Inwardly, Meagan Sullivan was a bundle of nerves.
Outwardly, the freshman was the cool customer that shut down a hot-hitting Shenendehowa softball team and delivered Bethlehem its first Section II title since 1978.
Sullivan limited Shen to five hits, and Cassie Smith added three hits to lead third-seeded Bethlehem to a 2-1 victory over No. 1 Shen in last Friday’s Class AA Sectional final at Clifton Common.
I don’t like showing nerves I never do,` said Sullivan. `But inside, I was definitely a mess.`
`We are so proud of what Sully has done for us,` said Bethlehem coach Karen Gentile. `She’s stepped right in and taken the leadership role inside that [pitcher’s] circle, and the other kids have been very supportive of her in the field.`
Shen (19-4) entered the championship game off a 12-hit performance in a 9-2 semifinal victory over Shaker two days earlier, but Sullivan kept the Plainswomen off balance with her collection of off-speed pitches. Shen hit the ball out of the infield only once through the first four innings.
`That’s always some-thing that I’ve worked on,` said Sullivan. `I’ve tried to keep up with it because there are some good hitting teams out there. Shen is a very good hitting team.`
`It just seemed like the low balls that we didn’t swing at were called strikes, and then when she didn’t throw low, we got nervous at the plate,` said Shen coach Dan D’Amboise. `We had a lot of half swings today.`
Meanwhile, Bethlehem’s hitters were in fine shape early on against Shen starter Cameron Sprague. Smith delivered a long double in the bottom of the second inning to drive in Mikayla Shade for the game’s first run. Then in the fourth inning, Morgan Mazone hit a seeing-eye single between shortstop and third base to bring in Shade to give the Lady Eagles (19-5) a 2-0 lead.
Still, Gentile was uneasy about her team’s two-run advantage.
`You can never have enough runs, and we left a couple of players on base,` said Gentile. `One [insurance run] is never enough.`
Shen carved into that lead in the top of the fifth inning. Kate Traver hit a leadoff double and scored on Lea Cook’s one-out double to make the score 2-1.
Bethlehem’s defense came to Sullivan’s rescue, though. Right fielder McKenzie Pezze caught Caitlin Lawson’s fly ball, and first baseman Kat Rice fielded a slow roller from Melissa Morgan to end Shen’s rally.
`I just wanted to get out of that inning because we still had the lead [at that point],` said Sullivan.
Shen kept Bethlehem off the scoreboard in the fifth and sixth innings, but it couldn’t get another rally going against Sullivan.
`We’ve been hitting so well for the last few games that we thought we’d get that Shaker inning where we’d score three or four runs, but it didn’t happen,` said D’Amboise.
The victory capped a long journey for Bethlehem’s senior class ` Rice, Mary Beth Dombrowski and Meghan Burns ` from a middle-of-the-pack Suburban Council team to Sectional champions. The Lady Eagles reached last year’s Class AA final before losing to Colonie ` a team that they defeated 3-1 in last Wednesday’s semifinal game to advance to the championship game.
`We had to beat the best to be the best,` said Gentile. `We had to go through the top two twams in Colonie and Shen to do it.`
Sullivan was the one who put Bethlehem over the top, though. She allowed only two runs and nine hits between the semifinal and championship games to guide the Lady Eagles to the Sectional title.
`This team didn’t finish it last year, so it was fun for me to come in and help them finish it this year,` said Sullivan.
Bethlehem advanced to Tuesday’s Class AA regional at Section III champion Cicero-North Syracuse. Check www.spottlightnews.com for results from the regional game.“