Offense powers Hewlett's conference title

Backed by a powerful offense and a freshman pitcher who is developing into one of the top hurlers in Nassau, the Hewlett softball team won its second straight conference championship this spring and has the building blocks in place to remain on top in future seasons.

Hewlett finished with a 13-4 record to claim the Conference ABC-V title, which was clinched with a 16-4 rout of Great Neck South on May 4. The Lady Bulldogs continued their home dominance with a 3-1 victory over Valley Stream South in that first-round playoff matchup four days later before falling to top-seeded MacArthur on May 9.

The loss did not damper the spirits of coach Vinny Lospinuso, who was proud of the latest campaign in which Hewlett averaged just over 10 runs a game.

“The girls have experience from last year making the playoffs,” Lospinuso said. “The girls set a goal, they wanted to be back-to-back conference champs and they wanted to win a playoff game, and they did.”

The top five batters in the lineup scored 127 of the 173 runs this season and four of them earned post-season awards. Aside from winning all 13 games on the mound, freshman Valarie Liao-Greene batted .719 to earn All-County honors. Sophomore center fielder Emma Blumenstein (seven home runs) and senior shortstop Harper Manus (.527 average with a team-leading 29 RBIs) were All-Conference honorees.

Senior catcher Lauren Dori was named a scholar athlete by batting over .471 and throwing out eight would-be basestealers. Sophomore third baseman Izzy Martino was the team’s most improved player after batting .379 with four home runs and 25 RBIs.

“That’s how we win…we hit,” said Lospinuso.

Martino, who improved her batting average by about 100 points this season, could replace Dori at catcher next year. 

“She’s going to be an award winner next year,” Lospinuso declared.

Ironically, Hewlett had one of its lowest run outputs of the season in its playoff win. Blumenstein homered off Valley Stream South ace Isabella Secaira-Cotto to tie the game 1-1 in the first inning and Liao-Greene, who went the distance on a three-hitter pitching, doubled in what proved to be the winning run in the fourth. Martino homered the next inning to cap the scoring.

Secaira-Cotto won 12 games this season, including a perfect game with 15 strikeouts against Hewlett on April 18.

“They were worried about if they were going to hit her or not,” Lospinuso said. “Our girls all year have shown a lot of character and guts. We had three come-from-behind victories like that.”

Liao-Greene, who relies more on control than power, is continuing to show growth as a pitcher since joining the team as a seventh grader. 

“Val is a control pitcher, she’s not a big strikeout pitcher,” Lospinuso said. “She hits spots, she changes speeds and our fielders field well [for her].”

With many of his players competing over the summer with other teams, Lospinuso is optimistic that the program’s strong run of late can continue into next spring.