by Mike Merolle
The Half Hollow Hills softball community rallied together on Friday for their second annual autism awareness game against the Whitman Warriors. The combined teams of Hills West and Hills East set up a stand selling food and t-shirts to raise money for their Best Buddies prom. Best Buddies is a program in Hills East High School where special needs students are paired with other students creating friendships.
Half Hollow Hills’s head coaches Kerry Guarriello and Sal Trovato honored two students with autism before the game. One of them, a Hills East senior named Brian Marcelin, threw out the first pitch which was met with heavy applause.
Guarriello spoke to Axcess Baseball about the significance of the charity game and the cause. “When I first started at Hills East, I had four students in my program. No one wanted to talk to them, no one wanted to look at them. Now there’s 24 students in the program and everyone wants to be around the kids,” said Guarriello. “I’ve been in the field for many years and they’re all my children.”
The highly anticipated game started with both teams’ starting pitchers having solid outings pitching all seven innings. Lucy Feigenbaum was on the mound for Half Hollow Hills and Kaitlyn Magerle pitched for Whitman.
Whitman struck first in the second thanks to Ari Aramburu’s RBI double. Lucy O’Loughlin drove in Aramburu on an RBI single making it 2-0 Whitman. Whitman’s third run of the inning was scored after Vanessa Ramsaran hit an RBI single. Ramsaran also stole a base in the second inning.
Half Hollow Hills began to chip away at the deficit in the bottom of the fourth. Ava Blasi scored from second on a fielder’s choice to score Half Hollow Hills’ first run of the day. Whitman increased their lead in the top of the sixth with Riley McDonnell’s two-run double. Half Hollow Hills’ Emma Meenan responded in the bottom of the frame with a sacrifice fly but it was not enough as Whitman won 5-2.
Magerle got her second win of the season allowing four hits and striking out three on the mound.
Nonetheless, it was a good day for Half Hollow Hills despite the loss. “The amount of acceptance from the community is huge and [it] never would’ve happened before if we didn’t push the cause,” said Guarriello.
