The Montgomery Minors softball team had a lot of fun in this summer’s District 19 tournament, capping things off with a 4-2 win over Goshen on Wednesday at Veteran’s Park in Montgomery.

“It’s amazing,” Montgomery manager Robert Leonard said. “We haven’t had (a district title) here since 2018, and from being in the community and coaching in the school, this is awesome for me. My daughter (Penny Leonard) is on the team. We got this going a few years ago, and we’re really progressing. We’re happy to see where we’re going.”

Where they went was to the Section 3 North softball tournament, where Montgomery was scheduled to open things on Sunday against District 18 champion New City at Suffern Little League.

Montgomery will be one of three teams vying for a berth in the New York State tournament, scheduled for July 20-26 at Brighton Little League.

Montgomery struck first on Wednesday, taking advantage of some Goshen wildness, picking up a second inning run when Kaitlin Hamel drew a bases loaded walk.

Montgomery then struck for three more runs in the fifth inning, when Bella Cahill led off the inning by reaching base, stealing second and then advanced to third base on a wild pitch. Courtney Brown helped her own cause by delivering an RBI single to give Montgomery a 2-0 lead.

Montgomery then tacked on two more runs on a pair of fielder’s choices to take a 4-0 lead.

“It would have been nice to get a few more, but we ran ourselves out of that infield fly, but that was a huge inning for us,” Leonard said. “I just said to the girls to, ‘get relaxed, don’t panic, and get it done,’ and they settled back in. They were a little jittery when they went back out.”

Montgomery was poised for more, loading the bases with nobody out, but they ran afoul of the infield fly rule. Lillian Cahill hit a pop to second base and was called out. But the ball was dropped, the runners tried to advance and, in the confusion, Goshen turned a triple play to escape further trouble.

Brown, meanwhile, kept Goshen’s bats quiet for the first five innings, benefiting from the infield fly rule, herself. It helped Montgomery avoid trouble in the fourth inning.

“Courtney Brown was on,” Leonard said. “She hit her spots. They’re very good; we played them before, and they were up 3-2 in the last inning, and we ended up scoring 2 runs to beat them 4-3. They’re a very good and well-coached team. We battled, and Courtney was hot.”

However, Goshen’s bats came alive in the top of the sixth inning, getting two runs in and putting the tying runs on second base, but Lillian Cahill snagged a hard-hit line drive – which seemed ticketed to right field – to end the game, giving Montgomery it’s title.

“They’ve just got a lot of heart,” Leonard said. “They’re good kids. We come to practice; we work for two hours sometimes, and they never complained. They would constantly work and have fun. That’s a big thing. They have fun.”

They did complain once. After they took a celebratory run with the district flag around the infield, Leonard sent them to acknowledge the fans by running along the outfield fence.

They were less than excited about running again.

The Montgomery girls have now advanced the Section 3 finals on Wednesday at 5:30 at Watt’s Park in Middletown. They beat New City 4-3 and East Chester 12-2 to advance. They will play the winner of those 2 teams.