In the end, it was fitting that the final out — the one separating Massapequa International Little League’s softball team from New York’s first Little League Softball World Series championship — hovered above the pitching circle, with Olivia Feldman raising her arms to call off everyone else.
For this tournament run, which ended Sunday afternoon with everyone’s arms raised and swinging in celebration, the overarching catalyst was pitching.
Feldman and Alexis Fontana combined for a one-hitter in the semifinals.
They walked just four batters across the first three games in Greenville, N.C.
And in the championship game against the Pitt County Girls Softball League, Feldman and Fontana limited the Southeast representatives to two runs on five hits — while throwing an efficient 52 strikes on 74 pitches — in their 5-2 victory, clinching the first LLSWS title for the state.
“It means everything,” Massapequa Park manager Richard Eaton said on the ABC broadcast. “When I got this team, I didn’t know if we were a good team, bad team, nothing.”
But when they got to the LLSWS, he said, that’s when he knew they had a chance, and it added to a recent stretch in which Massapequa Coast Little League’s baseball team was one win away from a second consecutive trip to the Little League World Series.
Massapequa Park’s quest as the Mid-Atlantic representative started with a 6-5 victory against Connecticut.
Then, it knocked off Puerto Rico, before defeating Connecticut a second time — when Feldman and Fontana limited the New England team to hardly anything — to reach the finals.
But a team from New York hadn’t secured a title since the tournament started in 1974.
Eight other states had won. Texas celebrated 14 times.
But when Massapequa Park took an early 3-0 lead Sunday, that elusive title inched closer to materializing.
Fontana scored the first run when she reached third base on a delayed steal and then raced home as the throw from Pitt County starter Monica Jones slipped past the third baseman.
Later in the frame, Emma Brown singled up the middle to drive in the third run, and Pitt County made a pitching change.
“It’s definitely family for sure,” Brown said on the broadcast postgame. “We always pick each other up, and it’s just so incredible. Because it feels like two years. It’s only been a couple months. It’s amazing.”
Pitt County had runners on first and second to start the second inning, but both were stranded.
Massapequa Park’s Mia Victor reached base with two outs in the bottom of the frame, and Victor scored when Jocelyn Vandenberg doubled — though Vandenberg was thrown out trying to extend the hit into a triple.
In the third inning, though, Pitt County shortstop Aurora Edwards sent a ball into the right-center gap to score two runs and trim the lead to 4-2.
But that was all of the offense Pitt County managed against Massapequa Park.
Feldman entered for Fontana after Edwards’ triple.
Sienna Erker scored an insurance run, and when Massapequa Park needed three more outs to seal the victory, it again turned to Feldman.
“Pitching and defense,” Eaton said. “These pitchers are unbelievable.”
Feldman got Peyton James out.
Then, a groundout to second.
A two-out walk gave Pitt County a potential spark, but then Lilliana Whitehurst popped up a pitch, Feldman waved her arms and a celebration began.
“It’s like a dream come true,” Brown said. “It really is.”
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