With one Diocesan championship softball game down and at least one more to go, Janelle Boyd pleaded with her coach. She had only thrown 64 pitches in the mercy-shortened opener. She wanted to pitch Game Two.
“I was like, ‘Coach, come on, I want this, I got this, Coach,’” Boyd said.
“She begged me,” Maureen Rosenbaum said. “She was going on adrenaline.”
Rosenbaum gave in. And so Janelle Boyd, the Molloy pitcher who had given up no hits in five innings on Monday May 18, who had never given up a run to St. Francis Prep all year, who sings to herself as she pitches, began throwing again. One hour later, she was singing and screaming and hugging family members, celebrating the return of the Brooklyn-Queens title to Briarwood.
“Amazing. I just don’t have words to express it. I absolutely love my team,” she said.
Molloy won the first game of the best-of-three series by 12; the latter game, played moments later at Queens College, was a different affair. The score was tied at zero until the top of the eighth inning, when the “international tiebreaker rule,” which plants a runner at second base to start each team’s inning, came into effect.
Molloy, last year’s runner-up, bunted Julianne Keyes to third with the bat of Sheri Florio. St. Francis Prep, winners of last year’s crown, popped up to third with the bat of Alexandra Sobrino. The Stanners do the little things better than anyone, and their ability to advance the runner may have made the difference.
In Molloy’s half of the inning, Maria Palmeri followed with a double that reached the base of the centerfield wall, scoring Keyes from third. In Prep’s half, two more infield pop-outs squelched any rally of the Terriers’ own.
Palmeri, at first base, caught the final out, and became part of a high-pitched mob between the pitcher’s circle and home plate.
“It’s a rush. It gives you a rush,” Palmeri said.
“Last year we felt like they took the title away from us,” Rosenbaum explained.
Boyd threw 86 pitches in the second game, bringing her total for the afternoon to a neat 150. She struck out eight Terriers; when they made contact, they were typically confined to pop flies above the infield. Her intensity came to the fore when she reacted to a batter’s possible hit-by-pitch – or was it a foul ball? – by insisting, “She didn’t say ouch.”
“The kid’s got a lot of heart. She’s got a lot of guts,” said Ann Marie Rich, the opposing head coach.
