Track

Good things come in threes

Lady Bears’ comeback win over Sullivan West yields three-peat in SCSO Tournament; Monticello gets third

By RICHARD A. ROSS

GRAHAMSVILLE, NY - For the third year in a row, Tri-Valley emerged as the champion in the Sullivan County Softball Officials (SCSO) Tournament.

The title, which was Tri-Valley’s fifth since the tournament’s inception in 1991, was an uphill battle, unlike the 27-2 win over Liberty in 2005 and the 16-5 win over Liberty a year ago.

This year, Sullivan West took the place of Liberty in the tournament, which also featured Monticello and Eldred, two teams that have played in the tournament since 1998. It was the first appearance of the Lady Bulldogs and a chance for Sullivan West coach Mike Ellmauer to pit his team against an old friend, Mary Feusner, who is now in her 27th year of coaching. Her career is peppered with periods of success that include five Western Sullivan League titles, four Section 9 titles, a Capital Region crown and an Eastern Regional and State Championship in 1986.

Although Feusner’s teams have had their ups and downs over the years, she never stops teaching, counseling and advising, from pre-game warm ups to her reflective post-game chats.

Such effective game monitoring helped lead her young Lady Bears squad to a pair of wins in this tournament that she hopes will ignite a winning season and then some, something that has become scarcer in recent years.

After holding on to defeat Monticello 6-4 in the opening round, Tri-Valley found itself facing Sullivan West in the championship game. The Lady Bulldogs had disposed of Eldred by the score of 17-3 in the opening round, and it became clear from the outset that the Lady Bulldogs weren’t going to walk over Tri-Valley in similar fashion. Since the tournament was taking place on the second night of Sullivan West’s staging of “The Wizard of Oz,” a production that six players were involved in, Ellmauer had to sub in a number of junior varsity players in game two as replacements.

That said, with Rachel Houghtaling on the mound for Sullivan West, throwing strikes and getting ahead of every batter, the Lady Bulldogs managed to keep Tri-Valley runners mostly off the base paths.

Feusner chose Gretchen Hartman to take the mound in game two. Lisa Dymond had done an admirable job in the first game and Hartman was right on cue for this one. By day’s end, she had tossed a five-hitter and struck out six. It was going to be up to the Lady Bear batters to get the job done against Sullivan West.

Tri-Valley got a run in the bottom of the first after Samantha Adriaans got on with a single and scored on an E-8.

In a tight game, defense and smart base running are the difference makers and Tri-Valley came up big in both departments, while Sullivan West made a couple of miscues that cost them the game.

Sullivan West tied it up in the top of the second inning as Houghtaling led off with a triple and scored on a single by Rachel Gruenke. Hartman avoided more damage by inducing a fly out and notching her second strike out of the game.

From then on, Houghtaling and Hartman locked up in a pitcher’s duel, and Sullivan West got the lead in the top of the fourth as Lindsey Bauer and Sarah Lander got on with singles with one out. But when Gruenke hit a single, Ellmauer sent Lander home where Kayla McNamara summarily tagged her out at the plate. It wasn’t the first time that Ellmauer has sent one of his runners into the clutches of an awaiting tag, but it was the first instance this year. The Dawgettes did get a run on replacement player Danielle Meyer’s single, but she was caught stealing, the second base-running snafu that ran the Dawgs out of the inning. They had to settle for a slim 2-1 lead.

Lander came on in relief of Houghtaling to start the fifth, but she wasn’t locating her pitches with her usual accuracy. Even so, she kept Tri-Valley scoreless for two innings.

Gruenke got her third hit of the game to lead off the seventh, but Hartman retired the next three batters so Lander took the mound to try and close the deal. Feusner kept infusing her players with a never-say-die attitude.

Karyn Sheeley smacked a low pitch right over the first-base bag for a leadoff double and scored on Skylar Musa’s sac fly to tie the game. With one out, Laurel Wilsen blasted a triple to right, putting the winning run just 60 feet away. The Bears got that run on an E-3 with Sullivan West’s regular first baseman Stephanie Meyer sitting on the bench.

The 3-2 victory sent Tri-Valley players into a paroxysm of delight. They donned their pink tournament championship t-shirts and posed for pictures as they raised three fingers to attest to their third consecutive tourney title. Tri-Valley improved to 3-2. The wins followed a loss the day before to Livingston Manor. The Lady Bears lost their season opener to Onteora and countered it with a win over Tuxedo.

Sullivan West (1-2) lost its season opener to Port Jervis.

Monticello slugs its way to a tournament consolation win after losing a tight game to Tri-Valley in opener

For the Monticello Lady Panthers, the SCSO tourney would mark their season debut. With an infield peppered with experienced seniors, coach Ed Kaufmann hoped that his defense would be sound and that his seasoned players would be able to get timely hitting right out of the chute.

The day produced mixed results for the Lady Panthers, who came up short against Tri-Valley in the first game and opened fire with both barrels against Eldred in the tournament consolation game.

By the end of the first game, after watching his team come up empty in an inning when they had the bases loaded with only one out, Kaufmann told his team, “You have to capitalize and find a way to put the ball in play.” Like most county teams, Kaufmann’s squad had been confined to the gym during the early spring, so this tournament provided good live experience. “We only made a couple of mental errors out there,” he noted, “but we need to be grittier.”

Tri-Valley took a 3-0 lead in the first inning with RBI from Amanda Martin, Lisa Dymond and Kayla Scannell. The Lady Panthers got one run back in the top of the third with an RBI triple by Diana Accardo. Tri-Valley made it 5-1 in the bottom of the frame with RBI from Scannell and McNamara.

Monticello chipped its way back with a two-run fourth inning with RBI from Tara Feller and Katy Gonzalez. The Lady Panthers got within a run by scoring Accardo in the fifth but that would be it. Tri-Valley added an insurance run in the sixth when Samantha Santiago scored on an E-6.

In the consolation round, Monticello pounded out 10 runs in the first inning before going on to its first win of the season in a 17-2 rout of Eldred.

Eldred fell to 0-6 after coming to the tourney with losses already in the books to Tuxedo, Chester, S.S. Seward and Chapel Field. The Lady Yellowjackets surrendered a total of 34 runs in the two games while scoring only five. It’s been a tough start for coach Jolene Porter’s squad, but with veterans on board like Stephanie Berger, Ashley Tice, Lori Henry, Kim Henry, Jessica Bisland and Celia Oset, things are bound to turn around for Eldred, a team that should be competitive in Class D. Sophomore Rachel Smith, who came on in relief of Tice, threw the ball well but having to play Class B Sullivan West, and Class A Monticello was a tall order in this tournament.

In the opener Sullivan West rode a grand slam by Kristen Niemann, which propelled her team to an early 7-0 lead in the second inning.

Visit riverreportersports.com for an album of tournament photos.