The Garnets softball team traveled a mile down the road to face the Panthers at Rye Neck High School April 11 in their last game before heading down to Florida for a week of drills and games in the sun at Disney World.

By Mitch Silver

The Garnets softball team traveled a mile down the road to face the Panthers at Rye Neck High School April 11 in their last game before heading down to Florida for a week of drills and games in the sun at Disney World.

It would have been nice to grab a win on getaway day. And for a while, it looked like a possibility. Starting shortstop Kiera Nemsick led off by chopping a single to deep short. She promptly stole second and came around to score when Sarah Mackay was safe on a Rye Neck throwing error. A liner to the pitcher Diana King doubled MacKay off first, and that was all the Garnet scoring for the next couple of hours.

The plate started moving around on Garnets starter Molly Herbold in the bottom of the second when she walked the bases loaded.  But first baseman Kelsey Chapderlane bailed her out by catching a dying quail between home and first on her knees.

The roof fell in on the Garnets in the home third. A couple more walks loaded the bags after a Diana King leadoff single. With one out, Sam Espada spanked a single to center, scoring King. When Leah Haviland hit another scorcher to center, Megan Montalto caught it and threw home on a line, holding the Panthers at bay. But not for long.

Two more shots to center by Nicole Miller and Olivia Dunne (what are the odds of a centerfielder handling four straight balls?) plated another three runs, to make it 5-1 at the end of three.

With Diana King visibly upping her game on the mound for Rye Neck, the game was effectively over. The Garnets would put together one more score, but not before the Panthers tallied four runs to end the affair at 9-2.

Afterwards, Garnets coach Alex Tejera was upbeat. “My girls battled the whole way. They hung in and I was proud. We’re very young this year, with only three seniors on the team.”

Winning pitcher King saw it the same way. “They were tough. I really had to work, to move their eye lines around with my different pitches.”

The Garnets return to visit Ardsley April 22. The Panthers travel to Ossining April 21.