Westhampton Beach's Freshman First-Timer Can Pitch

Westhampton Beach freshman Allie Parascandola showed no nerves despite being new to the circle, even after picking up her first loss her first time on the mound just four days earlier.

She struck out 11, and went 4-for-4 with two doubles, two RBI, and four runs to lead the Hurricanes to a 15-3 five-inning win over Amityville Monday, April 29. It snapped Westhampton’s (5-7 overall, 5-6 in League V) five-game losing streak.

“It definitely wasn’t my best game, but I think I did pretty good,” Parascandola said, smiling. “I wanted to be aggressive on the mound, and I wanted to settle on the plate, because there wasn’t the fastest pitching.”

Head coach Jeff Doroski had his freshmen and sophomores in to start the game, and said he saw good signs of what’s to come. He especially liked how his freshman, who played second base on varsity last year, handled herself on the mound.

“Allie is probably one of our better fielders, and I’ve taken her out of her comfort zone and thrown her in the circle this year, because she’s had some experience in the past, and threw strikes,” he said. “She hasn’t questioned it, she hasn’t blinked. She goes out there and competes, and I like that about her.”

After a 2-0 first inning it was slow going for the Hurricanes, who let in a run in the top of the next inning, then came away empty, despite loading the bases with no outs in the bottom of the second. Amityville (0-12, 0-11) scored another run in the top of the third for a 2-2 tie.

“Some days we look really good out there, and some days we don’t — we’ve been up and down all season,” Doroski said. “But they responded well. We were able to generate some runs, get the girls rounding the bases, and played some pretty decent defense.”

Westhampton broke out to a 9-2 lead after a seven-inning bottom of the third, highlighted by Parascandola’s two steals after a big shot to left before sophomore Alexis Valerius brought her home to give the Hurricanes a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Valerius also stole second and third before sophomore Olivia Jayne’s slam to left field two batters later plated her. Parascandola smacked one of her doubles later in the inning to score sophomore Elana Seltzer, and she crossed home plate on sophomore Melanie Meyer’s hit past third to finish the scoring for the inning.

“We’re leaving a little glimpse of the future,” Doroski said. “It’s a good group of girls, a good combination of some upperclassmen and underclassmen, and I think the experienced girls passing on what they know to the younger girls is going to help us going forward. They all work tremendously hard.”

While the Hurricanes continue to work on their consistency, Parascandola attested to how absorbing the knowledge her older teammates impart on her has changed things leaps and bounds.

“They’re my role models,” she said. “I want to emulate them. We have a really good infield and outfield.”

She added coming out with a big mercy win over a lower-level team helps. Westhampton travels to East Hampton (2-10, 2-9) May 1 for a 4:30 PM matchup before hosting Elwood-John Glenn (6-8, 3-8) on Senior Night May 6 at the same time.

“Winning these games gives us a big boost of confidence going forward,” Parascandola said. “But we have to buckle down on those tougher teams, because we’re going to have to win against the rest of them to make it to the playoffs.”

desiree@indyeastend.com