East Hampton Little League's 12U Softball All-Stars Fall To North Shore In District Finals; 10U All-Stars Get First Victory

The East Hampton Little League 12-and-under softball All-Stars brought the North Shore Little League to the brink of the best-of-three District 36 Championships series, but it was the perennial powerhouse based out of Rocky Point that ultimately had the last word.

North Shore defeated East Hampton, 8-1, in the third and deciding game of the series on Friday evening in Rocky Point to clinch the district title and move on to sectionals. The tournament eventually leads to the Little League Softball World Series in Greenville, North Carolina.

East Hampton manager Annemarie Brown, who coached this year’s 12U team with Brian Stuckart and Joe McKee, said she was proud of her players and their efforts in their three games. After losing the first game of the tournament, 8-4, on June 26, East Hampton rebounded and staved off elimination with a 9-8 extra-innings victory in East Hampton on June 28.

“I think the girls did a great job,” Brown said. “The North Shore Little League is difficult to work with, so there were a lot of things that were obstacles that we had to overcome. I feel like the girls are going to get better the more they play and all of them except for one are playing on the summer league for us, so we’re just going to keep on playing and keep on getting in those reps and just get better from here.”

The difficulties in working with North Shore, Brown said, included making sure a league board member was present as an official scorer for the second game of the tournament in East Hampton, which is technically a rule but one that isn’t strictly enforced. But it was by North Shore, and if East Hampton didn’t provide one — which it did albeit at the last minute — it would have had to forfeit.

On top of that, Brown figured the third and deciding game of the series would have been played at a neutral field, or at least have the location decided by a coin flip, which is typical. It wasn’t this time, and North Shore was automatically given the home game.

Brown said compared to the summer league that she coaches along with her husband John up-island on Wednesday nights, the district tournament had a lot of rules.

“I like the summer league stuff that I'm doing. I have 16 girls on the team, bat them all through the lineup. They’re very easy going like that,” she said. “You can bat everybody, get a lot of at bats. I can switch them in and out every inning. It’s summer, I want to get them a lot of reps.

“This,” she continued, in regard to the district tournament, “is so strict. I, as a coach, can’t warm up my pitcher. I was, like, where am I supposed to warm up? She has to warm up when she's pitching in the game.”

The umpire shortage that occurred during the school season continued into the Little League season as well, Brown said, with only one umpire available for two of three games, which didn’t help matters.

“I want a lot of girls involved. I want them to all be interested in it and have fun with it and like it. I don’t want them, a lot of them being in sixth grade, being stressed out and nervous about it,” Brown added. “Just have fun with it, you know? And we’ll win here and there, for now, and then that’s when it goes up.”

Brynley Lys helped get East Hampton on the board in the first inning of Friday’s game when she led off with a walk. An overthrow at third base on a steal attempt allowed Lys to score to give East Hampton the early 1-0 lead.

But North Shore scored two runs to take the lead in the bottom of the second, then it tacked on three in the third, two in the fourth and a single run in the fifth to create the final score.

Ella Abran, Lilah Brown, Paige Daniels, Olivia Dodge, Emily Hurtado, Brynley Lys, Colleen McKee, Hailey Rigby, Lydia Rowan, Aisyln Short and Carli Stuckard make up this year’s 12U squad.

Coach Brown said that most of the girls on the team will be moving up to their junior high teams at their respective schools, whether it be Montauk, Springs or East Hampton, as they work their way up to Brown’s varsity squad. One thing Coach Brown was happy to announce was that the varsity team’s new batting cages should be constructed soon. The softball program held a team car wash and raised close to $2,000. It also did a lobster dinner at Bostwick’s on the Harbor, where players were waitresses for a night.

“We made good money with that, too, so we're going to be put in a new batting cage like the boys do at the varsity field and a lot of the dads are going to help construct that,” she said.

It took a little while, but the East Hampton Little League 10-and-under All-Stars finally got their first full game in Monday evening after Friday’s game was suspended after three innings due to rain.

The game was picked right back up in the top of the fourth inning at Eastport-South Manor High School with East Hampton leading, 1-0, and it went on to win the game, 7-1. Dylan Centalonza started in the pitching circle on Friday and pitched a strong two and a third innings before giving way to her twin sister, Fallon Centalonza, who came in from centerfield with the bases loaded. Fallon struck out the first batter she saw and then fielded a comebacker to the mound and threw to first baseman Maeve Tupper to make the final out of the inning and get out of the jam in the pouring rain.

When the game picked back up on Monday evening, East Hampton scored three quick runs in the top of the fourth, and from there Fallon Centalonza pitched two more innings giving up just one run. Alexa Schaffer pitched a one-two-three inning to close out the game.

East Hampton manager Jeff Tupper said his team played incredible defense that included diving catches and a “strike-’em-out-throw-’em-out” double play by pitcher Dylan Centalonza, catcher Jackie Geehreng and shortstop Alexa Schaffer.

“The girls had clutch hitting on the return to the field and great baserunning led the way,” Coach Tupper said.

The 10U tournament is a double-elimination format between East Hampton, Eastport-South Manor and North Shore Little Leagues. As of Tuesday morning, East Hampton was the only team without a loss and it was scheduled to play at Pantigo Field on Wednesday.

This year’s 10U team is made up of Ellie Assogna, Valentina Balcucci, Dylan and Fallon Centalonza, Ella Field, Jackie Geehreng, Caroline Kelley, Cadence Page, Peyton Prado, Allison Rade, Ella Reidlinger, Alexa Schaffer and Maeve Tupper. The team is managed by Jeff Tupper and he is assisted by Justin Geehreng, Whitney Reidlinger and Mark Assogna.