East Meadow rallies for L.I. title

East Meadow softball has a history of success in Long Island championship games and it continued last Friday night in dramatic fashion.

Senior Gianna Azzato wasn’t thinking home run when she stepped to the plate with the Lady Jets trailing East Islip by two with one out in the top of the seventh inning, but she delivered a three-run blast over the fence in left to propel East Meadow to a thrilling 5-3 victory in the L.I. Class AA title game at St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue.

“I just wanted to get a hit and move the runners over,” Azzato said. “I wasn’t thinking big, but when the ball came off the bat I thought it had a good chance. It was just amazing.”

It’s the third L.I. crown in five years for the Lady Jets (20-2), who won a state championship in 2014. They’ll face Victor in a state semifinal this Saturday at 11:30 a.m. in Glens Falls. The winner will play for the state title at 4 p.m.

“We’ve got a special group of girls and I’m so happy they get to go upstate together,” East Meadow coach Stew Fritz said. “All night I kept telling them to stay in the game and enjoy the moment. They created an opportunity in the last inning and made the most of it.”

East Islip (23-2) took a 3-1 lead into the seventh behind pitcher Courtney Greene, who wiggled out of a major jam in the fourth, leaving the bases loaded, and allowed seven hits and six walks with six strikeouts. With one out in the seventh, freshman Jenna Laird singled and junior pitcher Christina Loeffler walked, setting the stage for Azzato.

“She’s one of our seniors and captains, so it was great to see her come through,” Fritz said of Azzato, who grounded out in each of her first three at-bats against the left-handed Greene.

Greene tossed five straight scoreless innings after the Lady Jets took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Laird singled home senior Jess Marsala. East Islip answered in the bottom of the inning and led 2-1 on RBIs from Greene and Lauren Crawford, but Loeffler avoided additional damage with a double play pop to Laird at shortstop.

Justine Rizzo led off the bottom of the second with a triple and scored on Allison Dell’Orto’s single for a 3-1 lead. Once again, Loeffler escaped further trouble with a strikeout and groundout to strand runners at the corners.

“Christina gets a lot of credit for settling down after the first two innings,” Fritz said of Loeffler, who closed the game with five scoreless innings and only three hits allowed after the Lady Redmen totaled six hits in two innings. “She held them down and gave us a chance to win,” he added. “That’s all we could ask.”

East Meadow’s offense wasn’t done after Azzato’s game-changing long ball and provided Loeffler with an insurance run to take into the circle for the bottom of the seventh. Sophomore Amy Mallah followed Azzato by working out a walk, advanced to third on a double by freshman Julianna Sanzone, and scored on a sac fly off the bat of senior Sam Reyes.

Azzato made an outstanding play at second base on a wicked smash by Greene, who represented the tying run, for the second out of the bottom of the seventh, and a routine grounder to Mallah at third ended it.

Of her never-to-be-forgotten at-bat, Azzato said: “I didn’t want it to be my last.”