Vestal powers past Corning for first STAC softball title in 37 years

Three home runs helped Vestal rally for a 7-3 victory over visiting Corning on Tuesday that gave the Golden Bears their first Southern Tier Athletic Conference softball championship since 1987.

The Golden Bears take an 18-0 record and No. 1 state ranking into the Section 4 Class AA championship game, but Tuesday was about celebrating conference supremacy. Beneath the five STAC championships commemorated on the back of the dugout was a taped-up sign with the message, "Your moment to own."

"This is pretty big for us," said senior shortstop Cat Petteys. "Coming to this season we kind of wanted to hit every milestone we could with this team because it’s a special one. We knew we wanted to get here and once we got here we wanted to take that big breath and be able to pull through when we needed to. It means a lot because we’ve got to continue that momentum going forward."

The 1987 championship came with Vickie Sax as head coach during an initial 13-year stint. Sax, back in that role at Vestal, told her players, "It's been a long drought, it's time."

More:NYSPHSAA Section 4 softball 2024 tournament pairings

Offensive Stars of the Game

Three big swings provided five Vestal runs. Down 3-0 in the third, Petteys got it going with a two-run homer on a first-pitch fastball after walking her first at-bat.

"I try to keep everything level-headed," she said. "I went into that at-bat thinking we’ve got a runner on base, this is the time to do it. I wasn’t looking to hit a home run obviously. I wasn’t expecting to see many good pitches, but I stepped in there and I was ready to hit every ball and that first pitch came and I knew what I had to do with it."

Lauren Policare followed with a tying homer on the next pitch.

After Vestal went up 5-3 with runs in the fourth and fifth, freshman Allie Policare came off the bench for a two-run homer that gave Vestal a 7-3 edge.

Kendall Brady, Chloe Burkhard, Adrienne Mayes and Maggie Costello had two hits each for Vestal.

Defensive Stars of the Game

Corning's typically aggressive base running and some sloppy Vestal defense led to a 3-0 Hawks lead after two innings. Two runs came home on a ground ball off the bat of Emelia Smith in the second inning.

Storer shut out Corning's 10 runs-per-game offense after that, closing with five shutout innings on a day she struck out nine and walked one.

"I thought she threw well," Corning coach Mike Johnston Jr. said. "When we get runners on we can make things happen. Philosophy-wise we’re a little bit different with our base running. But I thought Storer was really good on the mound today. Those last four or five innings she held us down a little bit and they made some plays. We hit the ball up the middle a couple times and Petteys came across and makes it look easy."

Sax said it was good for her team to have to respond to a deficit.

"We did the things we needed to do to overcome that and Reilly certainly did her part," Sax said. "She was doing it with pitching, we just needed to clean up the defense and we needed to get the barrel on the ball, be patient, wait for those good pitches and take care of them."

Both teams had multiple defensive gems. That included a running shoestring catch by Hawks center fielder Lauren DeRosa and a running outfield catch by Corning second baseman Kayleigh Sparks in which she narrowly avoided colliding with DeRosa.

Up Next

Both will play for Section 4 titles May 25 at Greenlight Networks Grand Slam Park in Binghamton. Times are to be determined.

Defending champion Corning (10-6) takes on second-seeded Elmira in the Class AAA sectional final. The Hawks are ranked 22nd in the state in AAA.

Vestal will meet either Union-Endicott or Horseheads in the AA final.

Follow Andrew Legare on Twitter: @SGAndrewLegare. You can also reach him at alegare@gannett.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today