Seaford tops Wantagh for softball title

The Wantagh and Seaford softball teams were separated by the slimmest of margins this spring.

They split a pair of regular-season matchups as well as the first two games of the Nassau Class A championship series before Seaford took the rubber match and the county title, 6-2, Tuesday afternoon at Farmingdale State College.

The Vikings, who last year won the Class B title, trailed the Warriors in the clincher before scoring three times in the top of the fifth. Kaitlyn Young, Katie Young and Alyssa Rodriguez collected RBIs to back the clutch pitching of junior Skyler Secondino.

“It feels amazing,” said Secondino, who escaped bases-loaded situations in the bottom of the fifth and seventh to preserve the win and had eight strikeouts. “We all feed off the energy Katie brings. She’s our catcher and sets the tone.”

Katie Young’s three-run homer over the fence in left in the seventh provided all the cushion Seaford would need. “I was just looking for a pitch in the zone I could hit,” she said. “Once it went over the fence, I felt great about our chances.”

Senior shortstop Alexa Villeck went 3-for-4 with a run scored for the Vikings (18-5), who advanced to face Miller Place in Thursday’s Long Island Class A title game in Bellport at 5 p.m.

Wantagh (16-5) forced a decisive winner-take-all Game 3 with a 2-1 extra innings win in Sunday that featured plenty of drama.

Senior second baseman Jacqueline Mundy delivered an RBI single to center field in the top of the ninth in a 1-1 game to drive in Daniella Oranges with the game-winning run. Oranges set the stage to score the decisive run when she walked to leadoff the inning and advanced to third on a single by senior Casey Kissinger.

Seaford was on the cusp of clinching the county title the previous inning after junior Katie Young hit a ground-rule double advancing Secondino to third base with one out. Wantagh freshman ace pitcher Lucy Olore, who drove in the first run of Game 3, got out of the jam though inducing a line drive to center field by Rodriguez that appeared it may drop in for the winning hit followed by an infield pop up.

Olore was clutch Sunday pitching a complete-game with 11 strikeouts and surrendering just four hits.

“She is a freshman and pitches like she is 25 years old,” Wantagh coach Christine Moran said of Olore. “She is the real deal with poise and ice in her veins.”

The Warriors grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning when Emma Priest drove in Kissinger.

The lead held up until the bottom of the sixth inning when Seaford tied it on a Rodriguez RBI single to leftfield that plated Villeck.

Secondino tossed a complete game with seven strikeouts a day after tossing a two-hitter in Seaford’s series-opening 3-1 win where she also went 3-for-4 at the plate.

“She is a true competitor,” Seaford coach Joe Nastasi said of Secondino. “She always gives us a chance no matter what and is always great to have someone like can go in there and compete like that.”

Secondino forced a groundout to end Game 1 when Wantagh had the tying run on second base. She also scored the eventual game-winning run on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Katie Young in the sixth inning where she was nearly caught at the plate by a strong throw by Kissinger off diving catch in shallow left field. 

“It was an incredible series,” Nastasi said. “We played each other five times this year. Both teams deserve all the credit in the world.”