The Carle Place girl's varsity softball team tested their fans' hearts again by staging their second thrilling come-from-behind victory in as many weeks with an 8-7 win over a strong Great Neck South team last Wednesday. Frog pitcher Lauren D'Onofrio notched her ninth win as she shut down the Great Neck offense in the seventh inning after center fielder Laura Mila tripled with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, driving in right fielder Jessica Hart with what proved to be the winning run.

The Great Neck South Raiders jumped into an early lead, scoring one run in the second, but Carle Place battled back in the bottom half of the inning. A walk and stolen base by Jen Whitley followed by back-to-back singles by Kate McDonnell and Cristin Morrissey, gave the Frogs a 2-1 lead. Carle Place catcher Kelly Robertson took away the Raider running game early, cutting down base runners trying to steal second base in the first and third innings. Great Neck took a temporary lead in the fourth on a home run down the right field line, but the Frogs quickly tied the game as Kelly Robertson hit a thundering triple to deep left field and scored on Cristin Morrissey's second hit of the game.

The Raiders broke the game open in the top of the fifth inning as a combination of infield hits, walks and Frog errors led to five runs. Only a spectacular catch by Jessica Hart in deep right field prevented further damage. The outlook appeared gloomy when the Frog offense could not respond and ended the fifth inning down by five runs. Carle Place held Great Neck scoreless in the sixth, thanks to another Jessica Hart catch in deep right field, robbing the Raider's shortstop of a potential home run. Carle Place opened the bottom of the sixth with walks by Jen Whitley and Allison Holm, and then a single by Kelly Roberts to load the bases. The Frogs then unleashed their power. Kate McDonnell clared the bases with a triple to deep right center to close the gap to one run; Jessica Hart tied the game with a hard-hit double, scoring McDonnell, and Laura Mila hit a triple to deep right to score Hart with the go-ahead run.

In the seventh inning, the Raiders threatened once more, getting the first two runners on base. The Frog's put out the fire as Lauren D'Onofrio recorded her fifth strike out, Laura Mila caught a fly ball in center field and shortstop Jen Whitley stopped a hard-hit grounder, flipped it to Allison Holm at third forcing the lead runner and ending the game.

Great Neck South, which had only lost once this season, fell to 13 and 2.

Carle Place, with a league record of 10 and 4, has clinched a playoff berth in their second year of varsity level play.