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Fieldston bats come alive late to avoid mercy-rule, but Lady Eagles still doubled-up by visiting Poly
By Jason Eisenberg
May 16, 2011 -- It has been an interesting season, to say the least, for the Fieldston softball team. The Lady Eagles currently sit in fifth-place within the seven-team Ivy standings, with a disappointing 6-8 overall record and a 4-7 mark against league opponents. However, a closer look at the local team’s results -- and specifically the final scores of each game -- seem to indicate two completely different stories being written in 2011.
Fieldston has posted a pair of decisive wins against both Dalton and Trinity, to go along with two solid victories against non-league opponents, but it is actually the Lady Eagles’ losses that have been the most perplexing. The team was defeated by only a single run in games against fourth-place Hackley, third-place Poly Prep and second-place Riverdale, as well as dropping a hard-fought three-run decision to first-place Horace Mann.
The reality is that any one of those outcomes could have easily been reversed if a key play or two had gone the opposite way. On the other hand, though, in Fieldston’s first meetings of the year with Riverdale and Horace Mann, the Lady Eagles were outscored by a combined count of 27-2.
“We have been in just about every game and then on the few occasions we had an off-day, that is when those big losses seem to happen,” said Fieldston head coach Stefanie Gozdziewski. “Most of them were earlier in the season, though, and right now I think we are good enough on most days to play with anyone in our league. Obviously, making the state tournament is up in the air for us, but hopefully they will disregard the few bad performances and focus on how closely we competed against each of the top teams.”
Both the “Jekyll” and “Hyde” versions of the Lady Eagles decided to make an appearance during the team’s latest game -- a 14-7 loss last Friday in their second encounter of the season with Poly Prep. Fieldston got off to a strong start, as senior pitcher Lee Bernstein held the defending Ivy and NYSAIS champions scoreless through the first two frames.
The Lady Eagles took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on a sacrifice fly by shortstop Kate Miller that scored fellow junior Maggie Zier. However, the local team squandered a major opportunity to increase its advantage in the very next frame, failing to bring any runs home despite having the bases loaded and only one out.
This opened the door for Poly, and the visitors from Brooklyn took full advantage by scoring a whopping 14 runs between the third and sixth innings. While Bernstein did struggle on the mound, she was far from the sole reason for this collapse. The Lady Eagles’ defense made four errors over that span of four frames, and the three mistakes that proved to be most costly all occurred in the outfield.
In each of the third, fifth and sixth innings, Poly smacked a hit that landed in the shallow outfield and all three times the ball got past a Fieldston defender. These three miscues turned routine singles or doubles in to home runs that cleared the bases and directly resulted in nine Poly runs, at least four or five of which could have been prevented.
Ironically, just as Fieldston’s defense and pitching began to falter, the offense suddenly came around for the Lady Eagles. After scoring just once during the first three innings, the local team managed to put six runs on the board over the final four frames of the contest. Sophomore first baseman Hayley Howard launched a triple over the head of Poly’s centerfielder in the bottom of the fourth and later came around to score on a groundout by Laura Fitzelle. One inning later, senior catcher Megan Bautista sent a line drive triple down the leftfield line to bring home Miller, and then scored herself on a groundout by Annie Fernandez.
Trailing 14-4 heading in to the bottom of the sixth and just one out from the mercy-rule taking effect, Zier smashed a liner to deep leftfield and circled the bases for a solo home run that at least assured this game would go the distance. Finally, Fernandez hit a rocket to rightfield in the seventh inning for a two-run homer that made the score at least appear much more respectable. In fact, the game actually would have been even at 4-4 if the fifth and sixth innings had been removed, so in the end, it was two terrible frames that essentially cost Fieldston a possible victory.
“I don’t know if I would say it was a negative turning point, but we definitely could have used some additional runs when we had a chance in the early innings. Then, they started to consistently capitalize on moving runners and had some great shots, but we could have kept it to minimal damage with better fielding,” said Coach Gozdziewski. “We started to find our bats again in the second half, and as a coach, you always want to see the team at least pull it out until the very end. Now we have one game left and nothing is final yet, so I hope we can get a win and it makes us look better when they pick the tournament teams.”
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK
Fieldston PLAYER OF THE GAME: Maggie Zier - The junior lead-off hitter had a great day in the batter’s box and reached base on three of her four trips to the plate. Zier went 2-for-3 on the day, with a walk, a single, a solo homer and two runs scored.
Fieldston Report Card
Offense: B+
The Fieldston bats finally started to show some signs of life in the second half of this game, as the Lady Eagles crushed two home runs and two triples while scoring six runs over the last four innings. However, they did very little early in the contest and came up empty with the bases loaded and only one out in the second inning.
Defense: C-
It might not necessarily have been the difference between a win and a loss in this game, but the Fieldston defense -- specifically in the outfield -- had a tough day. The Lady Eagles had some trouble fielding a couple of bunts and infield singles. However, it was three Poly hits misplayed in the outfield that hurt the most and resulted in at least four runs that could have been prevented.
Pitching: C
Fieldston pitcher Lee Bernstein had a strong start and allowed just two hits over two scoreless frames to open the game, but it gradually got worse from then on. The senior walked five batters and gave up 13 hits during the next four innings, but in fairness, she did not receive much help from her defense on several occasions. Junior Emily Kling took over in the seventh and did not allow a hit or run.
