The New Hyde Park Little League girls softball all-stars may not have won the World Series during the title tournament in Portland, Ore. last week but they’re proud of their fifth-place finish in a field of 10 teams from around the globe.
“Everything was fun,” said heavy-hitting catcher Ann Grimshaw. “We were the fifth best team in the world. That’s pretty good.”
The New Hyde Park 11 and 12 year olds steamrolled over teams from the Phillipines and Canada by scores of 11-4 and 16-0 in its first two games of the tourney. But it ran into a roadblock against the New Mexico team, losing 9-3 to the team that eventually won the title and then getting beat in a controversial 6-1 contest against Hawaii the next day.
The girls rebounded with a 7-6 win against a tough Mexico team to finish fifth in their final game of the series.
“I was happy we finished up with that win. Mexico was one of the better teams there,” said head coach Tom Donnelly.
Donnelly takes a longer view of the team’s performance over the past two years during whiich time it won two state and regional titles and went to the World Series.
“To win the state and regional was amazing. It was a very satisfying results from all the work from the last two years,” Donnelly said.
Pitcher Jenny Hickey said the tournament was an emotional roller coaster that was well worth the ride.
“First we felt bad we lost. But it was good knowing we came out fifth in all the teams in the world,” Hickey said. “We knew all teams were going to be tough competition. It was a good learning experience to play in that kind of pressure.”
The pressure reached a boiling point when New Hyde Park was trailing Hawaii 3-1 in a game the team needed to win to make the semifinal round. What appeared to be a routine ground ball out to end the top of the fifth inning led to two runs for Hawaii when an umpire ruled that first baseman Kayla Fitzpatrick didn’t have her foot on the bag for the putout on a throw to first. New Hyde Park ultimately lost that game and its shot at the title.
The coaches argued Fitzpatrick’s foot was on the bag, but the call stood and Fitzpatrick recalled the “disappointing” moment.
“You let the umpires decide it and it’s not a good result,” Fitzpatrick said. “But we didn’t come back.”
New Hyde Park didn’t make a comeback in that game, but the team found a measure of redemption against Mexico the next day.
Nidermaier, who said it was one of the best catches she made this season, found herself getting caught up in the intensity of the tournament competition from the opening inning.
“At first, I was just happy to be going. But then when we started playing, I wanted to win,” Nidermaier said.
“We played our hearts out,” said Sophia Jacoby
But the Portland experience wasn’t all about winning.
Jacoby said the thing she most enjoyed was the game she and her New Hyde Park teammates played with a squad of disabled girls on one of their day’s off during the competition.
“I loved that. They would smile all the time,” Jacoby recalled.
Morales she enjoyed seeing the sights in Portland, particularly Seaside Beach and Canyon Beach. And the players all agreed that having time to get to know the opposing players from other parts of the country and the world was a high point of their week.
“It was fun meeting girls from the other teams,” Nidermaier said.
For teammates who have bonded through competition in Little League and travel teams for the past several seasons, the shared comraderie during the tourney was memorable.
“It was a lot of fun because we got to spend it together,” Fitzpatrick said.
This is probably the last season they’ll play together as Little Leaguers, but Donnelly and the other coaches are making plans for a travel team next season.
“This is just the beginning,” said coach Tom Fitzpatrick.
