Massapequa International suffers first loss in Little League softball regional tournament

BRISTOL, Conn. — The Massapequa International 12U softball team finds itself in uncharted territory.

Massapequa lost to West Point (Pennsylvania), 6-0, in the second round of the Mid-Atlantic Region tournament Monday morning at Breen Field.

It was the team’s first loss since the start of last season. Massapequa will play elimination games for the rest of the tournament, starting with a game against Hanover Township (New Jersey) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

“Looking in their eyes, they look fine,” manager Rich Eaton said. “They said they want to play Pennsylvania again. I said that we’ve got to get there first. There are a bunch of other good teams in this tournament, so there’s no guarantee that they will make it to the championship and we might have to play them earlier. But our team is definitely confident if we have to play them again.”

Eaton said that in the team’s huddle after the game, pitcher Olivia Feldman addressed her teammates and said, “We get more TV time now.”

West Point took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Piper Hoppel scored on a groundout by Rian Starz. Feldman worked out of a bases-loaded jam to limit the damage to one run.

Feldman began the bottom of the first with a rocket that ricocheted off West Point pitcher Lexi Stabile’s left shin. After recovering to make the play, Stabile took a minute to walk off the pain before returning to the circle and dominating.

Stabile allowed five hits in a complete game, striking out five.

“My defense was awesome today,” she said. “If they can play like that all the time, we can win any game.”

Stabile’s groundout in the fourth drove in Morgan Maiers, who broke it open in the sixth with an inside-the-park grand slam to deep leftfield.

Massapequa had its chances, but Stabile and her defense rose to the occasion with runners on base.

Massapequa’s Sophia Evans singled in the bottom of the third, stole second and tried to reach third when the throw went in the outfield, but she was cut down by a perfect throw from Maiers.

Later in the inning, Lexi Phillips tried to score from second on a single up the middle by Feldman, but another strong throw from Maiers beat her to the plate for the third out.

“I’ll take the blame as the third-base coach,” Eaton said. “Even the play at home, I’ll tip my cap to the centerfielder. I saw she was close enough and that if she made a good throw, it would beat [Phillips], but generally in those spots, they throw it offline. She put it right there and it was a great throw.”

Massapequa will have to win three straight games to get to Friday’s championship game. West Point will face the winner of Brunswick, Maryland/Washington D.C. at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.

“These girls don’t even know how big of a win this is,” West Point manager Matt Maiers said. “[Massapequa] rolled out yesterday with a World Series flag. For us, this is our first time ever being here.

“Every game is new to us and they’ve been here three years in a row . . . They’re a great team, no question about it. They’ve got great hitters top to bottom, their pitching is really solid, they’ve got good fielders. They definitely have some weapons.”