Ah, It’s Warmer and Things Are Looking Up in Bonac

   Things went a bit better for East Hampton High School’s teams this past week.

    The softball team as of Monday was riding the crest of a three-game winning streak (all shutouts) during which Lou Reale’s crew outscored the opposition 38-0.

    Still, Reale was not ready to say his young team, whose record, he said, improved to 6-6 as the result of Saturday’s 9-0 win here over Harborfields, had turned the corner.

    “The defense today was ugly,” he told his players during Saturday’s postgame huddle.

    A few minutes later, he said to this writer, “Casey [Waleko] had a perfect game going into the seventh [at Bellport] yesterday when two easy fly balls to the outfield were dropped. Today, we had five errors. We can’t expect to continue winning if we play so sloppily.”

    Nevertheless, a W is a W. Waleko’s back, which has been bothering her all season, was “a little sore” Saturday after having struck out 15 Bellport batters, though while she wasn’t quite right that morning, she was good enough to blank the Tornadoes.

Jessie Stavola, Reale’s former protégée, who has perfect games to her credit, and who has been assisting her former coach this season, said Waleko’s getting used to certain adjustments to her delivery that she said had to be made because of her ailing back.

While softball may not yet have turned the corner, girls lacrosse, coached by Matt Maloney, may have.

   “This past week was a good one for us,” Maloney said in an e-mailed report Monday. “We had chances to tie our game with Eastport-South Manor in the final two minutes, and though we wound up losing 6-5, the girls felt pretty good. The next day we went to Kings Park and played okay and thus squeezed out a 10-8 win. Two times we prevented them from tying the score at 9-9 late in the game.”

   “And, on Friday, we won a big one against Hampton Bays, 18-3. Haley Tracey, who’s been our backup, played goalie for the first time in her career and recorded six saves. Hampton Bays is a first-year program, much like we were not long ago. . . . Over all, the team played well last week: For the first time we did not allow our opponents to score more than 10 goals, which is great.”

    “As for the playoffs,” Maloney continued, “it’s still up in the air. It’s going to depend on these next four games we have and on what the rest of the division does.”

    As of Monday, East Hampton was  14th among 21 teams in the power-rated Division II with a 3-7 divisional record and 92.730 power points.

    Just about everyone got in on the scoring in Friday’s game here with Hampton Bays: Maggie Pizzo had four goals, and Cassidy Walsh, Carley Seekamp, and Amanda Seekamp each had three to lead the way.

    While going into this past week it had been a woeful spring for the baseball team, coached by Ed Bahns and Will Collins, the latter reported Monday that “even though we went winless this past week, it was the best we’ve played so far.”

    “Bayport-Blue Point was undefeated going in and remained undefeated when the three-game series was over, but for the most part we played soundly in the field, we had a freshman [Kyle McKee] give us a strong performance on the mound, and we showed over all that our play has improved. We were in every game, and if you were watching I think you would agree we were a different team than in previous weeks.”

    “On Friday, though we lost 6-1, Peter Shilowich pitched extremely well, giving up two earned runs in five innings before having to be lifted because of a high pitch count. We scored our sole run in the sixth, cutting the lead to 3-1. Max Lerner led off with a single, and Brendan Hughes followed with a single of his own that advanced Lerner to third. Maykell Guzman then hit into a 1-4-3 double play, stranding Lerner at third, though the next batter, McKee, drove him in with an infield hit.”

    Earlier in the week, the Phantoms beat the Bonackers 4-1 and 7-3.

    Of the 7-3 game, played on April 24, Collins said, “Kyle McKee, who though only a freshman has been thrust into the third spot in our rotation, looked like a kid with far more experience that day. Only four of Bayport’s runs were earned. Kyle gave up nine hits and struck out four, and six Bonackers had hits, including Patrick Silich, the junior catcher, Max Lerner, the sophomore right fielder, Brendan Hughes, the junior shortstop, Maykell Guzman, the junior third baseman, Peter Shilowich, and the senior center fielder, Peter Vaziri.”

    “In April 23’s game with Bayport at home, Maykell pitched all six innings, and pitched well, giving up six hits and only one earned run. He also had two of our three hits (a double and a single). Jack Abrams-Dyer, a sophomore who’s at second now, had the other one. Jack, by the way, has done everything asked of him this year. Recently, he stepped in at second for Dylan Lynch, who’s out for the rest of the season with an injury.”

    “This game ended bizarrely when the sprinklers went on in the outfield. We were unable to shut them off, and thus had to stop the game after six innings.”