Lady Knights prepare for RKA

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Ever since suffering their lone defeat of the season, a 9-5 loss to the David A. Stein Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy (M.S./H.S. 141, RKA) on April 21, the John F. Kennedy Campus girls’ softball team has simply gone about its business. Translation: they piled up more wins all while keeping an eye on the schedule for its next date with RKA.

Since that loss, Kennedy has taken out its frustrations on Evander, which the Lady Knights drilled 27-1, Roosevelt High School, which went down 18-4, and Albert Tuitt High, which became Kennedy’s latest victim in a 19-1 loss to the Lady Knights on April 29.

You would think after yet another lopsided victory in a mercy-ruled shortened game, the Lady Knights and their coaching staff would be in high spirits as they upped their record to 10-1 on the season. But the victory over Tuitt was actually little more than a glorified workout for the Lady Knights, who had most of their attention focused on Wednesday, May 4 — the return date with RKA.

“Every practice we are preparing for RKA,” Kennedy head coach Keith Mansfield said. “They’re our rival now and they will be our rival for years to come and right now that’s how it is lined up. Riverdale is our best competition and we’re just preparing for them.”

In their tune-up for RKA, the Lady Knights sent 17 batters to the plate in the first inning against Tuitt and scored 13 runs to quickly take any drama out of the contest. JFK did spot Tuitt a run in the top of the first, but after scoring 13 in their half of the inning, the Lady Knights added three more in the second inning, a pair of runs in the third and another run in the fourth before the mercy rule kicked in and Tuitt was done after four and a half innings.

The big blows in the game came from winning pitcher Stacy Hernandez, who homered and drove in six runs in the victory. Junior shortstop Kim Zapata also homered and drove in four runs, Johanna Li Duran added three RBI and Skye Muniz had two hits and knocked in a run.

A win is a win for JFK, but it was hard for the team to get too excited with their latest blowout victory, especially when their thoughts have long since been focused on Wednesday’s rematch with unbeaten RKA (10-0).

Motivational force

“We use that loss to RKA as motivation so whenever someone messes up or we play in games like this, we tell each other ‘Pretend it’s RKA and play with your all,’” said Muniz, one of JFK’s captains. “They are our motivation and our rivals.”

The rivalry between the two schools happened in a hurry. RKA was playing in the PSAL ‘A’ Division last season and did not meet JFK, a member of the PSAL ‘B’ Division, during the season. But this year RKA moved from the ‘A’ to the ‘B’ and the two schools separated by about a mile have now become archrivals. There is no bad blood between the two schools — but lots of respect.

“We don’t lose often. But they were definitely a great challenge for us and we are looking forward to playing against them again,” Muniz said. “We like to be challenged, but we do give credit where credit is due and their pitcher [Samantha Torres] is amazing. We started off a little slow that last game but we’ll see them again soon and I’m sure it’s going to be a battle.”

Torres struck out 14 Lady Knights in the first meeting but Muniz thinks JFK will have a much better approach to RKA’s stellar senior righthander in Wednesday’s rematch.

“We now know what speed we’ll be up against and we’ve practiced some little fundamentals we need to work on in the field,” Muniz said. “I think we’re in pretty good shape for our next game against them. But it should be a great game. We had the same record going into that last game, we were both 7-0, and it was an intense game. It was kind of familiar to the way it was last year with Roosevelt when they were our biggest rivals. This year Roosevelt is not our rival, it’s RKA. So it’s going to get very interesting the rest of the season. But I definitely feel we are prepared. Our weakness is we try to feel out the other team early in the game so we have to go in ready and we know what to expect.”

Losing has not been a common occurrence for these Lady Knights. Two seasons ago they reached the PSAL ‘B’ semifinals and last season Mansfield’s team made it to the championship game where the Lady Knights lost by a run to Roosevelt. So Mansfield thinks his team is ready for a rebound.

Eye on the prize

“I think these girls understand we’re not here to win a division. We’re here to win a championship,” Mansfield said. “Our goal is to win a championship. That’s our goal from the beginning of the season so that loss to RKA was a wakeup call. No loss is a good one but that loss was kind of a good loss. We’re working harder now and we should be more focused and prepared.”

The rematch is slated for Wednesday at Riverdale Playground at 3:30 p.m. A victory by RKA would give the Tigers a two-game lead in the division with just four to play so JFK knows what is at stake going into this heavyweight bout.

“We’re all looking forward to it,” Muniz said. “It should be a great game.”

RKA, Keith Mansfield, JFK campus, Sean Brennan

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