By Five Boro Sports
A playoff berth for the Newtown softball team wasn’t even a thought on April 29. The Pioneers had just gotten crushed, 13−5, by Francis Lewis to fall to 3−7. After losing four in a row, they would have had to win just about every other game the rest of the way to sneak into the postseason.
And that’s just what they did. Newtown pulled off a thrilling, 10−9 win against Richmond Hill on Thursday at Smokey Oval Park in PSAL Queens A−II for its fifth victory in six games.
Down 9−6 in the seventh inning with their season on the line, the Pioneers scored four times in the final frame to win it. Senior Jazmine Garcia’s two−run single put Newtown ahead for good.
“It was a very dramatic game,” coach Wayne Crawford said. “Our kids were flying high.”
The 3−7 start was what Crawford had anticipated. Newtown (8−8 Queens A−II) has just three seniors and 10 freshmen and sophomores. Making matters worse, the Pioneers lost one of those seniors, starting first baseman Dianne Arias, for the year due to a dislocated elbow after just five games. Then sophomore centerfielder Katherine Castro went down with a sprained ankle.
“I would have taken 7−9 at the beginning of the year,” Crawford said.
Freshman Stephanie Guerra has taken over the first−base job and she’s hitting .390. Senior Marisa Miletta, the team’s first−year pitcher, has improved, too. She walked an incredible 18 batters in a 21−4 loss to Forest Hills on April 1, but against the Rangers on Monday she gave up five walks and the Pioneers won, 13−9.
Now, Crawford is hoping for a Cinderella run — either in this year’s playoffs or in the future.
“Maybe like a Gonzaga or a Tampa Bay Rays, something like that,” Crawford said, “when some of this talent begins to flourish and produce.”
Freshman Jessica Tineo is hitting .549 with 25 RBIs and 17 stolen bases and freshman Arys Vargas is batting .447 with 18 RBIs and 18 stolen bases. A sophomore or a freshman makes up five of the nine players in Newtown’s starting lineup.
Against Richmond Hill (7−9), Tineo went 3−for−5 with three RBIs and two runs scored, Vargas went 3−for−4 with two RBIs and two runs scored and Garcia went 1−for−2 with the two biggest RBIs of the season. Miletta gave up nine runs, none of them earned, on seven hits and six walks while striking out six in seven innings.
“It’s a host of young ones,” Crawford said. “They’re really starting to come into their own.”
At the right time, too.
