It wasn't the prettiest no-hitter ever thrown, but it was a dominating performance nonetheless, as Clarkstown North's Danielle DeStaso struck out 17 in the Rams' 2-1 win in a Class AA first round game at No. 6 seeded Clarkstown North.
DeStaso allowed an earned run on no hits with 17 strikeouts. She walked five and hit a batter. It was her first ever varsity no-hitter and it came at the perfect time.
She cruised through four innings before issuing back-to-back walks in the fifth inning with two outs. With a runner on first and second, she struck out Scarsdale's Zoe Blumenthal to end the inning.
She found herself in trouble once again in the sixth inning after walking the bases loaded and hitting a batter to bring in Rachel Halperin. With two outs and a full count, the Raiders let another opportunity go to waste, as DeStaso escaped with a strikeout to end the threat.
DeStaso regained her command in the seventh inning and shut the door on the Rams' victory as she struck out the side.
Amanda Cooper helped out her pitcher in the fifth inning with a clutch single up the middle that scored Lauren Navarro and made the score 2-0 at the time.
Thoughts after the game:
Danielle DeStaso
"I had one rough inning where they stopped calling strikes and I wasn't even missing, I don't really know what happened there, but I threw a no-hitter with someone scoring so that's a new one.
"It was a good team win. It wasn't all just me. They made the plays behind me and had my back."
On the pitching-catching relationship with Laura Brennan: "We call the game together. We definitely know what each other wants. If I do shake her off, she knows what I'm looking for. I've never had to shake her off continuously, she tends to know exactly what I want if I do shake her off. That relationship has grown over the past two years. She knows what I like now and we know what the teams may not be able to hit before the game because we plan before the game."
Amanda Cooper:
"We knew that we were eliminated from them our sophomore year, so we knew we had to come in strong and get redemption.
"It hit us around the fifth inning that we knew she was having a no-hitter. And then when the ump wasn't giving her calls it started to frustrate us a little bit. But she came out with the W and no one hit her which was incredible.
"There's always pressure for (the defense) because we want to backup our pitcher. That's what we are here for to backup our pitcher and make no mistakes."
Scarsdale coach Dave Scagnelli:
"It comes down to making things happen with runners in scoring position. I give their pitcher a lot of credit. A kid who pitches and gets 21 outs and 17 strikeouts, that's as good a pitcher as we've faced all year."
"But I tell our girls all the time, our job is to bring the tying run up to the plate. At any point in the game anything can happen. You see with the bases loaded, she's cruising along on a no-hitter and she ends up hitting a batter. We steal a run there and the full count pitch was a borderline pitch that I tell our girls don't leave it up to the umpire because things can happen when the bat gets taken out of your hands."
"To lose eight seniors and have a 12-5 record and have these girls come up from our tournament program and make an impact…Having three freshmen starters and two sophomores and do what we did, I'm extremely pleased not with where we are this year, but where we can be next year in our program."
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