In the top of the first inning, things didn’t look good. East Hampton was already trailing Eastport-South Manor 4-0 in their first playoff game of the postseason, with the pitcher Izzy Briand uncharacteristically in a hole. It was not the start the Bonackers were looking for, but it didn’t last long.
By the bottom of the inning, East Hampton had pulled within one run, scoring three on just one hit. And they were just warming up. The girls would go on to score 19 more runs, lighting up the scoreboard at the turf field on Stephen Hand's Path on their way to a 22-7 rout of the Sharks.
"We worked on it all week. We hit and hit and hit and worked on our mind-set, staying the course, not letting things get jammed up. Like 4-0. No panic. We've been there and Izzy stayed solid," Jason Menu, the head coach, said.
Briand stayed extremely solid on both sides of the ball, driving in Colleen McKee to tie the game in the second inning and scoring at least three times before the crowd stopped keeping track. While it’s tough to choose a player of the game when the bats are so hot, McKee got the game ball for a spectacular three-run, inside-the-park home run in the fourth inning to put Bonac up 14-7.
"I was up to bat. She pitched me a lot of fastballs in the beginning and then I heard the catcher say 'adjust' to something, so I kind of had the feeling she was about to hit me a changeup. I was about to swing and I just saw it coming, and I was like 'all right, just got to whack that thing,' " McKee said. And whack the ball she did, though she didn't realize she'd hit a home run. "Not at all. I just kept my head down and kept running."
With the win, the Bonackers will play at Westhampton Beach on Saturday at 10 a.m., a matchup that will surely not disappoint.
"We've played them twice," Coach Menu said. "They've beaten us once. We beat them once. Both on walk-offs, so it's going to be an exciting atmosphere. A rubber match!"
