After playing one of their best games all season long, per Head Coach Brain McCarthy, albeit a 5-0 defeat to Fort Hamilton on Wednesday at the Parade Grounds, Millennium pounded out 15 hits en route to a lopsided 21-6 win over John Jay Campus Thursday at Prospect Park.
Sophomore shortstop Yairis De Jesus led the charge with a 4-5, four-RBI performance. Junior catcher Gianna Chiaino followed by going 2-2 with three RBI and three runs scored while freshman Samantha Santana enjoyed a 2-3 afternoon with two RBI, two runs scored, and two walks.
The Lady Phoenix (11-1) never trailed the Lady Jayhawks (6-3) in the contest, and held a comfortable lead throughout the tilt. It enabled McCarty to keep his backups, made of mostly underclassmen, in the contest, helping to prepare Millennium softball for the future.
“Yesterday, almost all of my older girls played the whole game because we played such a tough team (Tigers),” McCarthy explained. “So, today I started all the freshmen and sophomores, then they left early. They had another game to go to (outside league championship game). We were mixing and matching today.”
Moreover, it worked well.
This is the last year that the Lady Phoenix and John Jay will have separate sports programs, as they share the same building in Park Slope and will combine both teams into one high school sports entity.
But McCarthy said he sees it as a good thing for the overall softball program.
“It’s been good. I have a lot young talent to go with veteran leadership for next year,” he said. “We’re combining both programs to be one big team, and we’re also going to have a JV team next year. So, some of these girls will be on JV.
“It will be great for us to have a JV program because, in the past, we’ve had freshman that I I’ve kept that don’t get to play much for the first couple of years,” said McCarthy, who also coaches the girl’s varsity basketball squad. “And now, they’ll be able to develop on JV before coming up and contributing on varsity.”
Millennium returns to action on Monday at 4:00 p.m. against Bushwick Campus at the Parade Grounds.
With two games remaining to the regular season schedule for the Lady Phoenix, the PSAL has done away with playoffs this year due to COVID-19. The pandemic caused a late start to sports, and there is not enough time for a softball playoff scenario, according to sources.
— Jerry Del Priore
Brooklyn Sports World/NY NJ Sports World 