SPRING PREVIEW: SOFTBALL: SUFFOLK
Korn, Evan. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 01 Apr 2012
CLASS AA
For first time since the early 1980s, Bay Shore will be without coach Jim McGowan, who retired after 29 seasons and a state-record 657 wins.
Former Whitman coach David Rivera will usher in the post-McGowan era with a talented group capable of winning a third straight county title. Senior catcher and Ole Miss signee Courtney Syrett is a player who will combine for a talented battery with pitcher Michelle DeVito. Giana Panariello will play shortstop and bat leadoff. Rightfielder and cleanup hitter Briana Coan should be an RBI machine.
Opposing coaches are high on East Islip, which returns 12 players, including the senior trio of pitcher Courtney Blake, shortstop Lindsey Zenk and centerfielder Alyssa Groneman.
Class A champion Kings Park moves up to AA but has only one senior, returning All-League first baseman Reina Torlincasi.
Hauppauge will be led by senior shortstop Sandy Hawthorne, a five-year starter and an All-Long Island selection who hit .507 with 31 runs and 21 RBIs last year.
Smithtown East should make a playoff run with senior shortstop Maggie Engellenner and senior pitcher Samantha Moss (6-2, 1.09 ERA).
Connetquot will look to improve upon last year’s quarterfinal appearance with junior first baseman Casey Shannon and freshman pitcher Erin Sweeney.
Sachem East has a standout catcher in sophomore Samantha Laird and senior leadership in first baseman Jessica Caruana.
Half Hollow Hills West returns the League IV Rookie of the Year, sophomore pitcher Francesca Casalino. Patchogue-Medford is a contender with catcher Meagan Anderson, a four-year starter who hit .541 last season. Deer Park is led by junior shortstop Sabrina Riley, and Commack has dynamic catcher Paige Swantek.
Other teams to watch include Longwood, Smithtown West and West Babylon.
Longwood 15 Ward Melville 0, WP – LW: Valentine. LP – Robrecht. March 27
Longwood 15 Floyd 2, WP – LW: Noud. LP – Kane. March 30c
Patchogue-Medford 10 Longwood 0, WP – PM: Martino. LP – Weiss. HR – PM: Vogel 1. April 4
Longwood 7 Patchogue-Medford 3, WP – LW: Gazzola. LP – Tierney. April 5
Longwood 10 Sachem North 5, WP – LW: Valentine. LP – Amedeo. April 10
Longwood 4, Commack 3: Stephanie Worth scored on Nicole Gazzola‘s fielder’s choice to break a tie at 3 in the seventh for Longwood (5-0) in League I. Commack scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 3-2 lead.- Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 11 Apr 2012:
c
Longwood 18 Brentwood 1
WP – LW: Lent. LP – Moffit. April 17
Longwood 10 Connetquot 2
WP – LW: Noud. LP – Sweeney. April 18
Longwood 13 Sachem North 4
WP – LW: Gazzola. LP – Cahill. HR – LW: Floyd 2, Moore 1. April 20
Longwood 7 Northport 3
East Islip 7 Longwood 2
WP – EI: Bennett. LP – Floyd. HR ; LW: Gazzola 1.
P – LW: Noud. LP – Jarrett. April 22
Bay Shore 4 Longwood 2
Killeen Martin’s RBI double drove in Giana Panariello and Briana Coan singled to score Martin, giving Bay Shore (9-0) a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning of a League I/II crossover. WP – BS: DeVito. LP – Noud. HR . April 24
Longwood 10 West Islip 3
WP – L: Noud. LP – Monteverde. April 28
Longwood 2, Sachem East 1: Sierra Noud worked out of a bases-loaded, no out jam in the top of the seventh by getting a double play and Leah Mele made a diving catch at second to end it for Longwood (10-1) in League I. Alyssa Corona fielder’s choice drove in the go-ahead run in the fourth. – Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 01 May 2012
Longwood 10 Lindenhurst 2, WP – LW: Noud. LP – Kirgan. HR – LW: Spillett 1. May 3
Longwood 12 Central Islip 0, WP – LW: Valentine. LP – Gonzalez. HR – LW: Yuhas 1. May 5
Longwood 9 St. Anthony’s 5, WP – LW: Greco. LP – Perkowski. HR ; SA: D’Acunti 1. May 6
Longwood 7, Patchogue-Medford 5: Leah Mele was 2-for-4 with a solo home run in the fifth to put Longwood (14-1) ahead 4-1 in League I. Kylie Spillett hit two doubles.- Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 08 May 2012:
Longwood 8 Floyd 1, WP – LW: Valentine. LP – Digiovanni. May 9
Longwood 11 Sachem North 4, WP – LW: Noud. LP – Daniello. May 11
Longwood 6 Commack 5, WP – LW: Noud. LP – Andrews. May 15
Longwood 17 Brentwood 4, WP – LW: Lent. LP – Perez. HR – LW: Miller 2, Lent 1. May 17
Suffolk Playoffs
Class AA Quarterfinals – at higher seed
(2) Longwood 8 (10) West Islip 3, WP – LW: Noud. LP – Monteverde.
Lent starts comeback for Longwood softball
Longwood coach Alicia Smith said her team had become accustomed to facing deficits all season.
But what happened Saturday was nothing like anything the second-seeded Lions had experienced at any point this season as they trailed No. 11 Connetquot by six runs after just one-third of an inning in a Suffolk Class AA semifinal.
Longwood didn’t panic and answered the call almost immediately as it overcame the deep hole it was in and topped Connetquot, 10-6.
The Lions (20-1) will host No. 4 East Islip, a 4-3 upset winner over No. 1 Bay Shore, in the Suffolk Class AA softball finals at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
“We’ve come back several times before this season,” Smith said. “But this was the first time a team jumped out as large as they did against us.”
The comeback started in earnest in the bottom of the first inning as Noel Lent hit a three-run home run to cut Connetquot’s lead to 6-3.
Alyssa Corona continued the comeback in the sixth inning as her leadoff walk sparked a seven-run inning.
When it was all said and done, Longwood led 10-6 after six innings.
Lent was at the center of the seven-run outburst as her two-out, run-scoring single gave Longwood a 7-6 lead.
Lent finished with four RBIs, and Leah Mele went 3-for-4 with an RBI in the win.
“We’ve scored a lot of our runs in the sixth with two outs,” Smith said. “Being able to push runs with two outs has been big for us this year.”
Longwood was also helped on the mound by Samantha Valentine, who came on in relief in the top of the first, struck out one and walked one in 6 2/3 innings of scoreless softball.
Suffolk Playoffs
Class AA Semifinal
(2) Longwood 10 (11) Connetquot 6, WP – LW: Valentine. LP – Sweeney. HR – LW: Lent 1.
Suffolk Playoffs
Class AA Best-of-Three Final
Game 1 – at higher seed
(4) East Islip 12 (2) Longwood 4, WP – EI: Blake. LP – Noud.
Lent gets the winning start She leads Longwood to victory and forces Game 3 Gazzola, Mele score runs late to provide the cushion
Korn, Evan. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 01 June 2012:
Longwood softball coach Alicia Smith decided to “shake things up a little bit,” which meant handing Noel Lent the ball in a win-or-go-home game.
Lent had started two games all season and saw one inning of action in Tuesday’s 12-4 Game 1 loss to East Islip in the best-of-three Suffolk Class AA championship series.
Lent rewarded Smith yesterday with a five-hitter as the No. 2 Lions defeated No. 4 East Islip, 6-3. The deciding Game 3 will be played at Longwood today at 2 p.m., with both teams looking to win their first county title.
“She really wanted it, and sometimes when you look in a player’s eyes and you see that they want the ball, you have to know when to give it to them,” Smith said.
Lent was the beneficiary of a four-run first inning, which saw the Redmen commit an error and misplay two balls in the outfield. “It made me feel so much more relaxed on the mound,” Lent said.
By the sixth, East Islip (20-5) appeared to be wearing down Lent, trailing 4-3 with the tying run on third. On an attempted suicide squeeze, the batter pulled back the bunt, leaving the runner hung up between third and home.
With Longwood third baseman Alyssa Corona charging down the line, shortstop Lindsey Zenk covered third and received a perfect throw from catcher Alex Russo to nail the runner.
“We practiced that play every single play in practice,” Lent said. “We knew what we were doing.”
The Lions (21-2) padded the lead in the seventh, courtesy of some instinctual baserunning. Audrey Miller’s sacrifice fly with runners on second and third brought home Nicole Gazzola, but the throw bounced past EI catcher Alexa Martone.
And with Martone retrieving the ball, Leah Mele came charging down the line. Mele’s hard slide beat Martone’s tag to give Longwood a 6-3 cushion.
“I was kind of pumped up for this game,” Mele said.
With the series now tied, Smith is faced with a dilemma: Who to start in Game 3?
Lent did not hesitate when asked if she wanted the ball again. “I hope so. I’m ready.”
SCORECARD
LONGWOOD 6
EAST ISLIP 3
Shutting the door EI’s Blake reaches back, brings heat for 1-2-3 seventh Redmen rally in top half for county Class AA title
Korn, Evan. Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 02 June 2012
East Islip pitcher Courtney Blake came out for the bottom of the seventh clutching a one-run lead but faced with the specter of the second, third and cleanup batters in the Longwood lineup.
Entering the seventh, the Lions’ trio of Leah Mele, Audrey Miller and Kylie Spillett were a combined 5-for-8 off Blake.
Nobody said clinching the first county title in program history would be easy.
Blake wove her second 1-2-3 inning of the game as No. 4 East Islip defeated No. 2 Longwood, 6-5, in the deciding Game 3 of the Suffolk Class AA softball championship Friday.
East Islip (21-5) will play Nassau champion MacArthur for the Long Island championship on Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Mitchel Athletic Complex. Longwood finished 21-3.
“I’ve been playing with these seniors forever, since I was like 5,” said Blake, one of five seniors on EI’s roster. “And for us to all be together at this moment is just great.”
Blake’s seventh inning came after an already labor-intensive afternoon in which she allowed 11 hits. And in the seventh, she had to wait out a 10-minute delay while the umpires discussed whether Mele intentionally stuck out her foot out to draw a hit-by-pitch.
The umpires determined that Mele, the inning’s leadoff hitter, made no attempt to avoid the pitch. They sent her back to the batter’s box with a 1-and-2 count; she ended up lining out to centerfielder Alyssa Groneman.
“For Courtney to stay composed and make great pitches at big moments … she’s a warrior,” Redmen coach Jason McGowan said. “She’s an absolute warrior.”
East Islip tied the game in the seventh when Blake, who led off the inning with a double, scored on Shelby Heyward’s RBI single. Pinch runner Kristina Rodriguez replaced Heyward, advanced to third on Alexa Martone’s groundout and scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch.
“Shelby is an absolute monster who has been doing it for us all year,” McGowan said.
After Heyward’s bat and Rodriguez’s legs combined to give EI the lead, the onus fell on Blake. And with history on the line, the Redmen’s ace had one more herculean effort left in that right arm.
“My mentality totally changed,” Blake said. “I just went in there and threw as hard as I could.”
SCORECARD
EAST ISLIP 6
LONGWOOD 5
Using her head, concussed athlete recovers
By BOB HERZOG, May 26, 2012
Nicole Gazzola, a 17-year-old high school athlete, suffered two concussions in less than a year. But she is active again, starring on the Longwood High School softball team.
Her return is a testament to head-injury guidelines that she and members of the athletic staff followed when the first injury occurred.
“This is an example of the system working and Nicole going through the right protocol,” said Longwood High School athletic trainer Michelle Cordova. “The kids are more aware of concussions now and are much more willing to come to you and report it right away.”
The dangers of traumatic brain injuries have become all too real recently as suicides of former pro athletes have been linked to depression caused by frequent blows to the head.
The arc of Gazzola’s long, frustrating recovery can serve as a blueprint for athletes who might try to hide head injuries or consider rushing back too soon.
In Gazzola’s case, both a serious concussion suffered while playing indoor soccer in March of 2011 and a less severe episode incurred while snowboarding in February were quickly diagnosed and treated. Rigid return-to-play guidelines, starting with no exertional activity and concluding with full-contact training, were followed at every stage.
Resting up reluctantlyGazzola, a three-sport athlete who will be attending the University of Delaware on a softball scholarship, said it wasn’t pain from the head-to-head impact in the nonscholastic soccer game that gave her the most distress.
The symptoms — dizziness, nausea, headaches, sensitivity to sound — were tolerable, she said. But doing nothing for more than three weeks — no TV, no cellphones, no sports — was what she found the hardest to deal with.
Doctors believe the best way for concussions to fully heal is for the brain to rest and for loud stimuli be eliminated, according to Dr. Hayley Queller, who treated Gazzola.
“It was extremely frustrating,” Gazzola said. “Especially when the doctors told me I couldn’t do anything, no physical activity whatsoever. I couldn’t even go home and read if I wanted to.”
Gazzola admitted with a laugh that she used SpongeBob coloring books to get through last year’s ordeal.
“I couldn’t even watch my team play at first. That was worse than the injury,” she said.
Gazzola, who also plays varsity soccer and basketball, said she didn’t immediately think her injury was serious.
“It was a head ball. I was on defense and I was trying to get the ball out of the box,” she said. “As I was trying to head it, a girl came up trying to score and her forehead banged into the side of my head.”
Her competitive spirit kicked in immediately.
“When it happened, there was only like a minute left in the game, so I kept playing,” Gazzola said. “I didn’t really think anything of it. I got hit and I thought, ‘Wow, that was really hard.’ My head kind of hurt the rest of the night and it was hard to get to sleep because I had a headache.
“The next day I came to school. It didn’t go too well. My head hurt. I came to Michelle after school. She told me I had a concussion.”
The guidelinesLongwood, like many high schools on Long Island, has a concussion program in place, in compliance with a state law signed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in September. Among the guidelines of the law, which are expected to be enacted this summer, is a suggestion that schools establish concussion management teams.
Cordova said it didn’t take long to make the evaluation.
“If you know Nicole, she’s very quick and responsive,” Cordova said. “She was slowed down and mentally foggy. It was easy to pick up that she had a concussion.”
Once the assessment was made, the next step was to see a concussion specialist. Queller, from OrthopedicAssociates of Long Island in East Setauket, confirmed Cordova’s findings. She gave Gazzola the troubling news that she would not be playing sports — or doing much else — for a while.
“It’s very hard to restrict kids from texting, playing video games, watching TV,” Queller said. “But I find that when you do shut that down, at least in the initial period, that you have a better chance of recovering.
“None of the kids are disappointed when I tell them they can’t do academic activities, but they are quite disappointed when I tell them they can’t participate in athletics, or even watch their sports teams. But their brain needs time to rest.”
Gazzola reluctantly became a good patient, something that surprised her father, Bob Gazzola.
“To see her doing nothing was absolutely bizarre,” he said.
His daughter adhered to the instructions of Queller and Cordova, literally counting the days until she could resume activity.
‘Anxious moments’“When I started my return to play, I loved it, even though I was sore every day,” Gazzola said. “I just couldn’t wait to do it because for a whole month and a half I absolutely couldn’t do anything. It just felt so good to be doing something again.”
Longwood softball coach Alicia Smith said she made sure Gazzola didn’t push too hard. “We started with light throwing, even before we got to running,” Smith said. “No live pitching, no live baserunning. Then came easy repetitions — rolling ground balls, taking some fly balls and increasing the number each day.
“There was constant monitoring. We asked her every day, ‘How are you feeling?’ “
What Gazzola was feeling was impatient. “I was eager to get back to playing,” she said.
That happened late in her junior season, shortly after her practice sessions began to include live game situations — fielding, throwing and running. The last step in the recovery was when she started taking batting practice.
“There were some anxious moments when she first came back,” Smith acknowledged, “but now she’s the same player she was.”
That player has led Longwood to the No. 2 seed in the Suffolk Class AA tournament with an 18-1 record. She entered the playoffs with a batting average above .400 as a speedy leadoff hitter and strong-armed centerfielder.
Gazzola said she plays the same high-energy, aggressive game she did before the concussion: “I’m the same player. I don’t even think about it now.”
Using her head
She was forced to in February, however, after suffering another concussion while snowboarding during school break.
“At first I thought, ‘Oh no, not again.’ But I knew it wasn’t as bad,” she said.
She reported the concussion to Cordova, who again referred her to Queller. This time the recovery took only two weeks instead of six.
“It proved that any concussion in any individual is its own unique thing,” Queller said. “If the first concussion wasn’t appropriately treated, her second concussion would’ve been markedly worse.”
For Gazzola, an honors student who made up all the class work she missed without needing summer sessions and will graduate in June, the concussion experiences have been daunting but educational.
“I was scared a little on the first one,” she admitted. “But I trusted my trainer and my doctor. I learned that when they told me what I couldn’t do, that I really couldn’t do it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gotten better.”
RETURN POLICY FOR STUDENT ATHLETES
To resume contact sports, a sidelined athlete must follow a medically supervised stepwise process known as Return to Play Protocol. The process goes as follows:
1. No exertional activity until symptoms go away for 24 hours.
2. Light aerobic exercise such as walking or stationary bike. No resistance training.
3 Sport-specific exercise such as skating or running.
4. Progressive addition of resistance training may begin.
5. Non-contact training/skill drills.
6. Full-contact training in practice setting.
7. Return to competition.
Source: National Federation of State High School Associations
NEWSDAY ALL-LONG ISLAND TEAMS: SOFTBALL
Newsday, Combined editions; Long Island, N.Y. [Long Island, N.Y]. 24 June 2012:
Nicole Gazzola
Longwood, CF/SS, Sr.
A leadoff hitter extraordinaire, the Delaware State-bound Gazzola batted a team-leading .485 (.560 OBP) with 34 runs, 20 RBIs and only three strikeouts. She helped lead the Lions to the Suffolk Class AA championship series.