North seeks spot in playoffs

Valley Stream North’s hopes of winning the Nassau Conference AB-III softball title were dealt a severe blow with an 8-7 loss to front-running East Rockaway last Saturday morning, but the Lady Spartans haven’t lost sight of a coveted playoff spot.

“We’d love to make the playoffs,” VSN coach Dave Aguado said. “It’s something we haven’t done in a while, and it would be a nice accomplishment for a young team. It’s a very competitive conference. Anyone can beat anyone, so we still have some work to do.”

With five games remaining, North sits in third place in the nine-team conference with a record of 7-4. Its four defeats are by a total of eight runs. The Lady Spartans must finish among the top two Class A teams in AB-III to make the playoffs and would secure a berth by winning four of its last five.

“With the exception of the second Carle Place game, we’ve been pretty solid,” said Aguado, who recently turned the pitching duties over to eighth-grader Victoria Rossetti. “We’re hitting over. 400 as a team.”

Rossetti won two of her first three outings and didn’t allow an earned run in last Friday’s 6-3 victory over South Side. She scattered 10 hits and struck out two, and got offensive support from sophomore Kelly Kroez and freshman Laila Drosman, who had two hits apiece. Kroez, Drosman, senior Kalee Naraine, and juniors Tara Meehan and Selina Patti all had RBIs. “We were able to manufacture runs,” Aguado said.

Rossetti’s first win came April 23 at Sewanhaka. She struck out six and allowed five hits in the 16-3 blowout. “She has excellent control, mixes pitches well and fields the position,” Aguado said. “She got an opportunity to throw during spring break and showed what she can do.”

Kroez, who leads North in batting with a .595 average, reached base in all four plate appearances against Sewanhaka and made plenty of things happen on the bases. She was 2-for-2 with two walks, four stolen bases, including home, and four runs scored. “She’s on base constantly,” Aguado said of Kroez, who pitched North to victory against Carle Place on April 16.

Freshman Cassie Saracino went 3-for-4 and had three RBIs against Sewanhaka, while senior leadoff batter Victoria Dugan went 2-for-2 and knocked in a pair of runs. Saracino and Meehan have both spent time behind the plate.

Anchoring the lineup as the clean-up batter and the infield from the shortstop position is sophomore Samantha Estupinian. She has a .410 average and leads the Lady Spartans in RBIs with 15, with six of those coming in the win over Carle Place. She hit a grand slam over the fence in left—her second of 2015—in the second inning to stake Kroez to a 6-0 cushion. Kroez had four hits and four RBIs in that game, while Saracino and Dugan had three hits and three runs apiece.

North will try to avenge a loss to second-place Roslyn when it hosts the rematch on May 5 at 4:30 p.m.