MacArthur advances to county finals

For the fourth time in six seasons, MacArthur has advanced to the Nassau County softball finals.

The fourth-seeded Generals limped into the playoffs on a seven-game losing skid but ripped off three straight wins in the Class A tournament to reach the best-of-three championship series against No. 2 Mepham. Last Friday, MacArthur got a pair of two-run homers off the bat of junior Chiara Nappo and solid pitching from sophomore Taylor Brunn to defeat No. 8 Long Beach, 6-3.

“We’re on a run and there’s no place we’d rather be than in the finals,” MacArthur coach Bob Fehrenbach said. “The regular season wasn’t what we hoped for. When you’re in the top ability based conference in the county, it’s tough. We were up and down in the beginning and down towards the end. Now we’re playing our best ball and feeling confident.”

MacArthur began the postseason with a 2-0 victory over No. 13 Bethpage on June 7 as Brunn allowed only three hits and struck out nine. “Taylor’s been throwing well all year,” Fehrenbach said. “We haven’t given her a ton of run support. She has good command and has done a great job in the playoffs of not allowing teams to string hits together.”

All of the runs Brunn needed against Bethpage came in the bottom of the fourth inning when fellow sophomore Hailey Feiler cracked a two-run single.

Feiler’s bat remained clutch in the quarterfinals against No. 5 Seaford when her two-run single in the home half of the fourth gave the Generals the lead for good in a 10-5 victory. Senior outfielders Gabby Boccio and Jordyn Roth both homered, and Nappo and fellow junior Jessica Mauro each drove in two runs.

“We scored three runs in three straight innings so it was great to break out,” said Fehrenbach, who has guided MacArthur to six consecutive semifinal appearances and two county championships since 2015.

Against No. 8 Long Beach, which knocked off top-seeded Division in the quarterfinals, the Generals fell behind 2-0 in the top of the first but cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the inning of Mauro’s sacrifice fly. Nappo then delivered a two-run blast that bounced off the top of the fence for a 3-2 lead in the second. Her insurance two-run homer in the fifth was an inside-the-park version after two Long Beach outfielders collided chasing the line drive.

The Marines threatened late and had the tying run at the plate in the top of the seventh with two outs when Brunn got a popup to sophomore shortstop Colette O’Brien to end it.

During the regular season, MacArthur fell twice to Mepham. The Pirates are the defending county champs from 2019. “They’re experienced, strong defensively and have a powerful lineup,” Fehrenbach said. “We played them much tougher the second time around.”