This week, we have highlights to share with you from JV softball, varsity softball, baseball, boys JV lacrosse and girls lacrosse. Coach Vitale, of the varsity girls softball team, has had to become creative with her lineup recently due to key injuries on her squad. Erin Cloughessy, the Mustang's senior captain first basemen, suffered a season ending fracture of her hand. A disappointment for sure, but senior captain Kim Rossi has stepped into the role at first base and as clean-up hitter. Kristina Zunno has been called up from the JV to fill Rossi's spot in the outfield. Coach Vitale has submitted these highlights of the first part of the season.

A third of the softball season is finished. The varsity team finished with a record of 2-3. After a disappointing loss to the defending champions Plainedge, the Mustangs defeated Roslyn 9-4. Leslee Brown went 2-4 with three stolen bases and two runs scored. Erin Cloghessy also went 2-4 with a double, two RBIs and one run scored. A combined offense gave Mineola six runs in the sixth after being down 4-3. Tara Georges pitched the game allowing two walks and nine strikeouts. Unfortunately, Sue Farrell was injured in the game resulting in several missed starts, but Erin Sanderleaf stepped up to work the "hot corner" at third base.

The next game against Seaford would be the most significant loss. Our senior, captain All-Division first basemen Erin Gloghessy would break her finger. This break ended her softball season. Again someone would have to step forward. Outfielder Kim Rossi, who has experience at first base, accepted the challenge. Kim would also replace Erin as the cleanup batter. Although we lost to Seaford 2-0 and with one day of batting practice (because of rain) we were off to Clarke HS with a new addition to the team, Kristina Zunno, who will be replacing Kim in the outfield with Laura Lupo. Heading into the sixth inning down 3-2, Clark tagged us for three runs and we lost 6-2.

However, Leslee kept on hitting and Tara kept on pitching and the combination spread because when we were back home against North Shore we beat them 9-2. Leslee is batting .444. Tara has compiled 38 strikeouts averaging 7.6 per game. Since moving to the fourth batting order, Kim Rossi is batting .428. Freshman Vicky Russo shines at second base and is a constant threat as the #2 batter and is currently batting .250. Maureen Cloghessy plays shortstop. Her range is quite impressive. She is beginning to use her bat as an added weapon, going 2-3 with two runs scored and an RBI vs. North Shore.

Mary Kate Tusinski plays rightfield. Her arm is accurate and strong. She has already thrown out a player at first base from rightfield, taking away their single. She has scored at least one run in four of our five games. Kerrin solidifies the outfield. She moved from leftfield to centerfield when Leslee went behind the plate. Kerrin is always putting the ball in play which allows our runners to advance bases. Playing the strongest pitchers in Nassau County, Kerrin has only struck out two times. She bats #3 in our line-up and is always a hitting threat.

Our second-third of the season will be our toughest. We will play top seeded Garden City and Island Trees followed by #3 seed and runners up in Nassau County finals in 1998 and 1999 MacArthur. As long as the Mustangs rise to each occasion we will be successful.

In JV softball action vs. Roslyn, the Mustangs scored 10 runs in the first inning as Kristina Zunno hit two homeruns, including a grand-small leading Mineola to a 20-11 victory. Other offensive stars on the day included: Cassandra Burk with a triple; Melissa Hock with a triple; and Melissa Fischetto with a double and she scored four runs. In the field, solid plays were made by Melissa Hock at third base, Kristina Zunno at shortstop, Rachelle Callahan and Alexandra Vega in the outfield, and Denise Fitzpatrick behind the plate. Jill Tognelli and Rachel Cohen combined to pitch a good game. Mineola's record is now 2-1.

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Behind the awesome play of their defense, the JV softball team defeated the MacArthur Generals by a score of 3-2. Lena Chacko led the fine defensive effort with a great catch from her centerfield position. Alexandra Vega and Kris Nuzzi played solid defense in left field and Rachelle Callahan and Kristen Raffetto each made a nice catch in right field. The Mustangs also turned a double play when Melissa Fischetto caught a line-drive and threw the ball to Cassandra Burke at first base to complete the double-play. Rachel Cohen scored the tying run and Melissa Hock scored the winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning, as Jill Tognelli was the winning pitcher.

After winning the season opener reported in last week's article, the Mustangs went on to lose two games against Plainedge 19-1 and 12-2. In the series with Plainedge the Mustangs committed 16 errors. Coach Bohringer's advice to the team would be to "forget these games ever happened." Bryan Gallucci did, however, hit his first varsity homerun in this series. We expect many more to come. In the fourth game of the season, Mineola hosted Bethpage and came away with a 3-2 win in a pitcher's duel that was won by Mustang junior Brian Sallie who through a three hitter to quiet the Bethpage bats. The two runs that Bethpage did score, were unearned and Brian notched four strikeouts in the effort. Billy Liakonis continued his excellent hitting and Bryan Gabriel added power with a triple of his own. With only four hits the Mustangs were able to come out with a win and a .500 record early in the season. The boys JV lacrosse team registered their first league win against Friends Academy with a score of 5-2. Tri-captains Joe Cerulli, Martin Loucas both had a goal along with Chris Williams and Steve Riccardi. The teams record is now 6-0, please come out and support the boys. With a record of 5-0, the Varsity Lady Mustangs played a league 1 cross over game against Cold Spring Harbor. Cold Spring Harbor is not in the Mustangs division but plays in the competitive league 1. The Mustangs came away with a loss, struggling to defend against an experienced Cold Spring Harbor transition game. In the end, the final was 17-9. Not a bad showing, a good experience for the playoffs.

The girls ventured up to Cold Spring Harbor to challenge the Lady Seahawks and found a very tough opponent. The team suffered its first loss of the season in a 9 to 17 outcome.

Though the loss was disappointing it was not as if anyone folded her tent and headed back to the bus early. At the half the team was facing a seven goal deficit with a score of 9 to 2. The girls fought back and were able to rally in the second half to keep pace with CSH by scoring seven of their eight goals.

This game was also important for the girls because it is a sneak peak at what they will see in the playoffs. As the competition shrinks, the contest gets tougher. The one big part of our game that was not working today was transition. We could not get the ball up to the offense to shoot. When we did get the chance we scored.

Today's game had some definite highlights; Mary Warren scored four goals and Katherine Hock scored three. Jamie Carter and Deena Vezo each tallied a goal apiece.

On defense, Lauren Anderson, on her birthday, had another stellar performance by limiting CSH's I. Roufanis to only one goal. Kate Nelson, Chloe Tonini, Theresa Dolan, Rachel Moston and Elena Nuzzi did a fine job shoring up the rest of the defensive picture. This game also saw the return of Vanessa Papidimitrios to the defensive squad. Her presence has been sorely missed in the defensive end.

In goal, Diane Macedo made 17 saves for a save percentage of 50.

Coming off the loss against CSH, the Lady Mustangs were undaunted in their quest to get back on a winning track. The girls played West Hempstead at home on April 11 and came away with an impressive 18-10 win.

The girls resumed their winning ways today. Today's contest, soggy but successful, saw the team defeat Conference 2 rival West Hempstead 18-10.

Katherine Hock took a strong hand in leading the offense, having a part in more than half of the team's points. Kat had six goals and four assists today. Vikki Montalbano, after missing one game due to a hip injury, put in four goals. Jamie Carter, Samantha Didrikson and Mary Warren each scored two goals apiece. Chloe Tonini and Deena Vezo rounded out the scoring picture with a goal apiece.

The big area of improvement for the team today was their passing game. The girls truly see the need for improving their passing game in order to have success in the post-season. This was evidenced by the fact that there were seven assists today, four by Kat Hock, two by Danielle Adams and singular assists by Jamie Carter, Theresa Dolan and Kristina Tsbasis.

On defense, long grass and slippery conditions exacted their toll. On the fast break, West Hempstead found their way to goal. Once the defensive unit could break up the fast break, West Hempstead found no offensive success.

Diane Macedo had another stellar performance in goal. She had 20 saves today for a save percentage of 67.

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Congratulations to the JV girls lacrosse team. They defeated West Hempstead by a score of 13-1. The leading scorer was Annie Marino with four goals, followed by Stephanie with three goals, Nicole Deoliveria and Maryanne Georgeou with two and Nancy Santos and Leanne Bohach each had one goal apiece.

The defense was led by Dianne Crowe, Jenn Pironne and Alyssa McAree. Christina Almazan and Patty Ober each had a fantastic game both on the field and in the goal.

The boys varsity lacross team is coached by Mr. Mark Miller. Coach Miller has submitted the following team highlights:

Mineola 3 - VS Central 4

On Friday, March 24, the Mustangs varsity lacrosse team hosted Conference A Valley Stream Central in a non-league game. In a defensive struggle, Mineola lost a disappointing one goal game 4-3 in overtime.

The Mustangs opened the scoring in the first quarter with a quick goal by junior midfielder Hernando Gauto assisted by junior Ricky Marques just 1:45 into the period. Central tied the score 1-1 with about four minutes left in the first period. They scored two more in the second quarter while keeping Mineola scoreless to take a 3-1 lead at the half.

Valley Stream's tight zone defense made it tough on the Mustangs the entire game while Mineola's aggressive man to man defense, led by senior captains Matt Antoniou and Matt Maier along with great play by junior goalie Pedro Oliveira (15 saves), made it equally tough on Central. The Mustangs defense didn't allow a goal the entire second half while the offense cracked their zone for two goals in the third quarter to knot the score at three apiece.

Junior attackman Drew Wachter came up big with two goals (unassisted) 48 seconds apart. After a scoreless fourth quarter the game went into sudden victory overtime. After only about one minute of the four minute overtime period a Central clearing pass eluded the Mustang defensemen and resulted in a disappointing loss. This game was very similar to last year's 5-4 loss with one second left on the clock. The Mustangs will look to bounce back against their next opponent, Elmont.

Mineola 4 - Elmont 6

Elmont High School visited Hampton St. Stadium on March 27 for the Mustangs' fourth non-league contest of the season. Once again Mineola came up against a zone defense, which they have trouble with, and ended up losing their fourth close game in a row 6-4.

At the end of the first quarter Mineola was down 3-1. Sr. captain Eugene Dolan scored (unassisted) for the Mustangs. The second quarter saw both teams score two goals apiece to bring the score at the half to 5-3. Scoring for Mineola were Dolan (his second, unassisted) and junior Steve Nofer's first goal of the season on a assist from junior Drew Wachter. After a scoreless third quarter, Eugene Dolan did his best to keep Mineola in the game by scoring his third of the day on an assist from Wachter to get the Mustangs close at 5-4. Elmont scored one more in the fourth for the final margin of victory, 6-4. Mineola's defense, led by junior goalkeeper Pedro Oliveira (17 saves on 23 shots) kept Mineola close. Mineola's offense must find a way to get more shots off (7) for the Mustangs to get into the win column.

Mineola 6 - Uniondale 0

The Mineola varsity lacrosse team is o-fer no more. On March 29, The Mustangs, with their 0-4 record, hosted Conference A Uniondale High School in a non-league contest and put up a 0 of their own by shutting out the visiting team 6-0 to earn their first victory of the season.

After a scoreless first quarter the Mineola offense got untracked and exploded for four goals. Sr. captain Eugene Dolan started things off by scoring just 33 seconds into the quarter (unassisted). Jr. midfielder Paul Bispo followed suit just 24 seconds later with one of his own (unassisted). Dolan added another one as well as junior attackman Drew Wachter on an assist from Dolan to bring the score at halftime to 4-0.

A solid effort by the entire team led to the Mustang's first win. Mineola's defense led by Sr. captains Matt Antoniou and Matt Maier along with junior Rick DiCandia and long stick middie junior John Murphy and junior goaltending Pedro Oliveira limited Uniondale to only five shots and a goose egg. Mineola's attack unit of junior Ricky Marques, Wachter and junior Steve Nofer along with midfielders Dolan, Bispo, junior Hernando Gauto, junior Anil Pamnani and junior Andre Mendes controlled the flow of the game by gaining possession on 72 ground balls and more than doubling our shot output from the last game.

Mineola added two more goals in the fourth quarter to bring the final score to 6-0. Ricky Marques scored his first goal of the season on an assist from Drew Wachter who then scored his second of the day on an assist from Dolan. Mineola will try to improve on its record against its next opponent, another Conference A school, Freeport.

Mineola 2 - Freeport 5

On Friday, March 31, Mineola hosted Conference A school Freeport in their sixth and last non-league contest. In a recurring theme, Mineola once again played a very close and competitive game only to come out on the short end of a 5-2 score.

The Mustang defense was once again superb led by senior captains Matt Maier and Matt Antoniou along with junior goaltender Pedro Oliveira (11 saves) and long stick middie junior John Murphy.

Junior Drew Wachter scored both of Mineola's goals. His first in the opening quarter to take a 1-0 lead and his second in the third quarter to tie the score at 2-2. You can't play in your defensive end the majority of the time and expect to come out on top. Having only 13 players and costly penalties caught up to the Mustangs in the fourth quarter with them letting up three goals for a final score of 5-2. The Mustangs opened their league schedule on Friday, April 7, at Friends Academy.

As the spring season moves along, the Booster Club is actively preparing for its end of year activities. Camp scholarships are being assembled, new officers are being selected, the awards banquet is being planned, and most importantly new members are being sought. We all lead busy lives in this new millennium, but there are few excuses for not getting involved in a very successful organization like the Mineola Athletic Booster Club. We meet once a month and we don't ask that you take on more than is reasonable. All we ask is that you join us in supporting the athletic endeavors of our students. We assure you that you will meet a great group of people with one goal in mind, to give the student athletes of Mineola all the support that they need and deserve. Please join us! Our next and last meeting of the year is on Tuesday, May 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the high school library. Please give it a try. Hope to see you there.