By Laura Amato
It was a season to remember for the Mary Louis Academy softball team.
It was also a postseason the Hilltoppers would like to forget.
Mary Louis Academy dropped back-to-back games in the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens tournament, including a 5-2 season-ending loss to Fontbonne Hall May 18, sending the top-seeded Hilltoppers packing far earlier than any of them had planned.
“We had a great season, we didn’t have a great week, but we had a great season,” Mary Louis coach Rob Elkins said. “You take back two or three pitches and we’re still playing.”
The Hilltoppers, who fell to Archbishop Molloy 8-2 in the playoff opener, struggled at the plate in the win-or-go-home game against Fontbonne. In fact, the squad found it all but impossible to get runners on, effectively shut down by Bonnies ace Bianca Marletta.
The senior pitcher finished with 14 strikeouts and gave up just six hits in a complete-game effort.
“It built me up so much,” Marletto said. “My rise ball was working every time. That got almost every girl out. It worked out really well.”
Mary Louis Academy (11-8) did everything possible to try and get under Marletta’s skin, desperate to claw back into the game after Fontbonne had jumped out to a two-run lead in the top of the fourth inning.
That was, however, easier said than done.
“We did everything we could, within the rules, to break her rhythm,” Elkins said. “We stepped out of the box, we showed bunts, we did everything we were supposed to. She was just better than we were.”
Marletta continued to hold her own in the circle, giving her team an opportunity to put runs on the board, a chance the Bonnies (6-6) didn’t waste. The standout helped her own cause in the seventh inning, blasting a three-run home run to cushion her squad’s lead.
“Big players play big and she’s the biggest player,” Fontbonne coach Frank Marinello said. “The big line that we use is, ‘do not blink,’ and we didn’t.”
Mary Louis refused to go out quietly.
The Hilltoppers, finally, started making contact on Marletta’s pitches, getting on the board in the bottom of the seventh as Samantha Merino and Casey Woo both drove in runs.
It was just too little, too late.
“I think we realized that this could be it,” Marino said. “We just needed time to adjust to the pitcher and unfortunately we didn’t have enough time.”
Mary Louis won its first-ever league championship this season and this was a difficult loss for the Hilltoppers to accept, knowing full well that a few swings here and there were all that kept them from playing another game.
It’s also a loss that will fuel the offseason fire for the squad, which returns more than half of its starting lineup next year after. This wasn’t the plan, but it’s certainly a building block for a new one.
“The talent will be there,” Elkin said. “We’ll be at least as good next year as we were this year and if the juniors recognize it’s their turn to step up, we’ll have the same success.”
