Young Westhampton Beach Softball Team Is Showing Its Promise This Season, With Postseason Berth Just A Win Away

Despite playing four eighth graders and a seventh grader regularly, the Westhampton Beach softball team is in line to reach the postseason for the first time since 2018, when it played a one-game playoff against Hampton Bays.

The Hurricanes are 5-5 in League V and need to win one of their final two games to finish with an even .500 record, the prerequisite to qualify. They’re scheduled to play at Kings Park this Friday at 4:30 p.m. and finish up the regular season at home against East Hampton this Tuesday, June 8, at 4:30 p.m. The Suffolk County Class A playoffs are tentatively scheduled to begin Friday, June 11.

Due to a slight realignment in softball throughout the county this season, Westhampton Beach had the bad luck of seeing Sayville, which reached the state semifinals in 2019, in League V, along with strong programs in Islip and Kings Park. Sayville (9-0 in League V, 10-0 overall) and Islip (8-1 in League V, 10-1 overall) have proved to be strong once again this season, but the rest of the league has been pretty evenly matched, with both Kings Park (5-5) and East Hampton (5-4) in the same position as the Hurricanes.

“This is kind of what I expected going into this year,” Westhampton Beach head coach Jeff Doroski said. “I figured we’d be where we’d be at this point, which is to win one of two now and we’re very capable of doing that.”

Doroski said he’s hoping his team can turn what was a 5-1 loss to East Hampton earlier in the season into a victory in the regular-season finale next week.

“I don’t think we played our best game against East Hampton,” he said, adding that East Hampton head coach Annemarie Brown has been doing a real good job in a similar situation with a young group as well. “With four eighth graders on the field at the same time, for where we are at this point and the roster that we have, anything can happen. The girls are working really hard game-by-game, and with these next two games, we’re looking to play our best ball at this point late in the season.”

Westhampton Beach has proved to hold its own even against a team like Islip. Although the ’Canes lost in what looked like a lopsided 9-1 game to the Buccaneers at home on May 26, it was one bad inning that did them in. The game was scoreless with two outs in the top of the third before Islip scored six runs to break open the game. A bases-clearing triple into the right field corner by Anna Rahner was the key hit in that inning.

But the ’Canes responded with a run of their own in the next inning on some heads up base running by junior Allie Parascandola, and they also turned double plays in back-to-back innings. Islip added a run in the top of the sixth on a sacrifice fly, and then added a pair of runs — again, with two outs — in the top of the seventh.

Doroski said letting up the big inning has been the only downfall of the team this season, which is somewhat understandable given how young the team is.

“That’s been the story, even in some of our wins, we’ve had one bad inning where we’re just not making the play or not getting that out that we need,” he said. “Some of that is the product of the teams we’re playing, some of it is a product of how young we are.

“They just need to keep working hard,” Doroski added. “I do see a promising future for this group.”

And that future is steeped on its deep, young pitching, led by seventh-grader Addison Celi, the granddaughter of former longtime Hampton Bays head coach and Eastport-South Manor assistant John Maloney. Celi has been the main starter in the circle for the ’Canes but didn’t get the start against Islip last week with some arm fatigue. Instead it was East Moriches eighth-grader Elliejean Burke who got the nod and eventually gave way to another East Moriches eighth-grader, lefty Kali Baumiller, who looked good in her four-plus innings of work.

“I think, as we move forward the next couple of years, having those three to rely on will be real nice for us,” Doroski said. “The fortunate thing for me is that the four eighth graders and seventh grader all play travel ball and Laura Ward, the coach over at ESM, is coaching them, so I know they’re getting quality coaching. You know, the Sayvilles, Islips, Kings Park, all of those girls are playing travel, so the more girls we have playing only means we’ll be better.”

Doroski is particularly high on Celi, who is a threat with the bat as much as she is with her arm.

“She’s going to be special,” he said. “In my time coaching, here or Riverhead the three years before I got here, I haven’t seen, or haven’t had, a dynamic type of pitcher as she is. I think she’s going to be that. She’s been showing really good composure out there. She’s young, so sometimes she gets tired, but she competes out here.”

That’s not to say the upperclassmen haven’t held their own this season. Seniors Melanie Meyers, Alana Seltzer, Jane Paulson and Olivia Jayne have all certainly contributed to the team’s success, Doroski said, as have Parascandola, Lillie Henthorne and Olivia Tozzi, all juniors. He called Henthorne the best outfielder in the league.

“She covers a lot of ground. She’s made a couple of diving catches, thrown out a couple kids. She’s really good out there,” he said.

“With the junior class that we have right now and the younger kids coming up, it’s really kind of coming together,” Doroski continued. “We’re excited for these last few games. We know that no one is going to hand us a win these next two games. We have to get prepared for that and take one game at a time.”