Pearl River Beats Eastchester in Softball Semis

Pearl River celebrated twice in the moments after winning Friday's Section 1 Class A semifinal game at Eastchester.

The first came after the Pirates recorded the final out of the 9-2 victory on a ground ball to short, earning a trip to the championship game.

Pearl River celebrated again upon finding out that rival Tappan Zee will be the opponent in the championship game 3 p.m. Saturday at North Rockland. Tappan Zee won, 5-0, at Ursuline Friday.

"It's just amazing," Pearl River second baseman Erin Woods said. "There is no way to describe it. It's going to be a really good game. We're excited for the challenge."

Woods played a big part of getting the Pirates there. She followed up a three-hit performance in the quarterfinals by going 4-for-5 Friday.

"I'm feeling good. I wouldn't rather have it any other time to be hot," Woods said.

She got the Pirates started with an extra-base hit in the top of the first inning, coming around to score when the Eastchester outfielder threw it away. 

"It was a good hit," Pearl River Head Coach Carisa Gaylardo said. "I thought maybe she'd get a double out of it, (then) they misplayed the ball. That's where your defense wins games. That was a key right there. That got us that little bump of confidence we needed."

Pearl River took advantage of Eastchester errors, four of them, but Pirates also belted out 12 hits against pitcher Danielle Cacciola.

"We've seen her a lot before," Woods said. "We knew what she has and we knew we could hit her. We were really confident going in there."

"We just got beat," Eastchester Head Coach Chris Walpole said. "We made some errors in the field. Even if we eliminate some of the errors, the mental errors, they put the ball in play all day. They got clutch hits. It seemed like they had the leadoff man on every inning They put the pressure on us and we didn't handle it well."

The Pirates took control of the game with a five-run second inning. They loaded the bases with none out on a single, an error and a walk. With one out, Eastchester catcher Kristen Martin could not cleanly field a throw home on Jules Madigan's grounder, allowing Alexa Candelario to score from third. After an RBI fielder's choice by Sam Alicandri, Woods lined a two-run single to right field. Pitcher Mandy McCarthy followed with an RBI single to push Pearl River's advantage to 6-0.

McCarthy said even then, the Pirates could not get comfortable. When the two teams met earlier this month, Eastchester rallied for five runs in the seventh to pull out a 6-5 victory.

"We knew a team like Eastchester can come back any inning," McCarthy said. "We knew when we scored five in the second inning, it wasn't enough."

It turned out to be enough, but the Pirates kept tacking on anyway. Alicandri and Woods both scored runs in the fourth on RBI singles by Katherine Gilbride and Candelario. Deirdre O'Malley singled home Alicandri with another run in the fifth, Alicandri's third run scored in the game, and Madigan reached on an error and came around to score in McCarthy's RBI single in the seventh for the final run.

"We've been getting leads every playoff game," McCarthy said. "We say score early, score often. To have us score all game, not just one big inning, it was good to have production throughout."

McCarthy gave up her first runs of the post-season in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly by Martin and an RBI single Casey Dell'Area that snuck through the infield when a baserunner got between Alicandri and the ball. That was all Eastchester would get against McCarthy, who gave up just six hits and one walk while striking out one batter.

"The defense was awesome," McCarthy said. "I started missing pitches, but the defense played phenomenal."

"She had her team behind her," Gaylardo said. "She believed in them. She was able to pitch and not worry about hitting her spots as much."

Walpole, whose Eastchester team entered the tournament as the top seed and the second-ranked team in the state, said that some observers underrated Pearl River.

"There's that line that the talk of their demise is highly exaggerated," Walpole said. "They are similar to last year's team that was favored to win it all."

That team lost in the quarterfinals, snapping a streak of four consecutive section championships. The current juniors all played on that team. They will try to add another championship against a Tappan Zee team they split two meetings with during the regular season. Each team won on the other's home field.

"They have a really good offense. They have a really good defense," McCarthy said. "They are similar to us. It's always a close one."