East Hampton High’s softball team set a record with three over-the-fence home runs — by Maryjane Vickers, Isabel Briand, and Alexa Schaffer — in its home opener here Saturday morning with Hauppauge, and outhit the Eagles 11 to 5, but the visitors, thanks largely to nine walks issued by Bonac pitching, wound up a 9-6 winner.
The top of the third inning proved to be particularly disastrous. With Briand, a junior transfer from Patchogue-Medford (one of Newsday’s top 100), on the mound, it began well enough as Susie DiSunno, the catcher, fielded a bunt attempt and threw to Vickers at first for the out, after which Briand struck out the ninth batter in Hauppauge’s lineup. The hard-throwing righty then gave up a walk, hit the leadoff hitter with a pitch, and issued another free pass, which loaded the bases and prompted a visit from DiSunno.
When play resumed, Hauppauge’s starting pitcher, and cleanup hitter, Kayleigh Collins, drove in three runs with a double to the fence in left field. A subsequent single and overthrow enabled two more runs to cross the plate, leaving East Hampton in a 5-0 hole. A groundout ended the inning, during which the visitors scored five runs on two hits.
Briand notched three straight strikeouts after giving up a scratch hit in the top of the fourth, after which, in the bottom half, Vickers drove in Lydia Rowan and Briand, who had singled back to back, with a three-run homer over the fence in right center field. DiSunno then struck out, but Schaffer, the sole ninth grader on the predominantly junior team, singled, and Brynley Lys, following Hailey Rigby’s popout to first, did too, beating out a bunt she’d laid down in front of the plate. That brought up the leadoff batter, Olivia Dodge, who, with runners at first and second, grounded out short-to-first.
Hauppauge pretty much put the game away with four more runs in the fifth. After Briand issued back-to-back walks, Melissa Edwards, Bonac’s coach, brought in Rowan, a lefty, in relief. Rowan hit the first batter to face her, loading the bases. A forceout followed, but Collins, who had been relieved by Aeryn Regan in the fourth, came up big again, her booming triple treating the Eagles to an 8-3 lead. Their ninth run scored on a subsequent groundout, and another groundout ended the inning.
Still, the Bonackers weren’t fazed. With two gone in the fifth, Briand, East Hampton’s cleanup hitter, went deep, her solo drive soaring well over the left-field fence, paring a run from the visitors’ lead.
Rowan walked three batters in the top of the sixth, but was saved by a double play and a forceout at second.
DiSunno flied out to left in leading off East Hampton’s sixth, but Schaffer, as this writer was wondering if two East Hampton hitters had ever homered over the fence in a game here, drove a 0-2 pitch over the left-field fence, rendering his question moot.
An r.b.i. single by Briand made it 9-6 with one out in the bottom of the seventh; with runners at first and second, Vickers fanned, and, with those runners having moved up to second and third on a wild pitch, DiSunno, with the count 2-2, popped out to end the game.
“We are a good team,” Edwards said afterward. “We’ve got some heavy bats and we play good defense, but we have yet to find our rhythm. We’re overthinking. We have to relax.”
