Dani Roselli’s two-run blast gives Division win over Bellmore JFK

Division's Dani Roselli homers during a Nassau softball game where Division defeated Bellmore JFK, 4-3, on April 18, 2018. Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
Call it the Fence of Dreams. If you build it, she will clear it.
Dani Roselli has hit so many home runs that a fence was built at Division, just so the junior slugger cant simply jog out her long blasts.
“They built that because of her,” Division coach Dave Radke said, pointing to the fence that extends from centerfield to the leftfield line and has the words “Lady Dragons” in white letters on the blue canvas wall. It’s an extension of the fence that always has been there in right-center and right.
The old right-centerfield fence is the one that Roselli cleared with a runner on in the second inning Wednesday that provided the winning margin in Division’s 4-2 victory over Bellmore JFK in a Nassau ABC I/II crossover game.
“It’s awesome to have that fence,” said Roselli, who leads Nassau with seven home runs after belting six in both her freshman and sophomore seasons. “I think I’ve hit two over it already.”
Roselli’s homer a four-run inning for the Blue Dragons (4-3). Delaney Haley drove in the first run with an infield grounder and Haley Giles knocked in the second one on an infield single that preceded Roselli’s blast that made a winner out of impressive eighth-grade lefthander Alyssa Weinberg, who struck out 14 in a complete game that had several stressful moments.
She surrendered two-out singles to Kaitlyn Judd and Morgan Tesser in the fifth, but retired Randi Finkelstein on a fly ball to right to protect a 4-1 lead. Things got even more tense when Bellmore JFK (4-3) began the seventh inning with singles by Azaria Vargas and Amanda Maffucci. With one out, Tesser delivered an RBI hit and Weinberg issued a two-out walk to put the tying runs on.
Danielle Polirer, who pitched four innings of scoreless relief, lined out to short to end the game. “Alyssa wasn’t tired. They just have real good hitters and they battled,” Radke said. “I had confidence in her. We were going to win or lose the game with her.”
Weinberg struck out the side in the second and sixth innings and struck out at least two batters in every inning but the seventh, relying on a rising fastball or darting curve. “She throws hard and throws all of her pitches at basically the same speed,” Radke said. “But she has a lot of movement on the ball.”
Roselli, the Blue Dragon’s first baseman, said Weinberg’s strikeouts and poise, “definitely give us a lift.”
Kind of a like a home run over the fence.