Pitching leads Sewanhaka's chances

On a chilly and overcast afternoon, in what was an absolute pitcher’s duel, Sewanhaka softball fell to Carle Place 4-0 at home April 27.

Madison DeMaio was the star for Sewanhaka, striking out 14 in the circle and hitting a triple in the fourth inning of the defeat. The Indians slipped to 5-6 on the year.

“Madison is now second on our all time strikeout list,” coach Deirdre Kelly said of DeMaio. “Starting the season off, the first four or five games, she was averaging 14 or 15 strikeouts. She has well over 300 and she's only been here a year and a half. She started last year here. Having that on the mound and having that stability helps us defensively. “

DeMaio was backed up in the field by shortstop Hailey McGreevey, second baseman Gabriella Plasencia, and first baseman Emely Ruiz Lopez.

Sewanhaka threatened in the fourth inning after a 16 pitch at bat by senior center fielder Mia Romero and then a single by right fielder Daniela Melata, but couldn’t get any runs on the board. In the top of the seventh, Ruiz Lopez roped a single to center to try and start a rally, but unfortunately the rally was thwarted.

“We're making decent contact. We need to do better. We need to string more hits together,” said Kelly. “That's what we need, to just put some more hits together and get some runs”

When talking about her team, Kelly was proud of the girls’ resiliency and hard work.

“You can't teach coming out in the seventh inning, down four, nothing, they get up there hacking away. So we're proud of that and we're proud of our tradition. We just want to keep it going and hopefully put some more wins together,” she said.

Sewanhaka carries five seniors, who basically make up the entire outfield in Melara, Romero, Nicole Plasencia, and Jai Kaur.

“We're so proud of how hard they work,” said Kelly. “We have athletes here and they learn this game. For the two, three months of this short season, they live and breathe softball and we can't ask for anything else.”

The result dropped Sewanhaka below .500, but all five wins have come in conference play which is big come postseason time. Sewanhaka proved it’s capable of stringing together some wins and now is the time to pad on to the win total.

“It was key to start off with a couple of wins because that just sets the tone. We need to get some wins. We’re facing Locust Valley and then we see Hicksville again, which was a tough loss the first time around,” said Kelly. “Hopefully we can come back and turn some of those Ls into Ws. We’re going to try and do that the best we can. We’re going to keep [DeMaio] up and just keep plugging away in the box.”

This week Sewanhaka looks to add to its win total facing Locust Valley at home and Hicksville on the road.