Ballston Spa falls in New York State final
The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
The Ballston Spa softball team never heard the storied introduction by Jim McKay each Saturday during Wide World of Sports on ABC, but the Scotties know the feeling all too well.
Ballston Spa raised the roof and the hopes of an entire community Saturday morning when Ang Stile ripped a two-run walk-off home run against East Meadow in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class AA semifinal, 6-5 and then were there to console their superstars when the same Scotties fell to Victor, 7-1 in the state final in the afternoon.
Senior starter Sarah Pritchard continued to be stellar in the circle in both starts, but the Blue Devils were able to go with her offerings, put runners on base and into scoring position and then follow-up with more.
“They were able to get a good part of the ball, they found some gaps at times and she (Victor starter Katie Sidare) had some good spin and we were getting underneath it,” Ballston Spa coach Amanda Fifield said. In the second set the Scotties were also unable to get Pritchard out of any pitching jams, unable to turn as many as four double plays like they did in the state semifinal.
“That’s something that we know, Sarah (Pritchard) is not a big strikeout pitcher, she’s a contact pitcher,” Fifield said. “We know that our middle infielders work so well together that we know ‘Hey, if there is a runner on, let’s turn two.’”
In the final, a Victor double play was a crushing blow to Ballston Spa.
With Jillian Nitchman and Caroline Srokowski on base, Alison Sgambati hit a line-drive type short fly to second base and the ball was dropped by the Victor infielder. With Sgambati heading down the baseline, Srokowski took off for second and Nitchman to third, both would be doubled up by the Blue Devils to end the threat. A fly ball would end the Scotties threat and
the season.
“Coming into that last inning of this last game I said ‘You know, it’s not over, we’ve battled back, one pitch at a time, getting some consecutive hits in a row,” Fifield said. “Then unfortunately, that dropped line drive turned into a double play.”
Ballston Spa’s seniors will depart as a state finalist, not a champion, but how they got there will become something of Scotties lore.
Down, 5-4 to East Meadow and down to their final at-bats, Stile was asked once again to move the runners over that were on base, but she did more than that. Stiles took a long hooking fly ball down the left field line, straightened it out and blasted it over the outfield fence to drive in Megan McMahon for a two-run, walkoff home run.
“That last inning when Meghan got on and Ang got up there you know, she had bunted all the other atbats earlier in the game to move runners over and I said to her ‘You’re hitting this time. Just make sure you’re hitting, swing at a pitch you want to hit’ and that’s exactly what she did,” Fifield said.
Stile also made the adjustment during her at bat from the long strike she hit over the left side fence.
“I just kept my hands inside and extend all the way through the ball,” Stile said.
Her heroics put Ballston Spa in its first ever state final.
It is another step for the program, something that this group of underclassmen will look to correct as they progress in the Ballston Spa program.
“These seniors, when they were sophomore we came to this tournament, we fell one game short of where we were today,” Fifield said. ”They wanted it, they wanted to come back here and do it again. They were definitely the heart of the team.”