By Mike Zummo
The Newburgh Free Academy softball team is suddenly on a roll.
The Goldbacks lost their first three games to start the season. Suddenly after playing two games on Sunday, the Goldbacks have four straight, riding two big innings to win both games of the Minisink Valley Tournament at Minisink Valley Middle School.
The Goldbacks rode a five-run fourth inning to erase a two-run deficit to beat the Minisink Valley Warriors, 6-3, in the first game and then won the tournament championship by using a nine-run second inning to launch themselves to a 14-5 win over the Middletown Middies.
“We had a rough start to the season and these wins help us – as a team – see what we actually can do,” junior catcher Melissa Schulze said. “It gives us a lot of confidence knowing that we put a lot to the table and every single person contributes a lot.”
Schulze was in the middle of both big innings.
In the opener, her two-out double to center field broke a 3-3 tie, lifting the Goldbacks to victory. She also had the second of two two-run doubles in the Goldbacks’ big second inning in the championship game, also to center field. The first two-run double of the inning came off Madison Gravel’s bat.
“These are two games that I think were needed for us to just move in the right direction,” Newburgh coach Edwin Quezada said. “We’re super excited going into this week. We’ve got two league games and we’re ready to go.”
The Goldbacks didn’t achieve everything they wanted. When she struck out Alyssa Platero in the fifth inning, Newburgh leading pitcher Alina Ferguson recorded the 199th in her high school career. However, Middletown hitters continued to make contact, denying her the milestone for at least 24 hours.
The next opportunity was scheduled to come Monday against the Pine Bush Bushmen at Newburgh Free Academy North.
Instead, Ferguson had to settle for 199 career strikeouts and the victory, allowing five runs on 10 hits.
“We’re just super-excited for her,” Quezada said.
“(Ferguson), from the jump, we told her, she’s our No. 1; she’s our ace, and we were just trying to get her to her 200th strikeout. So, we’re excited.”
Samantha Williams pitched the first game, getting off to a rough start allowing three runs in the first inning, but nothing else. She allowed seven hits in the complete-game effort and struck out six.
“They did very well,” Schulze said. “They’re very strong pitchers.”
Gravel and Taryn Judson each had a hit and an RBI in the first game. In addition to her complete game in the circle, Williams walked twice, scored two runs and drove in a run.
Williams had three hits, scored four runs and drove in two in the second game, and Gravel finished with four RBIs. Judson had two hits, three RBIs and two runs scored.
“We had high energy,” Schulze said. “Everyone was having a good time, and everyone was contributing. It was just a great game overall.”
The Goldbacks opened last week with a 10-1 loss to the Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders in their Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association Division I opener. They followed that and started their winning streak with a 9-1 win over the Cornwall Dragons on Wednesday and evened their divisional record on Friday with a 3-1 win over the Kingston Tigers.
“We’re moving in the right direction,” Quezada said. “There are things, obviously, that we could clean up, but I’m very encouraged by what I’m seeing. We’re led by our three captains. We have a great team around us, and that energy is just really picking up at the right time.”