By Anthony Bosco
The Queens College women’s softball team graduated two of its best players from last year’s squad, a club that went 27-18 and lost in the first-round of the New York Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament, but coach Brian DeMasters is confident his team can equal or better last season’s performance.
The Lady Knights star hurler Nicole Razar graduated, as did key contributor Nicole Pisciotta from the 2000 team. As a result the team’s pitching staff this season will be under a microscope but DeMasters, who said he is hoping his hurlers can keep games close.
“Pitching will be a deciding factor,” said the coach, who seems more than happy with his team’s defensive play thus far and the potential of his stacked line-up. “If the pitching keeps us in games, we’ll do well.”
Sophomore Lauren Wells and senior Emily Lucas will be called on to fill Razar’s shoes. Razar often pitched in both ends of doubleheaders and was perhaps the main reason Queens finished fifth in the NYCAC standings last season.
And if Wells and Lucas fill the bill, the bats will do the rest, the coach said.
The Lady Knights line-up is filled with former all-conference stars and a few newcomers that could provide even more pop to an already formidable compilation.
Leading off for the team this year will be freshman leftfielder Jessica Blake, whose older sister, Kathy, a junior, will bat third and patrol center field for Queens.
“They are both very quick and solid all-around players,” DeMasters said.
Natalie D’Amico will fill out the outfield in right. The sophomore played shortstop for the team last season and DeMasters said the move will only strengthen the outfield.
Expected to be the most dangerous player in the Knights’ line-up is Cheryl Cosenzo, last season’s conference player of the year. Cosenzo will bat fourth and play the hot corner.
“She’s got to produce offensively for us to be successful,” DeMasters said of Cosenzo, now a junior.
Senior Mary Okolski will play second for DeMasters, who is hoping the senior can reproduce her 1999 season, when she was named an all-conference player. The first base duties will be handled by St. Francis Prep’s Danielle Battaglia, a junior coming off an all-conference season, while junior Heatherly Maltezo will play behind the plate.
DeMasters also seems very high on Stephanie Santoro, a freshman out of Christ the King High School, who has already made an impression on the field.
During the team’s trip to participate in the Rebel games in Orlando, Fla. to kick off their season last week, Santoro blasted her first collegiate home run, which turned out to be one of only a few offensive highlights during the trip for Queens, as the Knights went just 1-5.
“We lost some very close, tough games against teams that have been playing all year,” DeMasters. “Most teams from the Northeast come back under .500.”
The coach did not put a lot of stock in his team’s performance in the Sunshine State, instead pointing out that the club was picked to finish third in the NYCAC in the coaches poll — behind C.W. Post and Adelphi — and was preseason ranked seventh in Northeast Division II.
“It should be a solid defensive team, one of the better defensive teams I’ve had,” DeMasters said. “Hopefully it will be a solid offensive team, but we didn’t hit too well in Florida.
“I think we should be in the top three or four in the conference,” he added. “I think we have an outside shot at being in the top four or five in the region.”
If Florida did not test the mettle of this Queens team, the first two weeks of the season will, as the Knights will square off against C.W. Post, American International, Assumption, New York Institute of Technology, Philadelphia, Dowling, Stonehill and Southampton in doubleheaders.
“If we can play .500 there we’ll be in great shape,” DeMasters said.
Last season was a letdown for the Knights, who ended their 1999 team with a bid to the NCAA Tournament, an honor bestowed on four teams form Northeast Division II. A season ago Queens finished fifth.
But with stellar defense, potent offense and adequate pitching, DeMasters is hopeful the team can one again make a run at an NCAA bid in 2001.
“I think we got a shot,” he said.
After the Knights opened their season Wednesday against Post, Queens will next host AIC Saturday, Assumption Sunday, NYIT Monday and Philadelphia Wednesday, all in Flushing. They will follow that with another home doubleheader against Dowling, Friday, March 30, before traveling to Southampton Sunday, April 1, for the team’s first road conference game.
Reach Sports Editor Anthony Bosco by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 130.
