Monties Crush O'Neill

By Frank Rizzo
MONTICELLO — May 19, 2000 -- Hard to believe, watching Monticello demolish James I. O’Neill 25-1 in Wednesday’s Orange County League (OCL) softball game, that Monticello had lost to the same team a month before.
With the National Conference Division I victory the Lady Panthers clinched a sectionals spot for the first time in their history.
“It’s nice to be on the other end,” said Monticello coach Ed Kaufmann. “I actually felt bad for the other guy (O’Neill coach Ted Shramek).”
In this, his ninth season as softball coach (four as assistant to Karen Atack, five as head coach), Kaufmann has seen his teams lose their share of lopsided games.
“I wasn’t trying to run [the score] up,” he reflected, “but [O’Neill] had to catch the ball.”
That was especially true in a disastrous (for the Red Raiders) second inning in which the hosts sent 21 batters to the plate and pushed 16 runs across.
At times, the visitors looked more like a modified team, making ludicrous mistakes (i.e. the catcher throwing the ball over the pitcher’s head on a return, allowing a Panther runner to score from third).
“I wasn’t anticipating that [outcome],” Kaufmann said. “They played us well down there. They had some nice hits, and they were catching balls, while we were dropping them.”
O’Neill edged the Panthers 7-6 last month in the first round.
Winning pitcher Analey Dietrich allowed four hits, walking one, and retired nine of the last 10 batters she faced. At the plate she had two hits and three RBI.
Kristi Beamer also had two hits while catcher Kim Donohue lashed a two-run double and Becky Sheerer also had two RBI.
Until last season, the Panthers never even came close to making the playoffs. A loss to Goshen in the last game of 1999 kept Monticello out.