The Marlboro softball team fell to Section 4’s Chenango Valley in the NYSPHSAA Class B semifinals on Saturday, June 11.

The Dukes faced an early deficit to the Warriors and just didn’t have enough to mount a full comeback, dropping the semifinal game by a score of 6-2.

“When you get this far in the season, you’re going to be playing some good teams,” said Marlboro coach Ray Leduc. “We played better than this during the year, but you can’t take anything away from Chenango Valley. They came and they played.”

Marlboro had an early 4-0 deficit, with Chenango scoring two runs in each the first and second innings.

The Dukes got a run back in the bottom of the second on a RBI groundout by Emma Jackson. Emmie Mae Cabrera added a RBI single in the bottom of the third, cutting Marlboro’s deficit to 4-2.

Leah Gunsett took over inside the circle in the second inning for starting pitcher Ava Del Salto.

“Leah came in, stepped up and did a great job,” Leduc said. “It’s always hard to play from behind, but we’ve been behind in games earlier in the season. I thought we could have scratched out a couple more runs. We had a couple hard hit balls with runners on and they made some plays.”

Del Salto was charged with four runs over an inning and two-thirds. Gunsett went the remaining 5.1 innings, allowing two runs and three walks, striking out five.

Marlboro finished their season with an overall record of 16-3. The defeated Rye Neck 13-2 in a sub-regional matchup and North Babylon, 10-1, in order to advance to Saturday’s Final Four.

“We had a great season,” Leduc added. “There’s only four teams from Class B here today. As much as this one hurts now, hopefully they’ll look back and say that it was a really good season.”

Kasey Conn and Jackson each picked up two hits in the semifinal game.

Chenango Valley went on to lose in the Class B state championship game to Section 2’s Ichabod Crane. The Riders won via the mercy rule in all four of their Class B state playoff games, completing a perfect 25-0 season.

“Very few kids get to experience this,” Leduc said. “It’s one of those crushing blows when you lose, but you gotta think about how many kids play high school softball and never get here in their whole career. It’s tough to get here. It’s just tougher to lose.”

Leduc continued with some final thoughts on his five seniors.
“They’re crucial to this. They’ve been playing together since ten years old. Unfortunately this is the only chance they had at this because of COVID and they really came together. We had a chance and that’s all we can ask for, is a chance.”