By Anthony Bosco
After close to a week of sitting idle, The Mary Louis Academy varsity softball team simply couldn’t turn it on when needed, losing in the Catholic High School Athletic Association city championship game Monday evening at Moore Catholic on Staten Island, 8-0.
The Mavericks’ starting pitcher Lauren DeCarlo kept the Hilltoppers in check all game long, facing the minimum 21 batters and allowing just two meaningless hits. The Hilltoppers never threatened to score, while the host team got timely hit after timely hit off starter Stephanie Gozdziewski.
“Normally we’re a much better hitting team than this,” said Mary Louis coach Steve Contino. “We came out a little flat. We had some good workouts, but such a lull between the state game and this game, you wait so long, it hurts us. We were on a pretty good roll, we were hitting the ball well, but we just didn’t come out hitting.”
Neither team did much in the first inning, but Mary Louis managed to get the lead runner on when Erin Breen singled to center. Jennifer Flynn followed with a picture-perfect sacrifice bunt, but Breen ventured too far off second on the play and was tagged out. Lorina Lana bounced back to DeCarlo ending an inning that started promising without incident.
The Hilltoppers weren’t as lucky in the bottom of the second, when Vicky Kahmann walked to lead-off the frame and Michele Mazza followed with a single through the left side. DJ Ketchell’s sac bunt moved the runners over to second and third, setting up Liz Trainor's two-run single to right.
Trainor moved into scoring position on a wild pitch, but went no further, as Gozdziewski got Nicole Riili to pop out and fanned DeCarlo to end the inning.
“They are a very good team, very fundamentally sound,” Contino said of Moore Catholic. “They made all the plays. They are well-coached and very disciplined.”
Moore Catholic’s “pitching was very good, the defense was very good and they hit the ball really well,” the coach added.
DeCarlo struck out the side in the top of the third and the Mavericks doubled their lead in the bottom half, as Ashley Fragale walked, Christine D’Arpa doubled and Brianne Russo hit a sac fly to right. D’Arpa came home when Kahmann bounced out to short.
After another 1-2-3 top of the inning, Moore brought home two more in the fourth. Gozdziewski gave up another lead-off walk to Ketchell and also walked Riili with one out. A wild pitch moved the runner up and Christine Knuth singled to center to score both as the Mavericks went up 6-0.
DeCarlo struck out the side again in the fifth and sixth innings and Moore went up 8-0 in the bottom of the sixth, as Knuth lead off with a bunt single past third baseman Liz Strein and D’Arpa walked with one out. The runners advanced when Russo grounded out to third and came around to score on Kahmann’s two-out single.
Mary Louis managed two base runners in the top of the seventh, but with one out, a pick off play resulted in a bizarre double play to end the game.
The Hilltoppers end the season with the Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan championship and having finished second in the city and third in the state. And though the season concluded with back-to-back losses, the team’s coach could not hide his pride in the team.
“I’m very proud of them,” Contino said. “They won 24 games, they won the Brooklyn/Queens. This is a team that last year didn’t make the playoffs.
“I got seven starters coming back,” he added. “I got a very good junior varsity that won the city’s, so I’m looking forward to that.”
Reach Sports Editor Anthony Bosco by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 130.
