June 3 and June 4 were joyous days in the hallways of Mineola High School for the school’s girls softball team.
Everywhere they went, there were huzzahs and accolades. Teachers, fellow students, administration … everyone wanted to let the Mustangs know how proud they were of what the accomplished, a miraculous run to the school’s first county title since Bill Clinton’s second term (1998).
For 48 hours, Mineola was on top of the world.
“School was fire both days, it was awesome,” said junior Julia Plunkett. “Everyone was so excited.”
Winning the county is the biggest goal of any Nassau team, but after that accomplishment, there’s the Long Island championship game to play.
The competition gets much stiffer. Mineola came back down to Earth on Thursday, June 5, when a dominant Miller Place squad came to Farmingdale State and showed the Mustangs the next level they have to reach.
Led by Ava Zicchinelli’s one-hitter and some opportunistic offense, the Panthers (22-2) won their second straight Long Island Class A title, 3-0 over Mineola.
“No one expected us to be here at all,” said Plunkett. “But we got here, and we’re going to be right back here next season.”
After beating Seaford, 5-0, to win the county title Monday, Mineola’s bats were silenced on Thursday.
Zicchinelli, a senior righthander, used a variety of fastballs and a wicked changeup to keep Mineola’s bats at bay.
Only Plunkett’s fourth-inning single marred Zichinelli’s outing; she struck out seven.
“That’s an excellent team,” said Mineola coach Monique Wink, whose team finished 8-17. “Well-coached, and the pitcher is fantastic. We did a really nice job of making some adjustments, we were getting there, maybe if the game was longer we’d have gotten some more hits.”
Mineola pitcher Autumn Malone pitched a solid game; Miller Place touched her for two runs in the third, when Breya Kesler lined a two-run double to left to open the scoring.
Miller Place scored one more run in the sixth, on a single by Sadie Bryant. Malone pitched a complete game and gave up seven hits.
The fact that Mineola was even in this game was something of a miracle; the Mustangs endured a 13-game losing streak during the regular season, and got hot toward the end, winning playoff series against favored Wantagh and then Seaford to reach the Long Island title game.
And six of their nine players will be returning next year, including sophomore standouts Malone and shortstop Cassidy Fitzgerald.
So getting the experience of playing a powerhouse like Miller Place can only help as Mineola builds toward the future and the next level it will need to take.
“It’s a new stage, a new opponent we’ve never seen before,” Wink said. “Every game is a game under our belt for the future.
“It’s so important for our athletes to have an underlying belief that we can do something,” Wink added. “Now the sky is the limit because we’ve seen it once, so now we can push forward. They’re so young and are still going to get a lot better.”
