State semifinals predictions
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- June
- 12
As I’m here in my hotel watching round one of the Subway Series; I’ve really had a chance to sit and think about how things may or may not play out tomorrow so as I promised… here’s my take on the state semifinals.
Class AA: North Rockland vs. Section 2’s Brentwood: From the story that I read about how Brentwood made the state semifinal, it seems like they are a very scrappy team. That hit the catcher had was incredibly clutch. And if you read the post made by Hank Greenberg under my post “My thoughts about yesterday; this team is really led by pitcher Nicole Flint and her twin sister Kristen.
If you missed it; here’s what he said. “If anyone is going to Waterloo, the big focus will be the coaching genius of Brian Lynch and Joseph Lacova of the Long Island Brentwood team, and the super talented duo of the Flint twin sisters. This AA game begins at 9:00 A.M. on Saturday. The key will be the play of these Flint twin sisters. Nicole Flint is the pitcher. Both are strong hitters. So hold your breathe when these Flint sisters are up to bat. And hold your breathe on every pitch from Nicole Flint. It all boils down to how well these two sisters perform.”
That’s all fine in good… but it seems to me that if North Rockland can continue scoring runs like they did in the regional tournament, then it seems to me that this team doesn’t have the same kind of thump that the Red Raiders have. However, it’s probably going to come down to pitching. And from what I’ve read, Nicole Flint is good. But to my knowledge, I don’t think they have a backup. We all know what Samantha Welsh and Krystn Benson can do. For North Rockland to come out and win the game, they need to continue doing what they’re doing. Get good hitting, and solid pitching.
Prediction: North Rockland 2, Brentwood 1.
Class A: Pearl River vs. Section 5’s Victor: Now this game is a whole other animal. If any of you guys who are up here get a chance to check this game out, you should; this is going to be a treat. Bethany DeMarco, after her performance in the regional final, is a bat you don’t want to mess with. Folks, this team isn’t ranked number 1 in the state because they slacked off. This team is no joke. Someone once mentioned on the blog that the Blue Devils had a real tough schedule this season and that will help factor into the win. I think that at this point in the season, that’s hogwash. Remember this, Harrison was given the top seed over Pearl River because they played and beat more double A teams then the Pirates did. But Pearl River won that game. At this point in the season, it really comes down to who wants it more. Let me begin with the pitching, I really believe that Katie O’Flynn will benefit tremendously for having a game like Wednesday under her belt. No, it wasn’t her best stuff by a country mile, but what she did (and I’m quoting Ron Darling on this) but she went out and pitched. She still gave the Pirates every opportunity to win that game. Offensively, the Pirates need to wake the bats up earlier then the sixth inning. They can’t shut down early and expect to try and comeback like they did on Wednesday. Victor is way too good for that. If the Blue Devils do their homework, they probably won’t give Krystina Poloni anything to hit. So the rest of that line up needs to step it up and get a clutch hit.
Prediction: Shrugs the shoulders: This is probably the first time all post-season that I can’t even make a general prediction. This game is a complete and total toss-up in my opinion. If the Pirates can some how get a lead early in the game, then they could possibly have a chance to pull off the upset. If I went down to Vegas and found out that there were betting lines on this game, I would think that it would be fair to say that Pearl River is the underdog in this game.
This entry was posted
on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 9:10 pm by Debbie Schechter. 
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Debbie, don’t forget the other semis. I pick Columbia to beat Fairfield. So, Debbie, enjoy the finals at 1:30 P.M. Here is my take on Columbia. Columbia may not have a super star, but all the girls have softball in their blood. I know this because I have cousins who live in Rensselaer County. Rensselaer County includes the area around Albany. This county has traditionally been a hotbed of softball. In Renssalaer softball is a very popular community sport and a family affair. There are many adult softball leagues in the summer, and the best teenager girls come from these families who play in these community leagues. There are also coed leagues in which a team must have four women players. My cousin is the manager of a coed team, and another cousin is a manager of an adult team. My cousins—the McArdle family—lives in East Nassau, and their house is located about 12 miles south of Columbia highschool. Columbia highschool is located in East Greenbush, about ten miles from East Nassau. Most of the best highschool girl players come from poor families, or from families who make just enough to get by. They are not spoiled or premadonas. In addition, most of the girls are physically strong and tough in that they do manual labor to help out their fathers and also do physical work around their homes. Therefore, there is no need for them to work out in the gym with the weights. When they play softball games, they dig down deep mentally, and they get their softball talent from their father’s genes. Working hard at softball is in their blood. They all are rock solid performers, and that especially includes the catcher, who has a gun for an arm, and who loves to throw out base stealers. Although Columbia lacks a super-star, all the girls are solid performers and take pride in their physical toughness.
No Hog Wash Debbie – Victor has played a much tougher schedule than Pearl River this year. As many people say, if you want to be the BEST you have to play the BEST. This is not to say that Pearl River’s schedule was a cake walk. It wasn’t. But Victor has traditionally gone out and played a tough non league schedule against many Class AA Teams (some outside of their own schedule) and continue to play in the Morabito. This will get Victor past Pearl River today. Again, no hog wash