Soccer and Softball Champs Crowned

Two champions were crowned here this past week — East Hampton F.C.-Pool Shark in men’s 7-on-7 soccer and the Police Benevolent Association team in women’s slow-pitch softball.

It was a first, apparently, for the P.B.A., which finished the season at 12-2, but not for East Hampton F.C., which has won several 7-on-7 championships in the recent past.

First the women. It looked for a while as if P.B.A., behind the high-arc pitching of Meg Pintauro, would cruise to an easy sweep in what proved to be the championship clincher at the Terry King ball field in Amagansett last Thursday. But then Groundworks, whose ranks have included top college-age players such as Kathryn Hess, Meghan Hess, and Kaylie Titus in the past, rallied with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning to tie the score at 4-4.

Emma Beudert, Groundworks’ pitcher, got it going as she came all the way around from second on the cleanup hitter Casey Brooks’s single, after which Kim Hren drove in two more with an opposite-field line drive to right. The fourth run scored as the result of an error. Michelle Grant, with runners at second and third — and still two outs — made a credible bid to drive in one more, but Rachel Haab made a sliding catch of Grant’s drive over third to end the inning.

Neither side scored in the seventh, sending the game into extra innings. 

The P.B.A. put it away in the top of the eighth. Sara Van Asco, Catherine Curti, and Pintauro led off with singles, after which Elise Thorsen and “Lolo” collected r.b.i. Two outs later, and with the bases loaded, Katla Thorsen made it 7-4 with a hard line drive into the outfield that Brooks just missed, and Kate Cooper, the third hitter in P.B.A.’s lineup, drove in two more for an unassailable 9-4 lead, which proved to be the final score.

When this writer said afterward that Groundworks usually won, Tara Fordham, the third baseman — and the coach David Martin’s daughter — said, with finality, “Not this year.”

Much of it was owing to Pintauro’s canny pitching, though Martin said later that the team, whose roster was pretty much the same as it has been in recent years, did well in all aspects of the game — pitching, hitting, fielding, and baserunning. “Especially in that final game,” he added.

The P.B.A. had won game one of the best-of-three final series by a score of 3-1. It had advanced to the final after a sweep of Schenck Fuels.

Martin had Dale Brabant as an assistant during the final games of the playoffs. Brabant, who is 64, was a founder of this league, in 1973, she said, “when we only had two teams, the Springs Streakers and Bonac Tire. . . . I was 19, just out of high school. I’m planning a comeback next year!”

Men’s Soccer 

As for men’s soccer, East Hampton F.C.-Pool Shark won the championship on Aug. 8 at East Hampton’s Herrick Park by defeating Tortorella Pools 2-1 thanks to a backheader by Gerber Garcia of an Eddy Juarez chip in the second overtime period that slipped into Tortorella’s goal off its leaping goalie Chris Caiazca’s gloved hands.

Tortorella got on the scoreboard first, with 10 minutes to play in the first 30-minute half, thanks to a rocketed penalty kick by Nick Escalante that had been awarded when Stiven Orrego, who had taken the ball coast-to-coast, was taken down in the box from behind by Danny Bedoya.

Caiazca, who was a rock in the goal for Tortorella, was finally beaten near the end of regulation after being drawn far to his left to defend against Fabian Arias’s high cross toward the right post, a blast that was contested by Caiazca and high-leaping F.C.-Pool Shark forwards. Meanwhile, Gehider Garcia, who, at 35, was the league’s “goleador” (its high-scorer), slipped into the circle unmarked, and, from a few feet out, tapped in the rebound, which had landed at his feet.

Because of the humidity, which was causing players to cramp up, it was decided to play two 10-minute, rather than 15-minute, overtime periods.

The first was scoreless, thanks largely to acrobatic saves by Caiazca, who batted back several goal-bound blasts, all coming, it seemed, on top of one another.

East Hampton F.C. really put the pressure on in the second O.T., and, as aforesaid, won it when Gerber Garcia’s backheader slipped back through Caiazca’s hands.

Leslie Czeladko, the league’s spokesman and Tortorella’s manager, said the fall season, at East Hampton’s Herrick Park, will begin “either on Sept. 5 or 12.”