VOORHEESVILLE — It all came down to one inning. That is all it took to end the season for the Voorheesville softball team on Friday. One inning in the Class B Section II quarterfinals.

The Blackbirds, who were seeded ninth, matched the number-one seed, Chatham, for six of the seven innings played at the South Colonie Athletic Facility.

The fifth inning, especially the bottom half, will be one that won’t be remembered fondly in Voorheesville, as Chatham scored four runs in the frame to win 4-0.
"It was a tough inning," said Voorheesville Coach Matt Fiato. "We misplayed a couple of balls. We make those nine out of 10 times. We make those in our sleep."

Chatham and Voorheesville waged a scoreless war for the first four-and-a-half innings of the contest. In the bottom of the fifth, the Panthers were looking to scrap together any kind of rally they could.
"Both teams were looking to generate one run," Fiato said after Friday’s game. "They got three on one play. And then we had a play at the plate that was close. Offensively, we did not have it today. Give their pitcher credit."
"They made the plays"

The Blackbirds managed just four hits in the contest. Brittany Creed, Jillian Blair, Brittney Vogel, and Kelsey DeZalia each had a single against Chatham pitcher Brianna Diskin.

Diskin was also backed up by a solid defense.
"They made the plays today," Fiato said. "They did what they had to do today."

All Chatham had to do was get one run across the plate. And they tried desperately to do it in the fifth inning.

After a lead-off walk, Diskin bunted a ball that appeared to roll foul, but the umpire ruled that the ball was touched by Blair, the Voorheesville catcher, and Diskin was safe at first.

With runners on first and second base, Blackbird pitcher, Sarah Lafave, struck out the next batter. Then the next batter, the speedy Rachel Joseph, dropped down a bunt and beat out a throw to first base to load the bases.

Jen Minahan, the next batter, hit a ground ball that got through two players for an error and Meg Bartholomew scored from third base to give Chatham the lead.

Samantha Teator then smacked a triple to left field that cleared the bases and added three runs to the Chatham lead.

Voorheesville could not put together a comeback in its final two at bats; Chatham advanced in the tournament and Voorheesville was eliminated.
"It certainly was a bad time for the bats to go away," Fiato said. "We were hitting over .300 as a team. This is the first time that I can remember that we had so few hits. We only had three I think today and we had six hits on Wednesday. The bats left us."

Beating Hudson

Voorheesville won their first round playoff game last Wednesday, 4-1, over Hudson.
"We played well," Fiato said of that contest. "Our bats were asleep and also we sneaked in some runs. But we left a lot on base."

The Blackbirds left 10 runners on base in the contest.

DeZalia had a single, triple, and scored a run for Voorheesville. Alissa Hatch had two singles and also scored a run.

LaFave pitched all seven innings and had 11 strikeouts in the contest.

The win over Hudson set up a game with the top-seeded Chatham squad.
"We were okay with playing the one seed," Fiato said. "We knew that we could beat them. We were confident that we could move on. I don’t think we played that bad. They just made a couple of more plays that we didn’t."

"A very good season"

Voorheesville finished with a 9-7 record in the Colonial Council and 12-10 overall during the regular season.
"It was a very good season," Fiato said. "We had six seniors that really thought that, when sectionals started, we could make a nice run at the Class B title. I thought we had everything we needed."

Jenna Massaroni, Blair, Rebekah Coons, Jackie Moreau, Brittany Holcomb, and LaFave all are seniors. Massaroni is a fifth-year member of the varsity and Blair was on the varsity squad for four years. LaFave was the starting pitcher for the past two and was a back-up her sophomore year.
"This is a great group of girls," Fiato said. "They respect each other and the younger girls looked up to the seniors. We will have to rebuild around the six seniors."