East Meadow wins Nassau County Championship

Four straight hits with two outs in the top of the ninth inning gave East Meadow its first Nassau County softball championship since 1994.
   
Freshman Danielle Cutuli tripled home senior Rachel Sidney with the go-ahead run as the top-seeded Lady Jets completed a two-game sweep of No. 6 MacArthur on Tuesday afternoon at Mitchel Athletic Complex, 5-2.
   
“I saw the ball go into the gap and I knew I was scoring,” said Sidney, who singled to keep the inning alive. “It’s a great feeling. We’ve worked really hard.”

   
Cutuli went 2 for 3 and scored three runs, while winning pitcher Lindsay McKillop was 2 for 5 with two RBIs. McKillop doubled in Cutuli in the ninth and scored the final run on junior Jamie Laird’s single. In Monday’s Game 1, McKillop homered in the first inning to set the tone in a 5-1 victory.
  
“It’s fantastic,” East Meadow coach Cindy McCarthy said. “We lost in the semifinals two years in a row and we finally got past that point when we beat Farmingdale last week. We came into the finals with a lot of confidence.”
   
The Lady Jets (18-1), who will play for the Long Island Class AA title on June 8, did something third-seeded Long Beach and second-seeded Carey couldn’t — score against MacArthur pitcher Kristen Brown. And they did so in their first turn at bat in each game.
   
Cutuli walked with one out in Game 2 and advanced to second on a fielder’s choice off the bat of McKillop. Laird followed with a hot shot past shortstop Jenna Cozza, plating Cutuli for an early lead. McKillop singled in Cutuli in the third to make it 2-0, but the Lady Generals pushed across single runs in the fourth and fifth to pull even.
   
MacArthur had a chance to win it in the eighth with two runners on and two outs, but McKillop retired Stephanie Erbacher on a grounder to Laird at first. MacArthur also had two runners reach base in the ninth, but Jets junior center fielder Samantha Miller started a game-ending double play with a diving catch.