Mamaroneck’s softball team may not have been a preseason favorite to make a run at a Class A title, but over the last few days, the Tigers have shown the rest of the section that they may have been underestimated. With two emotional wins in the last week—including a 6-5 quarterfinal round upset of Yorktown on May 23—Mamaroneck has willed itself to the semifinals through grit, defense and timely hitting.
Unlike their opening round game against Scarsdale, which saw the Tigers claw back after spotting the Raiders an early lead, it was the Tigers who grabbed control first on Monday, staking freshman pitcher Gianna Magrino to a 5-0 lead on some hard-hit balls and a few defensive miscues by the Huskers.
Up 5-3 in the top of the seventh, the Tigers got a boost from junior Mia Steinberg, who hammered a pitch over the wall in right-center field for a solo homer. Despite a scare in the bottom half of the inning, the three-run lead would prove enough to send Mamaroneck on to the semifinals.
“If you hit it hard, they’re going to make mistakes,” Mamaroneck coach Allison Bedosky said. “And then Mia came out and gave us that extra cushion, which, if we didn’t get, we’d be in extras right now.”
Magrino, getting her first postseason start in the circle, was able to limit the Huskers at the plate and found ways—along with some great defensive plays from her teammates—to pitch her club out of trouble all afternoon long.
“This is amazing, it’s really a hard feeling to describe,” Magrino said after the game. “But I just had faith in my teammates out there; I knew we would make all the plays.”
The No. 7 Tigers will take on No. 2 seed John Jay on Wednesday, May 25, after press time, in what will be the program’s first appearance in the semifinals during Bedosky’s tenure with the team.
“I can’t remember the last time Mamaroneck has won their second sectional game, so this is a feat in itself,” she said. “We have a ton of girls stepping up, we had a senior [Patricia Muratore] make some outrageous catches in the outfield, a freshman pitcher who is pushing through; the girls really want this.”
And despite the fact that the Tigers will come into Wednesday’s game as heavy underdogs against a John Jay team that advanced to the semis on the strength of a 15-0 win, Magrino said it would be unwise to count Mamaroneck out.
“Everybody is contributing, in the field or hitting,” she said. “We’re really confident, and I think we’re pretty tough to beat.”
