By Dylan Butler
Wayne Crawford can see the big picture. Sure the Newtown softball team left Fordham’s Bahoshy Field falling to top-seeded Bushwick, 8-2, in the inaugural PSAL ‘B’ softball championship game Sunday, but that doesn’t take away the Pioneers’ success this year.
“You can’t judge a season by one loss,” said Crawford, who completed his second season as Newtown head coach. “We had 27 wins, made it to the ‘B’ championship and lost to a quality team. To come this far is really a testament to the job the girls have done.”
The story of the title match was capitalizing on scoring chances. Bushwick did and Newtown didn’t.
The Pioneers, who went 9-17 season last year in the ‘A’ division, had an excellent chance to do some damage in the top of the third inning after the Tigers went ahead 2-0 in the second inning. After Melissa Marte led off the inning by getting hit by a pitch, No. 3 Newtown (27-7) loaded the bases with no outs on a pair of Bushwick errors.
But two straight ground balls to shortstop Andelkys Perez, who threw home to get two force outs at the plate, and a strikeout by Beverly Nembhardt ended what was such a promising rally.
Nembhardt was named the game’s MVP, scattering four hits while striking out five.
Bushwick (25-11) made the most of some sloppy Newtown fielding to score another run in the third, three more in the fifth and two more in the sixth inning. The Lions also stole 14 bases. Of the eight runs, only four were earned.
“We created opportunities but we made some mistakes we shouldn’t have,” Crawford said. “I knew the team that made less mistakes would win. It’s a tough loss, but we’ll build on this.”
Newtown 21, Theodore Roosevelt 2. The Pioneers advanced to the first-ever PSAL ‘B’ championship game easily, scoring 13 runs in the first inning en route to a 21-3 rout of 10th-seeded Roosevelt Thursday at Preller Field. Monica Pahl was 3-for-3 with three runs scored and four RBIs and Yoneidy Carreno was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBIs to lead Newtown.
Bushwick 9, Forest Hills 0. Nembhardt frustrated No. 5 Forest Hills (24-6) in the PSAL ‘B’ semifinals Thursday at Preller Field, striking out 10 in a complete game four-hitter. Anna Burkadze had two of the Rangers hits, but Forest Hills couldn’t get a rally going. Top-seeded Bushwick, who took a 3-0 lead in the first inning, broke the game open with a six-run fifth inning, highlighted by Brenda Heredia’s two-out, two-run triple.
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 143.
