Gone With The Wind: Schreiber Softball Falls to Colts

The winds were blowing strong at Calhoun High School on Thursday. So strong, in fact, they took the Schreiber win streak along with them.

Done in by shaky defense and baserunning, the Lady Vikings fell to the Lady Colts at Calhoun, 10-6, in Conference III/IV crossover action. The loss dropped Schreiber to 5-7 while the win upped Calhoun's record to 5-7 as well.

After getting two strong pitching performances from eighth-grader Alex Caprariello, ace Danielle Leibowitz returned to the mound for the Vikes. The senior righty was sharp early, as was the Schreiber offense, which had produced 29 runs the past two games.

Center fielder Sara Marinelli stroked a two-run home run in the third, giving Schreiber the early lead, but Calhoun quickly answered in their half of the inning.

A leadoff walk and two singles loaded the bases for the Lady Colts, putting Leibowitz in a jam. After getting Marisa Marcigliano to line out to short, Calhoun pitcher Rebecca Suss hit a drive to left that glanced off the tip of Linda Kim's mitt, and just like that the game was tied at two.

A groundout gave Calhoun the lead, and a throwing error led to another run, making it 4-2 after three.

"If you ask any pitcher to pitch five or six outs, two or three times a game, they're going to give up runs," coach Eric Sutz said of his pitching and defense.

Caprariello stroked an RBI single in the fourth to make it 4-3, but those "extra outs" coach Sutz referred to seemed to wear down Leibowitz.

Calhoun put up another four-spot in the fourth on five hits, capped off by Cassie Beccaris' two-run double, giving her club an 8-3 lead.

The Lady Vikings shook off the dust and wind in their eyes and came back again. First baseman Emma Horowitz hit a two-run triple in the fifth, as Schreiber pulled within two. Unfortunately, errors reared their ugly head again, this time on the basepaths.

Schreiber got the leadoff batter on in each of the last two innings, but both times saw them immediately erased, getting doubled off first after a pop out. Calhoun tacked on a couple more runs along the way, and the Vikings' win streak was over at two.

"It's always plays that don't look like they'll be caught," Horowitz said of her team's baserunning follies. "You're expected to go cause that's your natural instinct, but then you get caught."

Sutz added, "You can't give teams outs. You can't extend innings for other teams and you can't give them outs, and we did both today."

The Lady Vikings hope the winds die down soon, as they're back in action Saturday at Freeport, in a make up game from Monday's rainout.

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