Bellmore Blue Fire 14U Wins 'The Rock' Tournament

Bellmore Little League is extremely proud of its girls’ fastpitch softball teams.  

Although the team lost the Williamsport Long Island Championship game, it traveled to Chester, NY to take on some real good competition. 

“These girls are real amazing – they bounced back from a difficult loss on Tuesday and then traveled that same weekend to face competition better than they expected” explained coach Ray Barry.    

During pool play, Bellmore Blue Fire girls had a 2-1 record and dealt with 4 rain delays throughout the day. The big favorite for the tournament was the Adirondack Xtreme. The record during pool play created a three seed for BlueFire during elimination round. The way these tournaments work is that Sunday is elimination round – you win you stay, you lose you go home.

On Sunday, the BlueFire girls regrouped, set their goals for the day and had a team meeting that resulted in fierce determination to battle. Once the games started, Ashley Boscarino did not waste any time and took the first pitch of the game from the Tri-State Angels and drilled a double in the gap.

Brianna Maniscalco and Alexa Boscarino combined on a two-hit shutout to seal the victory.

BlueFire went to Amanda Riveira to silence the Team Nitro bats and get the team into the final game. During the Team Nitro game, Nicole Moccio, Kacie Badolato and Katie Grodski were on fire at the plate. 

This brought a rematch against Adirondack Xtreme in the final game. BlueFire went to Brianna Maniscalco to shut down this team. We gave Brianna the ball because she is a fierce competitor and will always go out there and fight.

“Even though she was tired, we discussed our eating habits in the beginning of the day and our girls properly fueled their body for a long day of softball. That was a key factor in the intensity by which they played during the final game,” Coach Joe Maniscalco said.

Follow Bellmore Patch on Twitter by clicking here. To like Bellmore Patch on Facebook, click here.

The game turned out to be a pitcher’s dual through six innings. In the third inning, with bases loaded and one out, a deep fly ball was hit to right center field. Kaitlin Maniscalco, the youngest player on the team, caught the ball and threw a bullet to home plate to get the runner tagging up from third base. The next inning, Kristina Barry drilled a base hit to give BlueFire a 1-0 lead. 

The lead was not enough.  Brianna was getting tired and in the bottom of the sixth inning, and Xtreme was able to scrape together three runs on some defensive miscues. Going into the seventh inning, with one out, BlueFire was down 3-1. However, BlueFire was not done. Nicole Moccio fought in the batter’s box and with two strikes drilled a double in the gap to get the team going again. 

“Nicole is an amazing athlete.  She brings such depth to our lineup with all the tools she has and never quits,” explains coach Joe Maniscalco. “She got us going with that at bat.” 

Alexa Boscarino then worked a walk, and with runners on second and third, it was up to Brianna Maniscalco. With the score 3-1, Brianna drilled a base hit to hard left field. It was hit so hard that only one run scored and BlueFire was still trailing 3-2.  Kristina Barry then followed and hit a hard base hit to second base scoring Alexa Boscarino to tie the game. 

BlueFire then made a pitching change and went to Amanda Riveira to shut the door and give them another chance at the plate.  Amanda struck out all three batters she faced, forcing extra innings.

With the international tie-breaker rule in effect, each team starts with a runner on second base. In the eighth inning, BlueFire scored a run on amazing running by Mairead Ryan.

Even though Mairead was hurting with a bad ankle, the umpire would not allow us to substitute for her due to the rules. She had to be the runner on second base to start the inning. On a miscue by Xtreme, Mairead dashed home and slid under the tag to give BlueFire the go ahead run. Xtreme was not going to give up and they tied the score again in the bottom of the eighth inning to force another extra inning.  In the ninth inning, BlueFire battled again. This time their goal was to get two runs.

With runners on second and third, Alexa Boscarino battled a full count and then drilled a base hit to left field to bring the go ahead run in.  She did this with two outs and a 3-2 count. Brianna Maniscalco then drilled another base hit to bring home the runner on third and give BlueFire a two-run lead. That would be enough for Amanda Riveria, who battled in the bottom of the ninth inning and shut down Xtreme.  

The victory was sealed for BlueFire and they were the Champions of The Rock Tournament.

This article was written and submitted by Joseph Maniscalco.