Mya Marelli homers, tosses 3-hitter as Riverhead snares title
Riverhead's Mya Marelli celebrates after hitting a two-run home run in the fifth inning during the Suffolk Class AAA softball championship against Sachem North on Saturday at Martha Ave. Field in Bellport. Credit: Neil Miller
Riverhead’s wait for a county title in softball is finally over.
Unsurprisingly, Mya Marelli had a big hand in bringing the trophy home.
The senior struck out 15 and allowed no earned runs in a three-hitter and smacked a two-run home run in No. 3 Riverhead’s 4-1 win over No. 2 Sachem North in the Suffolk Class AAA final Saturday at Martha Avenue Park.
Fresh off its first county title, Riverhead (20-3) will face Massapequa in the Long Island championship/regional final at 6 p.m. on Friday at Farmingdale State.
Marelli’s homer to centerfield gave Riverhead a 4-0 lead in the fifth. She had struck out in her prior two at-bats.
“I was struggling my first two at-bats,” Marelli said. “I felt like I was on it. To be able to just toe tap and swing through it, it felt so smooth.”
Amber Farruggia doubled to start the fifth and was pinch-run for by Eden Greenwood, who scored on a single by Madison Saladino to get Riverhead on the board. Jordyn Kwasna followed with a double off the leftfield fence to plate Saladino. Marelli took it from there.
“We were so tense the whole game and we just needed to relax,” Kwasna said. “We all took a deep breath before that inning and relaxed and had fun. That’s how we play our best.”
With two outs and two runners on in the sixth, Kwasna ran toward the centerfield fence, jumped and reached her arm out and behind her head to make a spectacular grab to rob Shannon Forgione of an extra-base hit.
“When I was little, I looked up to older girls and I was like, ‘I want to be them.’” Kwasna said. “Knowing that we made history and now the little girls will look up to us, it means so much to me.”
Delaney Mathes hit a double and Dani Brennan struck out seven for Sachem North (20-6).
Shaylee Bealey went 3-for-3 for Riverhead.
Marelli’s masterful performance in the circle comes just over a year after she suffered a small tear of the posterior labrum in her pitching shoulder. She returned to the circle on April 14 and was eased back into her role as the team’s ace. She threw a no-hitter against top-seeded Commack on Wednesday to advance to the final.
“In the beginning of the year, I definitely wasn’t as good as I know I can be,” Marelli said. “It was stressful. It feels really good to come back and be the same as I was because I was a little nervous that I would never get back to that point.”
Riverhead entered last year’s postseason as the No. 1 seed, but after Marelli’s injury, the Blue Waves lost two straight and were eliminated.
“It’s bittersweet because I wish those seniors last year got this opportunity,” coach Rich Vlacci Jr. said. “It was really cool that most of those seniors were here today rooting this team on. Feeling that defeat, that loss, especially someone like Mya not even having that chance last year and just battling back from that injury . . . I’m blessed to be able to coach not only her, but this whole team.”
Matt Lindsay is a high school sports reporter who joined Newsday in 2022 after graduating from Stony Brook University.
