54.0°,
Partly Cloudy East Rockaway rallies for title
With no hits and a three-run deficit through five innings of the decisive game three of the Nassau County Class B softball championship series at Mitchel Athletic Complex on May 23, East Rockaway’s chances of completing a Cinderella title run appeared dim.
But as they’ve done all season long, the Lady Rocks overcame adversity and triumphed. They finally got to Locust Valley pitcher Lauren Sabatino in the top of the sixth, scoring twice, then pulled even in the seventh and won it in dramatic fashion in the eighth, 5-3, on back-to-back homers by senior battery mates Jessica Deptulski and Gianna Cilluffo.
“We’ve been fighters since before the season started, when we lost our equipment in Sandy,” said Deptulski, who raced around the bases with the eventual winning run after her line drive with two outs in the eighth skipped between outfielders in right-center. “We never quit, and it feels awesome,” she added.
Fourth-seeded East Rockaway, which captured the Class C crown last spring, improved to 21-5 and advanced to the Long Island championship/regional semifinals on Monday, June 3, at 4 p.m., at St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue against a to-be-determined Suffolk Class B team.
“It’s a special group of girls,” Lady Rocks coach Joe Lores said. “Some of them are still displaced from Sandy, but they never cease to amaze. I’m really proud of them.”
Second-seeded Locust Valley scored once in the fourth and twice in the fifth to take a 3-0 lead. Tessa Tarantino broke a scoreless tie with a run-scoring double with one out in the fourth, and Briana Mahoney and Sabatino drove in runs with one out in the fifth. Cilluffo left runners stranded on second and third in both innings.
“She got some big outs,” Lores said of Cilluffo, who had 16 strikeouts in the series. “And a big hit.”
