VOORHEESVILLE — Besides Monday’s loss to Guilderland, the Voorheesville softball team has been flying high.

The Lady Blackbirds had won five out of their last six games before Monday’s non-league contest and they qualified for the sectional playoffs.

The Blackbirds are the number-nine seed in Class B and played Hudson on Wednesday. With a win, Voorheesville would travel to Colonie to play Chatham, the top seed in the class.
"We’re definitely getting better since the first half of the year," said senior Jenna Massaroni. "Hitting, pitching, and defense — everything’s gotten better."
"I’m happy with the finish," Voorheesville Coach Matt Fiato said. "I’m not surprised. I knew we were capable of it. It was just a matter of playing the way we’re capable of."

The seeding was lower than Fiato thought as of Monday, he thought his team would possibly get a much higher seed.
"I think we could be a five or six," he said on Monday. "Losing our last game against Lansingburgh might hurt us a little bit."

Clinching the playoff spot

Before Monday’s game, the loss to the Knights was the only loss in the last couple of weeks of the season.

Voorheesville finished 9-7 in the Colonial Council and finished fourth.
"We had a shot to be tied for third," Fiato said. "We were up 5-0 against ’Burgh [Lansingburgh] but we lost it."

The Blackbirds had to get their record over .500 to qualify for sectionals. They were two games under after a loss to Mechanicville on May 5.

The Birds then beat Ravena, Holy Names (twice), Watervliet, and Cobleskill in succession to clinch the playoff spot.
"We definitely knew we had to win our last few games," Massaroni said. "We worked hard to get to the sectionals."

Massaroni, who is in her fifth year on the varsity, has hit her way to some records. She has hit for a .300 or above average for five consecutive years. At the beginning of the season, she had about 50 extra-base hits and 114 hits. Fiato had not tallied up all of this year’s stats and added them to previous years.

But Massaroni, who will be going to the College of William and Mary in Virginia in the fall, wanted to cap her softball career in winning fashion after not going to the sectionals last year.
"I really wanted to go in my last year," she said. "This year, we want to go far and I think that we can go far."
"We won eight out of our last 11 games," Fiato said. "That helped us a lot. At sectionals, we want to win two games and go from there."

Sarah LaFave has been solid in the pitcher’s circle and the line-up has been hitting the ball and playing good defense.

Brittany Vogel, Brittany Creed, Massaroni, Jillian Blair, Alyssa Hatch, Kelsey DeZalia, Brittany Holcomb, and Rebekah Coons have started in most of the games this season. Jackie Moreau, Christina Abelseth, and Katie Chiseri have also contributed off the bench.
"We didn’t hit well today," Fiato said on Monday. "We didn’t make adjustments at the plate. But we are getting seven, eight, nine, 10 hits a game."

Massaroni hopes that hitting continues into sectionals.
"We’re not just going to play one game," she said. "We’re looking to go far in sectionals. Coach tells us it’s a new season and it seriously is. No one on this team wants to play one game.
"Senior year and making sectionals is awesome," Massaroni added. "All the seniors talked about it. We said, ‘We have to make it to sectionals.’ To go far is our major goal."