After going 5-1 entering the final week of April, Newburgh Free Academy’s softball team traveled to Pine Bush, and they soon found themselves down 2-0 on a pair of solo home runs by the home team in the first inning, Monday, April 25. The lead grew to 6-3 by the time Newburgh entered the top of the seventh inning, but then the Lady Goldbacks put their bats to work and scored six runs and took the lead 9-6. Pine Bush came up in the bottom half of the inning, put two runners on base with an out, but the Lady Goldbacks stopped the home team by punctuating their comeback victory with a double play to end the game. After Pine Bush’s MaryAnn Jimenez and Michaela Veneziali hit back-to-back solo shots in the bottom of the first, Newburgh’s Sabrina Myers hit a two-out, two-run shot to tie it 2-2. Pine Bush’s Lindsey Schuessler tripled home a run in the second to make it 3-2, and that lead grew to 6-2 in the fourth when Schuessler singled home a run, and Jimenez brought home another with a ground-out. But that’s where Pine Bush’s momentum came to a halt. Gabby Asher singled a run home in the fifth to cut the lead to 6-3. In the seventh, Julia Di Spigna doubled home a run before Brittany Drake brought home another pair with an RBI-single. Brittney Garcia, Alexa DeSantis and Myers singled home runs to complete the comeback. “We had a lot of contributions from a lot of people,” said Luke Pereira, Newburgh’s coach. “That’s the team part of the game.” Myers is a junior, and she did not wonder what happened to the ball she hit in the second inning to tie it. “As soon as I felt it was off the bat,” she said, “it was out.” And when her team was down by three runs coming to bat in the top of seventh, Myers again was not surprised by what happened when the inning was over. “I knew we could come back because we always come back,” she said. “This is a good team.” Less than a week earlier, Pine Bush came back on the same field to beat Minisink. But that victory was followed by a loss to North Rockland. They struck Newburgh early with some big bats and small ball, but the momentum stopped and suddenly Pine Bush stalled at 4-4 with the loss to the Lady Goldbacks. “They put the ball in play,” said Mike Mancuso, Pine Bush’s coach. “What are you going to do? We didn’t make plays.”

By Bond Brungard sports@tcnewspapers.com