It was deja vu all over again for the 11- and 12-year-old New Hyde Park Little League girls softball players as they won the state championship in their division in a 10-2 romp over Half Hollow Hills on Monday night.
The victory instantly evoked memories of virtually the same group of players winning the state title two years ago as nine- and 10-year-olds. The 2010 group went on to win an eastern regional tournament against teams from other states – the equivalent of a World Series.
This time, they’ll face a field of teams in a mid-Atlantic regional tournament in Bristol, Ct. starting Friday. If the New Hyde Park girls are the last players standing there, the next stop is Portland, Ore.
But the girls aren’t getting ahead of themselves.
“They’re excited to be the New York State champs,” said head coach Tom Donnelly. “It’s pretty exciting to win the New York State title again with this crew.”
Pitcher Jenny Hickey tossed a no-hitter against Half Hollow Hills in the opener of a three-game set to determine the championship on Friday. On Sunday, Melissa Ward held the Half Hollow Hills team to two hits, but New Hyde Park’s bats went into an uncharacteristic swoon and they lost, 3-2.
Donnelly said the coaches and the players discussed the game afterward. He said they played well, they just didn’t hit well. No more needed to be said.
“The next day they were clearly focused in batting practice,” he said. “They weren’t nervous. They have so much tournament experience.”
That experience showed, as they scored five runs in the second inning of the rubber match, with a bases-clearing double to right center by the team’s acknowledged slugger catcher Ann Grimshaw. They scored five more runs in the third inning, and they never looked back.
But looking back to their first post-season triumphs two years ago, it was the experience of being away together at a hotel in Fredonia, N.Y. during the state championship tournament in 2010 that brought the team together in a new way.
“We got really close. It made it like a family,” said third baseman Maggie Donnelly.
“It made us really close. We talked about things,” said Hickey.
Donnelly, Hickey, Ward, Grimshaw and Kayla Fitzpatrick, the team’s first baseman and pitcher, have all played together on the Little League team and on a travel softball team for the past four years. They talk to each other on the field and they give each other support.
“We pick each other up,” Hickey said.
Fitzpatrick pitched a no-hitter in a playoff game preceding the state tourney. She said it was “exciting,” but chose to dwell on the team aspect of that game, with strong defense helping her effort.
“It helps us work together because we’re playing together,” Fitzpatrick said.
One of the team’s most consistent hitters, she credits Grimshaw with the big bat the team relies on.
“Ann’s the one you can rely on to get a hit,” Fitzpatrick said.
Grimshaw knows she maintains a .600 average. Her teammates said they don’t really keep track, but simply remember how they hit in particular games.
Grimshaw credits her father, Tom, with helping her improve her hitting. She said the Sunday practices they participate in for their travel team also enabled the team’s members to full develop their skills.
“That really helps us,” she said.
The team very much a family affair, considering that Tom Donnelly, Will Hickey, Tom Grimshaw and Tom Fitzpatrick coach the team their daughters play on.
Hickey said her father likes to talk about having “softball IQ,” and she and her teammates demonstrate an unflappable, instinctive approach to the game. They execute their plays on offense and defense consistently and they run the bases without hesitation in almost every game situation.
“We run a lot of game situations in practice,” said Tom Donnelly. We put them in a lot of situations in practice. You have to do it that way.”
They play with a confidence in each other that belies their age. And they’re state champions again, in the midst of another remarkable post-season run.
“They’re used to playing with each other. They trust each other,” Tom Grimshaw said.
