The Eastchester softball team may have been stringing together victories as of late, but few finishes on the season have been as gratifying—or dramatic—as the one they pulled out on Monday afternoon. Trailing visiting Ardsley by two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Eagles got a huge lift off the bat of Alyssa Peduto, as the freshman smacked a three-run walk-off homer to give the Eastchester a 5-4 win over the Panthers—the team’s sixth straight triumph.

Stepping to the plate with nobody out and the tying run on second base, Peduto admitted after the game that she wasn’t looking for the long-ball, but knew she had won the game for her team as soon as she connected with the offering from Panther pitcher Sofia Haber. 

“I was just looking to put it in play; but [off the bat] I knew it was a home run,” said Peduto. “Going around the bases was just pure happiness.”

Eastchester head coach Pat Gallo said he was confident in the freshman’s ability to come through in the big moment, leading him to scrap any ideas of calling for a bunt to help the Eagles even the score. 

“That’s a situation where we could squeeze twice, play to tie it up, but I felt like she was right there [against Haber],” explained Gallo. “She’s been so consistent for us all year long, I just said ‘We’re gonna hit away.’”

That the Eagles were even in a position to win the game may have been somewhat surprising given the early dominance of Ardsley’s Haber. Haber breezed through the first inning, striking out three batters on nine pitches, and was in control of a 3-0 lead until Michelle Tiso was able to single in a run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Gianna Peduto cut the Panther lead to one run in the sixth with a solo blast, but the Panthers scratched out another run in the top of the seventh to head into the final frame with a two-run lead. 

Gallo credited Eagles’ pitcher Ava Hunn—and the team’s adjustments at the plate—as major factors in keeping the game within striking distance. 

“Ava has been phenomenal for us all year and she really kept us in the game,” Gallo said. “I don’t think we were focused at the plate early on [against Haber] but you could see girls started to settle in as the game went on.”

Eastchester has now won six straight games after dropping four of its first five in the early-goings of the season. Gallo believes that the win streak has been dependent largely on his young team simply gaining more experience at the varsity level. 

“We have a few freshmen, four sophomores, it’s a lot of these kids’ first year on a varsity team and we had a bit of a rocky start,” said Gallo. “But I think they’ve started to gain confidence, especially after we got a huge win Harrison [on April 12], that’s really when things turned for us.”

The Eagles (7-4) will look to keep the winning streak going this week as they take on Ursuline, Rye and Mamaroneck, after press time. The Koalas topped Eastchester 5-2 back on April 9, but Peduto said that the team has made obvious strides since its last loss three weeks ago. 

“We work well together as a team, everyone is making noise, cheering everyone on,” she said. “Everyone has each other’s back.”

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