By The TimesLedger
The Our Lady of the Snows CYO seventh-grade girls’ softball team dealt neighborhood rival St. Gregory’s their first loss of the season, as OLS rallied to a 9-6 win.
OLS jumped out on top, as Angie Campana and Sue Garrett scored on a fielder’s choice and an error in the top of the first. Two OLS errors in the bottom of the inning helped St. Greg’s narrow the lead to 2-1, as Courtney Kennedy scored on a base hit by Heather Ryan. Vanessa Zampelli continued her torrid home run hitting with a drive to right field to give OLS a 3-1 lead in the third. Danielle Cervantes started things for Snows in the fourth on a line drive base hit to left and scored on Brittney Wallace’s well-executed bunt down the third base line. St. Greg's catcher Jackie Rafferty dove for ball hit in front of the plate and managed to record an out, but was injured on the play. Susan Harrington replaced Jackie and handled the catching duties for St. Greg's for the remainder of the game.
With two outs and no one on in the St. Greg’s fourth Vanessa Zampelli failed to hold onto what should have been the third out. St. Greg’s capitalized with Christina Connors’ help, Jessica Hurley, Kelly Sheils and Caitlin Clarke scored to tie the game at 4-4. In the fifth, Snows’ Sue Garrett walked and scored the go-ahead run on Amanda Tolento’s infield single, but St. Greg’s came right back and took their first lead of the game on a two-run home run by Catie Massowd.
Snows answered the challenge in the top of the sixth on base hits by Shannon Moran, Krissy Amorese and Brittney Wallace to take a 7-6 lead. Kathy Culp hit a long drive to left field in a bid for a home run, but Katie Cascio hauled it in to end the OLS rally. Sue Garrett and Angie Campana made sparkling defensive plays at shortstop and second base to retire St. Greg’s in order in the home sixth. Vanessa Zampelli, Nicole Bavaro and Amanda Tolento began the seventh inning with base hits and Kathy Culp drove in the final run to give OLS a 9-6 lead which they would not relinquish.
Nicolette Viglietta made the defensive play of the game for OLS with a charging catch of a hard line drive into right-center field. Lauren Marino and Megan Brosnan split the catching duties, while Krissy Amorese pitched brilliantly to pick up the complete game win.
On Saturday at PS 213 in Bayside, OLS improved their third place record to 8-5 with a 14-2 defeat of American Martyrs. Brittney Wallace, Nicole Bavaro, Shannon Moran, Nicolette Viglietta, Megan Brosnan and Kathy Culp had first inning hits to stake Snows to a 5-0 lead. Nicole Bavaro hit what appeared to be a long home run in the second, but was called out on appeal for missing third base. Nicole’s hard line drive hit in the third drove home Lauren Marino with another run and she scored, as Krissy Amorese and Amanda Tolento followed with base hits. Angie Campana led off the OLS fifth with her first home run of the season and Krissy Amorese belted a home run for the final OLS tally.
Snows’ SubNovice girls continue to shine
Julia Hannigan belted a grand slam home run to right field to lead her team in Sunday’s game versus St. Sebastian’s of Woodside. Julia and Kaitlin Smolen both pitched well for Our Lady of the Snows. Nicolette Pullo, Jen Brosnan, Katie Graham, Angela Chavez, Jessica Olwell, Carly Farrone, Dusty Bauer and Sarah Correa contributed to another good team effort with their hitting, base running and fielding.
