The New Hyde Park Little League Girls 11/12 year old softball team moved into the New York State Championship Game with a 10-0 shutout win over previously unbeaten Half Hallow Hills.
It was more than just a shutout though as Jenny Hickey pitched a no-hitter, striking out 6 while only allowing base runners through one walk and an error. No Half Hallows runner reached second base the entire game.
Hickey added 2 hits and 2 runs while Kayla Fitzpatrick had another lead off hit and scored the first run of the game for New Hyde Park, the eighth straight game she had done so in the first inning.
Fitzpatrick also had 3 hits in the game while Melissa Ward singled her in during the first inning, moving to second on the throw and scoring when Ann Grimshaw hit an opposite field single to put New Hyde Park up 2-0. New Hyde Park scored again in the third when Fitzpatrick and Hickey singled, followed by an RBI single off the bat of Maggie Donnelly. Gabby Morales next came up with runners on but lined out to the second basemen to end the inning.
With a 3-0 in the fifth, New Hyde Park put up 6 runs to close out the game. Nicole Kuzler and Katie Tubridy each had RBI singles in the inning. Donnelly, Ward and Sophia Jacoby each drew RBI walks in the inning while Fitzpatrick finished the inning with a 2 RBI single to left.
Hannah Arkin and Emma Nidermaier each made running catches in the outfield as the New Hyde Park defense kept the no-hit bid alive: Jacoby made two assists at second while Donnelly had an assist and a catch off a bunt while playing third. Hickey helped her own cause with an assist in the second inning while Grimshaw jumped on a bunt in the fifth inning to nail a runner at first and Ward made an assist in the fifth on a grounder to short.
The Championship Game is this Sunday, July 15 at 10 a.m. at Stony Point Little League. If New Hyde Park wins they move on to the Eastern Regional Tournament in Bristol, Connecticut starting July 20.
