Thursday, May 10

BASEBALL, Elwood-John Glenn at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

GIRLS LACROSSE, East Hampton at Elwood-John Glenn, 4:30 p.m.

Friday, May 11

BOYS LACROSSE, Babylon at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

BASEBALL, Stony Brook vs. Pierson, Mashashimuet Park, Sag Harbor, and East Hampton at Elwood-John Glenn, 4:30 p.m.

SOFTBALL, Center Moriches at Pierson, 4:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 12

TRACK, East Hampton boys and girls at Elwood-John Glenn invitational, 9 a.m.

RUGBY, Montauk Rugby Club at regional tournament, Pittsburgh, Pa., also Sunday.

SWIMMING, Swim Across America fund-raising party, Breakwater Yacht Club, Sag Harbor, 6-9 p.m.

Sunday, May 13

MOTHER’S DAY 5K, the Circle, Montauk, 8:30 a.m., registration from 7:30.

Monday, May 14

SOFTBALL, East Hampton at Miller Place, and Pierson at Hampton Bays, 4:30 p.m.

Tuesday, May 15

SOFTBALL, Sayville at East Hampton, and Pierson at Southold, 4:30 p.m.

Wednesday, May 16

SOFTBALL, East Hampton at Elwood-John Glenn, 4:30 p.m.

    As was the case last year, the turnout at the Katy’s Courage 5K in Sag Harbor Saturday was huge — the finishers’ list totaled 1,005 — with reportedly every school in the area represented.

    The race is run in memory of the late Katy Stewart, who died a little more than a year ago at the age of 12 of a rare form of liver cancer, and its net proceeds are to go toward a four-year college scholarship fund in her name at Pierson High School, pediatric cancer research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and, in the future, a children’s bereavement center on the East End modeled after one Katy’s parents, Jim and Brigid, and her brother, Robert, visited in San Antonio, Tex., soon after Katy’s death.

    The center, said Katy’s mother, “would be for anybody who’s lost anybody, though especially for children who have experienced loss.”

    “Over the years we have known so many children who have lost a parent or grandparent, or friend, and, of course, we had lost Kate,” Brigid Stewart said in a pre-race story in The Sag Harbor Express. “And when we saw the expertise involved in working with children and their families at the South Texas center we became anxious to have something like that here.”

    In addition to the countless kids, afoot or in strollers, there were a large number of athletes owing in part to the fact that Jim Stewart for a long time coached East Hampton High School’s wrestling and boys soccer teams. There were lacrosse players too and members of the Montauk Rugby Club, not to mention some serious runners.

    A 53-year-old part-time Bridgehamptoner, Richard Temerian, won it, in 17 minutes and 32.16 seconds, outkicking a former Mercy High School protégé of Kevin Barry’s, Kiernan Kelly, 33, at the end. Kelly’s time was 17:33.72. Matt Connors, 37, was third, in 17:42.20; Jason Hancock, a 38-year-old Southamptoner who teaches at the Amagansett School, was fourth, in 17:42.99, and Brian Marciniak, 25, was fifth, in 17:53.62.

    Last year’s winner, Mike Semkus, 24, of Sag Harbor, was sixth, in 18:06.23.

    The women’s winner was 41-year-old — soon to be 42-year-old — Sinead FitzGibbon, who (no mean feat) outkicked Barbara Gubbins, 52, going down the stretch.

    “It’s a beautiful course and every school is represented — it’s so great to see the kids,” said FitzGibbon, who recently, with about 20 others from here, ran, crawled, and clawed their way through a mountainous 25K known as the Hyner Challenge in central Pennsylvania.

    “Ed and Caroline Cashin went, Dennis Loebs — my better half — Fiachra O’Hallissey, Noel Kelly, Mike Bahel, Brian Monahan . . . all the Irish,” she said, when asked for a recounting.

    “We ran uphill and down dale, up through rivers, down streams . . . in some sections you were just using your hands and your feet. It easily required a marathon effort. Chris Reich [who coaches East Hampton High’s boys track team] said at one point, ‘This isn’t running!’ It was his worst race ever.”

    FitzGibbon, who placed fourth over all “among 1,000 billy goats,” and who won her age group, added, “We’re going to do the 50K next year.”

    Bahel and Cheryl Keller used the occasion to announce that they are to be married at the next Hamptons Marathon.

    “You’ll have to run to be in the wedding,” said FitzGibbon. “The bridesmaids will do the three-miler.”

    Temerian, a New York City resident who has a house in Bridgehampton, said he hadn’t known about this race last year. When questioned, the fleet 50-something said he’d run Boston, which this year was really hot, “in 2:59,” a statement his wife, Caroline, stepped forward to amend. “Exactly three hours,” she said. “But he didn’t have to stop and walk or get medical attention.”

    Getting back to the top finishers, O’Hallissey, 41, was seventh, in 18:10.06, Doug Milano, who assists Steve Redlus in coaching East Hampton High’s jayvee boys lacrosse team, was eighth, in 18:24.17, Bahel was ninth, in 18:27.17, an eighth grader, Erik Engstrom, was 10th, in 18:29.32, and another eighth grader, Randy Santiago, was 13th.

    Next up for distance runners is Paddlers for Humanity’s off-road half-marathon at Montauk’s Hither Woods Sunday. The start-finish line will be at Ed Ecker County Park off Navy Road.

    The Long Island Rugby Club was said to be missing a few guys, but it is doubtful that the outcome of Saturday’s friendly match at East Hampton’s Herrick Park would have been any different had the Division I side come in at full strength.

    Montauk too was missing a few good men, among them its captain and fly half, Gordon Trotter (shoulder, calf), who, along with the local side’s coach, Rich Brierley, kept a watchful eye on things from the sidelines. Presumably, they liked what they saw as the Sharks coasted to a 38-10 win in their final warmup for the national Sweet 16 regional in Pittsburgh over the May 12-13 weekend.

    They will be tested there, for the entries will include Naples, which is second-ranked among the nation’s Division II sides, fourth-ranked Middlesex, and fifth-ranked Wisconsin. Montauk is ranked 12th on the 30-club list.

    Bryan Vince, Naples’s head coach, said Monday morning that the once-defeated Hammerheads had beaten Charles­ton 39-16 in the south region’s championship game this past weekend. He expected, he said, that his side would play Montauk on the first day in Pittsburgh.

    Brierley confirmed this later, though as of last week he had been led to believe Montauk’s probable first-round opponent would be Wisconsin, which on Saturday won the Midwest regional title by defeating the South Side Irish 42-19.

    Wisconsin’s first-round opponent will be Middlesex, the Northeast champ, which, it will be recalled, bageled Montauk in the Northeast final 53-0. Mike Bunce Jr., the side’s best player and its number-eight man, had been banned from that game because he’d been red-carded near the end of a 29-8 win over Portland, Me., the day before. Also missing from Montauk in the Northeast final were two of the side’s fleet young backs, Connor Miller and Zach Brenneman. 

    Steve Brierly, speaking of the Sharks’ backs — who, besides Trotter, Brenneman, and Miller, include Erik Brierley (Steve’s son), Matt Brierley, Brian Anderson, Chris Bunce, Ricardo Salmeron, and James Rigby — said, following Saturday’s rout, “We’ve never had a back line like this.”

    Montauk’s forward pack, with Mike Bunce, John Glennon, Jim Abran, Nick Lawler, Nick Finazzo, Ryan Borowsky, James Lock, Danny Ramirez, Paul Jones, and Jarrel Walker among them, is formidable too. 

    The locals began Saturday’s game on the right foot, taking Long Island’s opening kickoff and moving the ball all the way into the visitors’ try zone. Finazzo, who was to come out soon after owing to a cut over his left eye, touched the ball in the try zone, and Matt Brierley, who had not kicked well the week before, boomed an angled 22-meter conversion through the uprights for a 7-0 lead.

    Soon after, Erik Brierley, Montauk’s fullback, broke away for a score, and again Matt Brierley’s kick was good for 14-0.

    Noting that his son had played on the Long Island Rugby Club’s 7s team a few years ago, Steve Brierley said that despite the missing players, there were “some quick guys out there.” No sooner had he said this than the visitors’ fullback reeled off a long run whose follow-up ruck got Long Island on the scoreboard. The conversion kick was no good.

    Near the end of the first half Montauk was presented with a 5-meter scrum after Long Island had massed at the goal line to prevent Walker from touching the ball down. When play resumed, the Sharks’ forwards, rolling the ball  under them, pushed their peers back over the line, where Bunce touched the ball down for a 19-5 lead. Brierley’s kick was good; thus Montauk took a 21-5 lead into the halftime break.

    The locals padded their lead with three tries in the second half — Erik Brierley’s runback of a would-be clearing kick, an alert pickup near the goal line by Rigby of Ryan Borowsky’s pop kick taken from about 10 yards out, and a 10-yard rush by Brian Anderson off the weakside of a scrum.

    Afterward Mike Bunce Sr., Roger Miller, Rich Brierley, and Steve Brierley, all proud fathers, posed for a photo with their sons — Mike Jr. and Chris Bunce, Connor Miller, Matt Brierley, and Erik Brierley.

    “We’re still trying guys out at different positions,” Rich Brierley said. “Last week, we had Zach at outside center. This week we had Matt there — he was the fullback last week. Erik was the fullback this week. Connor played fly half, Gordon’s position, and Chris Bunce, who’s new to the game, did a great job at inside center. It’s really the first time he’s played at this level. . . . Both centers need to pass well under pressure and need to tackle well. Also, Brian Anderson [the scrum half] has improved in every game. This game was his best yet.” 

    Rich Brierley said Monday that while he knew playing Naples would be a challenge, “We’re confident. We’ve got a good combination of youth and experience. I like our stamina and aggressiveness, and though aggressiveness sometimes leads to mistakes, we’re going to turn our young guys loose.”

    “And keep in mind,” he continued, “that we’re also focusing on the future of our club. We’re happy to be in the playoffs. When the season began we thought simply to have a good season would be enough. Then, midway through it Gordon said we could go undefeated, which we did. And then we went on to play in the Northeast final. We’re very happy to be where we are.”

    This Saturday at 2 p.m. the Sharks hope to hold a light intrasquad practice at Herrick with some of the old boys participating. A “casino night” at the American Legion Hall Saturday night raised about $10,000, Trotter said.

   James Ignatowich’s success in regional United States Tennis Association junior tournaments has provided compelling proof of the Ross School Tennis Academy’s effectiveness.

    A pleasant, quiet-spoken 11-year-old sixth grader who tops Connecticut’s 12-and-under age group, James recently made more noise by winning a 14-and-under U.S.T.A. New England sectional tourney outside Hartford, besting in straight sets two older players — the number-one and two seeds — who had beaten him before he’d matriculated at the academy in the fall.

    “I wouldn’t have won a round in that tournament if I hadn’t come here — I give a lot of credit to my coaches,” James said during a conversation at Ross’s tennis center last week.

    Vinicius Carmo, who oversees Ross’s tennis academy, said he’d been able to have James taken into the sectional’s 32-player draw as an unseeded qualifier given the fact he had played out of Darien, Conn., before moving to Sag Harbor.

    It turned out be a master stroke, for James, who has a year more to play in the 12s, swept through four matches, defeating the fourth seed in the first round, the first seed in the semifinals, and the second seed in the final.

    He defeated the top seed, who was “about to turn 15 and was very tall and hit hard,” 6-1, 6-0, and, in the final, disposed of the second seed, “a lefty who has beaten the top-seeded guy,” 6-1, 6-3.

    When asked how the match with the top-seeded player had gone, James said, with some delight, “He thought it would be easy. I went up 3-0, mixing it up, slicing, lobbing, and hitting it hard at times. I was in the zone. He wasn’t that strong mentally. He started throwing his racket and screaming, and he cried at the end.”

    It was more of the same in the final. “Since he was a lefty, I floated the ball to his backhand and I’d run in and hit overheads . . . he cried too. That same kid beat me 6-3, 6-0 six months ago, before I came here.”

    It was the third U.S.T.A. sectional win for James, who has two 12-and-under titles as well and has seen his national 12s’ ranking soar “from 800 or so to the top-50.”

    As is the case with his six fellow academy students, James, under the watchful eyes of Carmo and two other pros, works on his game five hours a day, hitting from 7 to 8:30 a.m., from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., and from 6:30 to 8, with fitness conditioning at Alex Astilean’s Speedfit studio in East Hampton from 3:30 to 4:30. He also talks periodically with a sports psychologist, Paul Weinhold.

    Carmo has always liked the fact that James is “mentally tough” when in a competitive situation. James said his coaches had helped make him “a lot smarter,” and that Astilean’s treadmill, resistance, and medicine ball workouts were making him stronger and faster. And, as for his game, while he still gets everything back, he can hit winners now.

    “A big part of it,” said James, “is the fitness. Alex Astilean is very inspiring — he’s helped me a lot.”

    Next up for him is a national tourney in New Haven, Conn. later this month.

    Carmo added in parting that “anyone — not just Ross students — can participate in our fitness workouts and anyone can come to play here in the afternoons or evenings, though they should keep in mind that it’s challenging tennis.”

    A win over Harborfields here Friday would apparently have assured the East Hampton High School girls lacrosse team of a home game in the opening round of the playoffs, but it was not to be, as the Tornadoes wound up on the long end of a 9-5 score.

    Afterward, Matt Maloney, East Hampton’s coach, agreed that the loss “wasn’t the end of the world, though it would have been nice to win. . . . We need a couple more wins, but to be two games above .500 with four games to go is a good place to be.”

    While Maloney hedged as to whether East Hampton had clinched a playoff spot, Becky Schwartz, the junior varsity coach, said at Saturday’s rugby game, “They are in.”

    If so, it would be the first time a Bonac girls lacrosse team will have made the playoffs since the program began here in 2000.

    As of Monday, East Hampton (6-4 league, 8-4 over all) was eighth-ranked among the 21 power-rated teams in Division II with 113.960 power points. Harborfields was in sixth place with 116.910.

    East Hampton, which has a 16-11 win over third-place Shoreham-Wading River, was to have played at fourth-place Eastport-South Manor yesterday. Last-place Mattituck-Greenport-Southold is to play here tomorrow. Fifth-place Sayville is to play here Tuesday, and East Hampton is to finish up the regular season at 18th-place Elwood-John Glenn next Thursday.

    The Bonackers outshot the Tornadoes, but the visitors’ goalie was up to the challenge, frequently gathering in the shoulder and head-high bids. “Their goalie was known to be good on high shots — why we didn’t get off many bouncers I don’t know,” said Schwartz.

    Harborfields’s defense was physical, so much so that after the game Maloney said his star county-leading scorer, Maggie Pizzo, who was shut out that day, had been “hit in the head three times” without getting a call. He felt that in general East Hampton “didn’t get the calls” that day.

    Moreover, a free position goal that Bronte Marino had scored early on — a goal that apparently tied the score at 2-2 — was nullified soon after when the referees upheld a challenge by the opposing coach, who maintained that the pocket of Marino’s stick was too deep — an anomaly of sorts given the fact that the refs had checked the pockets of all the players’ sticks before the game began.

    Another East Hampton free position shot in the first half, this one by Gabriella Penati, went for naught as Penati was said to have moved before given the go-ahead. 

    But, in the end, Harborfields, keyed by its smothering defense, was the more opportunistic team that day.

    “I think our defense created about as many turnovers as theirs did,” Maloney said when talking with sportswriters afterward, but he acknowledged that, while East Hampton’s defenders had played well when they were given time to set up, they hadn’t held up very well when Harborfields counter-attacked.

    Carley Seekamp got East Hampton on the scoreboard with a goal three and a half minutes into the game, following a nice save by East Hampton’s goalie, Allison Charde. A netted free position shot by Harborfields tied it at 1-1 two minutes later.

    A turnover by East Hampton’s offense resulted in the visitors taking a 2-1 lead, and, with about six minutes left until the half, the Tornadoes made good on another turnover for a 3-1 lead. Cassidy Walsh replied at the five-minute mark, and East Hampton thus trailed 3-2 going into the break.

    After winning the draw that began the second half, East Hampton’s spread-out offense controlled the ball for the first two minutes of play, but a bad pass intended for Jenna Budd was quickly translated into a Harborfields goal at the other end of the field.

    Budd fired a shot off the right post with five minutes gone in the 25-minute period, and a half  minute later the Tornadoes’ goalie parried a high shot by Pizzo, after which Harborfields scored again in transition to go up 5-2.

    With 17 minutes to play, the visitors made it 6-2, prompting Maloney to call for a timeout, during which his assistant, Kathy McGeehan, was heard to say to their frustrated charges, “Let the rest of it go if you want to get back in this game.”

    Walsh was yellow-carded for high sticking in the facial area soon after play resumed, a penalty that resulted in her sidelining for two minutes, but although a man down, East Hampton managed to score as Penati found a seam in the Tornadoes’ defense and beat their goalie one-on-one.

    With 13 minutes to play, Amanda Seekamp, who had been awarded a free position shot from the top of the circle, let the ball fly from there, but the visitors’ keeper made the save.

    With 10 minutes to go, Harborfields held an 8-3 lead thanks to two converted free position shots of its own.

    With nine minutes left, Carley Seekamp, moving left to right, faked high before slipping the ball by the frozen goalie into the left corner of the nets for 8-4, and, with four minutes remaining, Melanie Mackin, after receiving a pass from Amanda Seekamp, made it 8-5.

    Maloney was heard to say, “There’s plenty of time, plenty of time” when, at the two-minute mark, the visitors netted their ninth score of the day, but, alas, his charges, who wound up playing a man-down again in those final minutes, weren’t quite up to the task.

    East Hampton High’s baseball team, as the result of a 6-0 loss here to league-leading Bayport-Blue Point Monday, will have to win all five of its remaining games in order to make the playoffs.

    The Bonackers were able to take the last of a three-game series with Shoreham-Wading River, winning 14-5 on Friday.

    Will Collins, who assists Ed Bahns in coaching East Hampton’s team, said, “Deilyn Guzman, who pitched for us, went five and two-thirds innings, giving up only three hits and striking out three. He walked five and hit four batters, though.”

    Timely hits by Guzman (a home run), Brandon Brophy, Ryan Joudeh, A.J. Bennett, and Cameron Yusko coupled with Shoreham errors resulted in an early 10-2 lead. Brendan Hughes homered in the sixth inning, his first round-tripper at the varsity level. Bennett finished the game with four runs batted in; Brophy and Yusko, who went 2-for-3, each drove in two.

    In other action Monday, the softball team defeated winless Harborfields 7-2 as Kathryn Hess, the hard-hitting senior catcher, homered. Sam Mathews pitched and got the win. Lou Reale’s team was to have played the League V leader, Islip (10-2), here Tuesday, but rain forced a postponement. East Hampton and Sayville were tied earlier this week for the League VI lead, each at 11-1.

    The girls lacrosse team, as reported elsewhere, is on the cusp of making the playoffs, which would be the first time in the program’s 12-year history. The boys lacrosse team was 4-6 (4-8) as of Tuesday, in 16th place among the 22 teams in Division II. Games remained with Elwood-John Glenn, Westhampton Beach (here today), Bayport-Blue Point, and Babylon (here on Friday, May 11).

    The boys “played very well,” according to their coach, Mike Vitulli, in defeating Deer Park 6-1 on April 24. Vitulli said that in that game Drew Griffiths “won six of nine face-offs, and we were able to generate some long offensive possessions. Defensively, we had success playing a zone. Mike Jara [who had seven saves] played well in the goal for us.”

    Fourth-place Hauppauge defeated East Hampton 15-3 on Friday.

    Westhampton Beach clinched the league championship in boys tennis by edging the Ross School 4-3 at Westhampton Saturday. The Hurricanes’ pivotal point came in third doubles, a three-setter that ended with Westhampton’s duo defeating Jordan Schwimmer and Mikey Peterson 7-5 in the third.

    Ross had won 4-3 in the teams’ first meeting, in Ross’s bubble, earlier in the season.

    Westhampton played at East Hampton Monday, bageling the Bonackers 7-0. Michelle Kennedy, East Hampton’s coach, recently had to recast her lineup inasmuch as Marco Silimbergo, a transfer who had been East Hampton’s number-one, moved back to Florida.

Ryan Pilla, “the Car Doctor,” is to return to Daytona, Fla., this weekend to compete in pro touring class races there.

“The last time I was in Daytona, in 2006, I had the pole position in the enduro,” the sports car mechanic and driver said Monday. “Two of us, Patrick Dempsey, the actor, and I, shared a Ford factory Mustang. I brought it in in first place after my hour-and-a-half stint. When he finished we were in 15th. This time, I’m driving the entire three hours myself, in a Mazda I built

Thursday, May 3

BOYS LACROSSE, Westhampton Beach at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

BASEBALL, Bayport-Blue Point at East Hampton, and Pierson at Greenport, 4:30 p.m.

BOYS TENNIS, William Floyd at East Hampton, and Ross at Eastport-South Manor, 4:30 p.m.

Friday, May 4

GIRLS LACROSSE, Mattituck-Greenport-Southold at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

BASEBALL, East Hampton at Bayport-Blue Point, and Pierson at Greenport, 4:30 p.m.

SOFTBALL, Pierson at Stony Brook, 4:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 5

SOFTBALL, Connetquot at East Hampton, scrimmage, 11 a.m., and Pierson at Mattituck, 2.

RUGBY, intrasquad scrimmage, Herrick Park, East Hampton, 2 p.m.

Sunday, May 6

HALF-MARATHON, Hither Woods, Montauk, with start-finish line at Ed Ecker County Park off Navy Road, 9 a.m., registration from 8.

Monday, May 7

SOFTBALL, East Hampton at Rocky Point, 4:30 p.m.

BASEBALL, East Hampton at Elwood-John Glenn, 4:30 p.m.

Tuesday, May 8

GIRLS LACROSSE, Sayville at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

GIRLS TRACK, Westhampton Beach at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

BOYS TRACK, East Hampton at Westhampton Beach, 4:30 p.m.

SOFTBALL, Port Jefferson vs. Pierson, Mashashimuet Park, Sag Harbor, 4:30 p.m.

BASEBALL, Stony Brook vs. Pierson, Mashashimuet Park, Sag Harbor, 4:30 p.m.

Wednesday, May 9

SOFTBALL, Shoreham-Wading River at East Hampton, and Pierson vs. McGann-Mercy, Stotzky Park, Riverhead, 4:30 p.m.

BOYS LACROSSE, Bayport-Blue Point at East Hampton, 4:30 p.m.

BASEBALL, Pierson at Stony Brook, 4:30 p.m.

TRACK, Ross-Pierson boys and girls at Stony Brook, 4:30 p.m.

    Following Saturday’s 24-22 loss in a friendly match with the White Plains Rugby Football Club, Rich Brierley, who coaches the Montauk R.F.C., said, looking ahead to the regional Sweet 16 tournament in Pittsburgh, that he liked Montauk’s chances.

    The Sharks, he said, are to play the Midwest champion (probably Wisconsin) in the first game, on May 12. To advance to the Final Four, which is to be contested in Glendale, Colo., over the June 2-3 weekend, Montauk will have to win both games it plays in Pittsburgh’s Cheswick suburb, home to the Pittsburgh Harlequins.

    To prepare for the Sweet 16, the Sharks, a Division II entry, scheduled friendlies with Division I sides this spring. “Our main goal — even more than the tournament — has been to get a lot of our young guys more experience. . . . Frankly, I thought we played better rugby than White Plains, but they capitalized on a few of our mistakes.”

    That having been said, “I’d much rather that our mistakes stem from aggressive play rather than from just standing around. . . . Some of our young guys were playing matador defense.”

    Montauk scored four tries Saturday, two by Zach Brenneman, the former Notre Dame all-American lacrosse midfielder, one by Connor Miller, and one by Ryan Borowsky. Brenneman and Miller are backs who are new to the game; Borowsky is a veteran forward.

    A breakaway by Erik Brierley, another young back, almost tilted the pendulum Montauk’s way in the final minutes as he streaked to White Plains’ 22-meter line before being brought down.

    A number of the side’s stalwarts, including Nick Finazzo, Teddy Grabowski, and Jarrel Walker, were out of action Saturday, “though, while we’re banged up a bit,” said Rich Brierley, “nobody’s seriously injured. We should be at 100 percent when it comes time to play in Pittsburgh.”

    John Glennon, the team’s hooker, was cited afterward as Montauk’s man of the match. “It’s the forwards who keep you in the game, while the backs generally get the glory,” Brierley said. “The forwards are the ones who provide you with momentum and field position. We rely on our forwards a lot.”

    The Long Island Rugby Club and Montauk are to vie in another friendly match at East Hampton’s Herrick Park this Saturday, beginning at 1 p.m.

    Later that day, from 6 to 11 p.m., the side will hold a Casino Night fund-raiser at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett at which there will also be “a gourmet buffet, a 50-50 raffle, and a massive Chinese auction.”

    The tickets cost $60 per person in advance and $75 at the door. Among the prizes will be “golf foursomes at the Bridge and the South Fork Country Club, gift certificates from local retailers and to local restaurants and inns, spa treatments, and personal training sessions.”

    Tickets can be had by e-mailing Nick Finazzo at [email protected], or by visiting the mountaukrugby.com Web site or the Montauk Rugby Facebook page.

    Having returned from a singular spring training trip to Orlando, Fla., where it had won all eight of its scrimmages, the East Hampton High School softball team flirted with disaster in a crossover game here on April 18 with Eastport-South Manor, but Kathryn Hess, the senior catcher and cleanup hitter, saved the day.

    As a result of Hess’s two-out single to right field in the bottom of the seventh inning, a hit that scored Casey Waleko from second base, the Bonackers went home happy on the long end of a 4-3 score.

    But their coach, Lou Reale, while relieved, wasn’t all that pleased. “It’s the worst I’ve seen us play in a while,” he said during a conversation afterward. “It was pretty ugly. We made errors, we looked at called third strikes — four times, I think it was — and their pitcher was no different from anyone we’d seen in Florida, and we made mental mistakes. . . . We were lucky to come away with a win.”

    The coach was found to be in a better frame of mind Friday morning as he recounted last Thursday’s 7-3 win at Kings Park, a win to which Ellie Cassel, who has been batting sixth in the lineup, contributed mightily, going 4-for-4 at the plate with three doubles and four runs batted in.

    “She hit well at the beginning of the season, and then dropped off a bit, and now she’s making good contact again — I’m thinking of moving her up to fifth in the order,” Reale said of the sophomore outfielder, who played last year on the junior varsity.

    Cassel called attention to her power in the game with Eastport-South Manor, rocketing fouls wide of the left-field line in two at-bats, balls that would have fetched the fence had they stayed fair. But the hitting star in that contest, at least until Hess came through in the seventh, was Bonac’s leadoff batter, Dana Dragone, one of the team’s three seniors.

    In the bottom of the fourth, Dragone, who had doubled in the first but was stranded there as the next three hitters, Waleko, Deryn Hahn, and Hess, were retired — Waleko and Hess on strikeouts — smacked a two-out, two-strike triple down the right-field line that scored Ali Harned, Ilsa Brzezinski, and Ceire Kenny for a 3-0 East Hampton lead.

    Waleko, who was on the mound that day, held the visitors scoreless through the fifth and sixth, though she was clearly getting tired. Eastport loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the sixth, following a single, a walk, and another single, but Waleko fanned the next two batters, the first on a nice 0-2 changeup, and Brzezinski, the sophomore first baseman, snagged a lazy liner hit her way for the third out.

    The visitors led the seventh off with successive singles, the second one to right. Dragone’s throw to Brzezinski arrived too late to record an out at first, and Brzezinski’s subsequent throw across the diamond to Hahn went wide, resulting in Eastport runners at second and third with none out.

    When Waleko fell behind 2-1 on the next batter, Reale came out to talk things over. He left Waleko in, but, with the count 2-2 Waleko’s next pitch was ripped over third, and got by Cassel, who chased what was to be a two-run triple to the fence.

    Having seen enough, Reale replaced Waleko with Sam Mathews and rearranged the outfield so that Waleko was in left, Dragone in center, and Cassel in right.

    Mathews wound up walking the first batter to face her, on a 3-2 pitch. She got the next one on a comebacker to the mound, but Eastport tied the score at 3-3 as a hard-hit ball bounced off the second baseman Ceire Kenny’s shin into Brzezinski’s waiting hands.

    Mathews then gave up another walk, on four straight pitches. A pinch-runner was brought in at first and a sleeveless pinch-hitter strode to the plate. With the count 1-1, the base runner stole second. But she remained there, as Hahn, after gathering in a ground ball hit her way, rifled a throw to the outstretched Brzezinski for the third out.

    Dragone led off East Hampton’s last at-bat by popping out to Eastport’s first baseman. But Waleko, with the count 1-2 — she’d fouled off three successive pitches after taking two strikes — beat out a grounder to short. With Hahn up, Waleko stole second, sliding in ahead of the catcher’s throw, but she remained there as Hahn popped out to second.

    That brought up Hess, who had taken a called third strike in the first, flied out to right in the third, and had been hit by her bunted ball as she ran up the first-base line in the fifth.

    This time, however, Hess came through, lining a 2-1 pitch well up the right-field line, and Waleko came around to score the winning run standing up.

    “Casey didn’t beat that throw by much — she should have slid,” Reale said afterward.

    Waleko struck out 10 that day and walked two, but gave up seven hits — four, Reale said, in the last two innings.

    The next day, Mathews pitched a four-hitter in the aforementioned 7-3 victory at Kings Park. She struck out two and walked none. Her drop ball resulted in the home team’s batters hitting 14 ground balls, Reale said, all but one of which were fielded cleanly.