There were two outs, two runners on, and Alexa Schaffer was up. Bonac softball's head coach, Jason Menu, couldn't have asked for a better scenario for his team, trailing Hauppauge 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh. His players had pulled within one and his best hitter was at the plate.
"I wouldn't have written it any better, with Alexa up. The first two girls walked, I'm like 'Here we go. This is storybook here,' " he said. "I don't think there was any doubt, anybody here who didn't think they were going to do it."
But sometimes stories don't end the way we wish they would. In the blink of an eye, before doubt could creep in, Schaffer was out and Hauppauge was celebrating instead.
The 3–2 loss on Tuesday — East Hampton's second of the postseason — eliminated the team from the playoffs. They fell to Westhampton Beach, 20–3, in their second game on Saturday after beating Eastport-South Manor, 22–7, in their first playoff game at the Stephen Hand's Path turf field last Thursday.
This was Bonac's first loss at home all season long, going a perfect 9-0 at East Hampton High School in the regular season. It was also their first loss to Hauppauge, having beaten the Eagles twice already, 2-1 at home and 10-4 on the road.
"They should be proud of themselves. They competed. They prepared. They enjoyed it. They played hard. They did everything you'd ask for. Sometimes you come on the short end of it. That's the way it goes. But you get stronger. Failure makes you stronger. I told them that. They know they did everything they possibly could to come out on top and that and the preparation — I've said it all year — that's what's going to matter in the long run," Menu said.
Coach Menu and his assistant coach, Kathy Sarlo, just took over the program this year, and learned a lot from this impressive group of young women.
"He loves Drake now!" Sarlo joked as Menu mimicked the girls' walk-up songs. "It was such a fun thing to be a part of. Sometimes we'd have long stretches where I wondered if they were going to come to practice a little deflated and they never did. They worked. They wanted it so bad. And it was such a fun thing to be a part of — a group of girls that was so driven."
Menu, who is also a coach of the varsity football team, said working with female athletes is a completely different experience.
"It's how they support each other. In football, we're tight, but these girls are TIGHT. They laugh, they joke, they call each other, they support each other, they're emotional. They wear it on their sleeves. It's just inspiring. It's an amazing thing to watch."
After the loss, the team was incredibly emotional — trying, but failing to get one another to stop crying. Colleen McKee, a senior infielder, managed to hold back the tears long enough to reflect on the year.
"This was the best last season I could've asked for. It couldn't have gone any better. . . . It was so sad because it's such a great team and we could've done so much more, but I'm so happy with how we've done and what a great playoff season. So proud, beyond," she said.
Bonac's playoff season got off to a tremendous start. The girls hammered home 22 runs in their first game last Thursday, overcoming a 4-0 deficit in the first inning to take down Eastport-South Manor 22-7. McKee was the star of that show, earning the game ball for hitting a three-run, inside-the-park home run on a changeup in the fourth inning.
Izzy Briand, the team's workhorse pitcher, was solid on both sides of the ball, staying calm on the mound when the Sharks got out to an early lead, then driving in McKee to tie the game in the second inning.
Briand's second outing at Westhampton didn't go quite as well. The Bonackers trailed 4-0 in the first inning once again, but this time, they couldn't bounce back. Brynley Lys, their catcher, pulled her shoulder on a throw in the first inning, and was sidelined for the rest of the game. Briand couldn't find her command, and by the fourth inning, they were down 15-0, on their way to a 20-3 loss to the Hurricanes.
Lys was back behind the plate for what would end up being Bonac's final game of the playoffs against Hauppauge Tuesday — getting two big outs at home in the second inning to keep the score tied at 0. Without her boundless energy and quick reflexes, it's unlikely the final score would've been so close.
"They had an amazing run. It ended one run too short, but they're always number one in my heart," said Kathy Masterson, East Hampton's athletic director.
