid pitcher with Paige (Rauch) on the hill with Binghamton and a lot of excitement down 7-1, a lot of people could have packed it in and the girls had a lot of fight and a lot of energy and a lot of enthusiasm. I think we talked about one hit, just one at a time, one single; it’s going to lead to one run, one at a time. I just wanted to chip away and that’s what the girls did.”
Besides finding the strength to come back, the late afternoon heroics built memories that will stay with this group of parents and players for years to come and along with it the memory of two former Plainsmen players honored on their date Saturday.
“It’s a lot about the girls just playing, enjoying the game of softball and today we definitely take a little bit of time to reflect on what are the important things,” Farquharson said. “The girls were playing games, but I think when they walk away from playing softball it’s the memories they’re going to make with their teammates rather than the average of the hits. They’re going to remember the good times and how we bonded together and come through and battled adversity.”