Madison junior pitcher Kayla Hill threw a three-hit shutout against Wagner. (Philip Hall)
It was like the “pop” of Kayla Hill’s fastball hitting Samantha Rodriguez’s glove could be heard for blocks. That sound only got louder and louder as the afternoon got older.
“This season, I found out that I get stronger as the game goes on,” the James Madison junior pitcher said. “I start to use my legs more.”
That wasn’t good news for Susan Wagner. Hill retired 10 of the last 12 batters she faced and had two of her eight strikeouts in the seventh inning to lead No. 2 Madison to a 3-0 win over No. 3 Wagner in the PSAL Class A softball semifinals Wednesday at Lincoln HS in Brooklyn. The Knights will meet top-seed Tottenville in the championship game Sunday at St. John’s University for the second straight season.
“She made big pitches,” Madison coach Jeff Meltzer said. “You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to know when you have [Marie] Oneto and Kayla Hill that you’ll be in every game.”
Hill ended up with a three-hit shutout and it wasn’t just the fastball that was working. She kept Wagner (18-3) off balance all game, only allowed one runner to second base when Taylor Sarcone doubled in the first inning and painted the corners like an artist. Half of those eight strikeouts were looking on pitches with nasty movement.
“She shut us down,” Falcons coach Marco Altieri said.
After she wiggled out of her only jam in the first inning, Madison (18-1) gave her some run support. In the bottom of the half of the inning, the Knights capitalized on a Falcons error and senior first baseman Nikki Panaro produced a clutch two-RBI single off Sarcone. Those would end up being the only runs scored in the game.
“I thought the team that scored first was going to win,” Meltzer said.
Sarcone settled down after that and gave up only three more hits the rest of the way. But Hill was overpowering at times and Madison put on an absolute defensive clinic. The Knights didn’t make an error and made every play – with varying degrees of difficulty. Sarcone ripped a hard ground ball into the hole between second and third in the sixth, but third baseman Maria Mantagas made a diving stop to get the out. Hill deferred most of the credit for her superb outing to the ‘D’ behind her.
“We just defend,” Meltzer said. “They hit the ball, but we defended.”
The Knights were just happy to be playing in a competitive game. They have won every other playoff game by run rule and did the same to every Brooklyn opponent. In a non-league win against Poly Prep two weeks ago, the Madison players were just psyched to not be demolishing the opposition.
“We needed to come into a game and not mercy them and leave,” Panaro said. “We definitely don’t enjoy mercying.”
Though Madison was the odds-on favorite to return to the title game after last year – the Knights didn’t have a single senior in 2009 – the players knew it was no guarantee. Hill pointed to the semis two years ago when Madison was the favorite to beat Bayside but ended up being upset.
“We didn’t expect to be in the championship,” Hill said.
There was a certain understanding of the process and Madison knew it had to go through Wagner to get what it wants.
“We want to win it all,” Panaro said. “You have to get to the championship to win it all.”
Field flip-flop: The Madison-Wagner semifinal was originally scheduled to be played at Lafayette HS in Bensonhurst, but the field there had no dirt cutouts on the bases, the pitcher’s mound or home plate. After a long discussion with PSAL officials and with about 15 minutes before the scheduled 4 p.m. start, the teams left there to play at Lincoln after the Tottenville-Cardozo semifinal..
“Both coaches and the umpires felt it was inappropriate to play there,” Meltzer said.
The field at Lincoln was preferable anyway, with its fences in the outfield and better manicured diamond. Athletic director Renan Ebeid was a welcome host.
“It was like a panic situation,” Sarcone said of being at Lafayette. “No one knew what was going on. I think everyone felt more comfortable playing here. There are fences. There is a mound. It was a field.”