Poland prepares for state softball semis

POLAND - A brilliant year for girls athletics at Poland High School wraps up this weekend with the softball squad competing in New York's state softball tournament on the east side of Long Island.

Poland's Tornadoes, Section III softball champions for the first time since 1991, are one of the four teams remaining for the Class D bracket at the Moriches Athletic Complex.

"They're used to winning. They're used to having these adventures, for lack of a better word," third-year coach Erin Meeker said of the team that has given Meeker her first sectional title at her alma mater. "Besides the obviously physical play, it's the mental maturity that they bring. They know what they have to do."

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The coach went to an example from the team's 7-0 regional playoff win Saturday night in Syracuse. Shelbi Hagues, the Tornadoes' pitcher and leadoff hitter was at third base when Sarah Zuchowski hit a pop fly down the left field line. The opposing shortstop caught the ball in foul territory for the out.

"I turned to yell to (Hagues) but she was already tagging up and heading for home."

Hagues and Zuchowski are two of three senior starters who have played in Section III's last three Class D championship games; Logan Cookinham is the third.

Several players were also part of Poland's first girls basketball championship team in the winter, and the soccer team was a state champion in 2019 and runner-up in 2021.

The team seemed loose playing Wiffle Ball in the school's old gym Tuesday afternoon, an opportunity to get an indoor workout and unwind after a day of tests at school.

"They know how to work hard," Meeker said. "When game time comes, they buckle down."

Even at a relaxing practice, the competitiveness shows through.

"For a lot of them, it carries over to the classroom, too," Meeker said. "They have the competitive nature. They want to do well. They've had success and they want more.

"I know how hard they work and how bad they want it."

Last Chance

"The seniors are not ready to be done yet," Meeker adds, wondering what this group might have done had its freshman athletic year not been mostly shut down and two years of state playoffs canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. "This senior group lost out on a whole year. You wonder if we went back what would have happened."

That time has passed. The upcoming weekend remains and that is where the focus lies.

"This is probably the biggest weekend of my sports career at Poland," said Cookinham, the school's career basketball scoring leader and the 2021 state player of the year in soccer. "Win this or go home. It would be great to finish it off with a state championship."

Cookinham missed the start of the softball season with a knee injury suffered in Poland's regional basketball playoff loss. Softball practice started the Monday after that loss in Potsdam. Cookinham was out for the season's first two games of the season and the team adjusted.

"We've really come together as a team this season," Hagues said. "We;ve been building all through the season and it's all coming together at the perfect time in the postseason."

"We're going down there as a team," she added, "and hopefully bringing home the state championship."

The Tornadoes departed by bus following school Wednesday, sent off by their schoolmates with a march through the halls at the end of a day that saw players completing as many as four final exams rescheduled to accommodate the trip. Administrators signed off on the early departure with the team facing a five-hour bus trip ahead of an event that includes scheduled Thursday practice sessions at the site.

Poland's Path

Poland entered postseason play seeded seventh for the Section III playoffs and has won five consecutive games, matching its season-high from the start of the year.

The current streak includes wins over Oriskany, the runner-up in last year's state tournament and a team that had beaten Poland twice during the regular season, West Canada Valley, ranked fifth in the state and the team that had ended Poland's earlier win streak, and Edwards-Knox, the Section X champion with returning second-team all-state pitcher Cady Wheat.

At a longer glance, the Tornadoes (17-4) have won nine of their last 10 games and have not allowed more than three runs in any game during that stretch; they have allowed two runs in their five postseason wins.

"It's been great just playing with this team," Zuchowski said. "You think back and we played that final on our home field at the end of a weird season (in 2021). Now we're playing on and going to Long Island. We just want to make it memorable."

Who Else Is There?

Section IV champion Deposit/Hancock (21-2) is the reigning state champion, having beaten Oriskany 8-1 in last year's title game. Dan Briggs was last year's coach of the year in Class D, as selected by the New York State Sportswriters and Coaches Committee for Girls Sports, and pre-merger Deposit won four of five state titles before the tournament's two-year coronavirus hiatus. Kaitlyn McCumber returns as one of the team's three first-team all-state selections last year.

Scio/Friendship (19-1) from Section V also returns from last year's Final Four when the Golden Eagles were beaten by Deposit/Hancock in the semifinals. Scio/Friendship gets Poland as this year's opponent and enters the tournament with 14 consecutive victories dating back to April 24. Junior pitcher Naveah Ross was a first-team all-state pick last spring while Morghyn Ross was a third-teamer as an eighth-grader.

Section II Salem (11-10), Deposit/Hancock's semifinal opponent, is a first-time semifinalist and pushed its record over the .500 mark with Saturday's 4-2 regional win over Section VII Bolton/Schroon Lake.

Game Times

The Class D semifinals will be played on separate fields at 1 p.m. Friday. The rest of the semifinals are Class A at 10 a.m., AA at 3:30 p.m., B at 4 p.m., C at 6 p.m.

The Class D final will be played Saturday at 11:30 a.m., the second game to start following Class A at 11 a.m.

Robert Zayas, executive director of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association, released a statement on Twitter Tuesday addressing upstate air quality issues brought on by Canadian wildfires.

"We are closely monitoring the air quality issue," he tweeted, adding, "at this time, there are NO changes to this week’s state championship schedules."

Poland moved practice indoors Tuesday.

Zayas' tweet indicated any changes would be announced through social media.

This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Poland softball team heads to Long Island for Class D Final Four