Unsuspecting Parente tosses no-hitter

Call it the most anticlimactic no-hitter ever. After Bayside’s Kasey Parente whiffed Andre Lam, capping the Commodores’ 6-1 victory at Newtown Thursday afternoon and her first ever no-hit performance and league win, she nonchalantly walked to the visitor’s dugout happy yet not with the kind of emotion the performance warranted. She didn’t even keep the ball. Her teammates and coach failed to serenade her, like all no-hit pitchers are congratulated.
That’s simply because none of them knew Parente had just accomplished the rarest of feats - a no-hitter. Not until Bayside Coach Steve Piorkowski flipped through his scorebook to tally up Parente’s final line of strikeouts, walks and hits … or lack thereof did he realize the oversight. “I guess I should pay attention to those things,” Parente said sheepishly. “I’m usually so nervous [on the mound], I’m not even thinking about it.”
It was understandable, considering the Pioneers (0-2 Queens A) were constantly on the bases. Parente walked six, hit a batter, but stranded all seven baserunners. Over seven no-hit frames, Parente, mixing in her blazing fastball with a change-up and drop-ball, struck out 12.
The win was an important bounce-back performance for Bayside, (1-1 Queens A), after their season-opening 12-11 loss to Richmond Hill. “We sharpened up real fast,” Piorkowski said.
“The past two days, we just practiced hard,” explained Parente. “Everybody knows how we have to play. Today, everybody stepped up.”
Trailing 1-0 after Lam came around to score following her walk and a pair of stolen bases, the Commodores took the lead on Parente’s RBI groundout. Nicole Maldonado drove in two runs with a booming double to center, Danielle Brustmeyer added a run-scoring single and Aisha Nuriddin blasted a solo homer to left center, turning on an Ashley Ronco inside fastball.
Piorkowski called last year’s performance - Bayside finished just 8-7 and lost in the opening round of the post-season - the most disappointing in his 15 years at the helm. Like Piorkowski, Parente didn’t like what she saw last season. “Because of last year, everybody thinks they can walk all over us. But that’s not going to happen. … I want to show everybody how Bayside used to be.”
–Zachary Braziller