BELLPORT, N.Y. — The trailblazing, Schuylerville varsity softball team’s season came to an end on Saturday afternoon, with a 7-1 loss versus Wellsville in the NYSPHSAA Class B Championship game.
“I just told them, ‘We made school history,'” Black Horses head coach Katie Bottisti said of the message to her group, postgame. “In 2004, they had made it to the State Final 4. This was the first time that we had played in a State championship game and with nine seniors, I told them that they left a legacy on the program and they’re going to be missed. We made some noise.”
After the inaugural Final 4 win over Albert-Magnus the day before, Schuylerville even started Saturday’s game with a 1-0 lead, via an RBI single from Grace Kilburn in the top of the first inning.
Wellsville tied the game in the bottom of the second, off a single and another error from Schuylerville. Makenna Dunbar smacked a three-run homer in the third inning to put her top-ranked team in Class B on top, 4-1.
A two-run double, followed by an error, plating another, put Wellsville ahead 7-1 after four innings of play. Overall for the contest, while Schuylerville outhit Wellsville, 7-6, the team also made five errors, to their opponent’s zero.
“We knew going in they were a good hitting team and we knew going in their pitcher (Cowburn) was one of the better pitchers we had seen all year. We knew it was going to be a good game, but we knew that the league we played in and the non-league schedule we played had prepared us for the game. We just made mistakes and errors that aren’t typical of us,” Bottisti said.
Schuylerville recorded two base hits in each of the sixth and seventh innings, still trailing 7-1, but came up empty-handed both times.
“They fought till the end. They didn’t give up, they didn’t get down on themselves, and they fought until the very end,” Bottisti said. “That’s something they need to be proud of.”
Following the 20-6 campaign, which saw Schuylerville climb as high as No.4 in the State Rankings, the team will lose nine seniors, four of which were in Saturday’s starting lineup.
“Hard work,” Bottisti said on the legacy the soon-to-be graduates will have left behind for the team. “They do what you ask. You tell them to bunt, they bunt. If you tell them to steal, they steal; they’ll do anything. Hard work pays off and working together as a team. These girls have been playing together since they were young and it makes a difference.”
