“We’re hot and then we’re not,” Erin Abran said with a smile after last Thursday night’s women’s slow-pitch playoff softball game. The Police Benevolent Association, led by its pitcher, T. Schirrippa, and its shortstop, Nicole Fierro, downed Groundworks 9-4 in the third game of a best-of-three semifinal series, advancing the P.B.A. to the final round with East End Land Planning, the defending champion. That series was to have begun at the Terry King ball field in Amagansett on Tuesday.
Groundworks won game one of the semifinal series by a score of 15-9, but was “mercied” 15-0 in four innings in the second. East End Land Planning defeated Montauk Dental, which had gone winless in the regular season, in the other semifinal.
The P.B.A. jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning last Thursday. After Paloma Tavera lined out to Abran at short, Schirrippa, who has played on United States flag football teams, and Elise Thorsen doubled back to back — Thorsen’s driving in Schirrippa — and Fierro singled in Thorsen. Dawn Green, the fifth hitter in the lineup, reached first base safely on an infield error, after which Tara Fordham drove in the third run. The bases were loaded with two outs when Emma Beudert, Groundworks’ pitcher, induced Lolo Kearny to pop out to Lacey Bahns at third.
Groundworks came back with two runs of its own in the top of the second. Bahns beat out a rifled throw to first base from Fierro in leading off. Zoe Daunt, Lacey’s sister, then grounded to short, but Fierro couldn’t make a play. Taylor Boucher’s fly to left field was caught, but the runners moved up when the throw to Schirrippa got by her, and both Bahns and Daunt scored when Fierro’s subsequent throw after fielding a grounder hit her way by Meredith Smith sailed high. Groundworks continued to threaten, but, with the bases loaded and two out, Schirrippa pounced on Beudert’s drive up the middle and tossed the ball to Fierro for a force at second base that ended the inning.
With runners at the corners, a single by Alexis Vargas tied the score at 3-3 in the top of the third, but the P.B.A. wrested the lead back thanks to a daring two-out sprint from first to home by Schirrippa in the bottom half.
The P.B.A. effectively put the game away with five runs in the fourth. With one out, Ella Gurney, Alli Hren, and Tavera singled, loading the bases for Schirrippa, who drew a walk from Beudert, as did Thorsen. That brought up Fierro, the cleanup hitter, whose triple to deep center drove in the P.B.A.’s seventh, eighth, and ninth runs.
Ally Friedman came in to pitch for Groundworks in the fifth and held the P.B.A. scoreless. She led off her team’s sixth inning with a sharp single, and came around to score Groundworks’ fourth run two outs later when Daunt’s pop over short fell in. Friedman retired the side in order in the bottom of the sixth.
Smith singled in leading off Groundworks’ last at-bat, and advanced to second on a base hit by Gill Palomo. Meredith Janis then lined a shot to the left of second that Fierro, who dived flat-out, one-handed, a great catch that kept Smith and Palomo where they were.
After gathering in a grounder hit to her by Jenny Princer, Fierro tried for a force at third, but Palomo slid in safely ahead of the throw, which loaded the bases with one out for Beudert, whom Schirrippa retired on a pop to second. That brought up Abran, but soon she too fell victim to Schirrippa’s high-arc deliveries, which prompted a P.B.A. celebration.