By Laura Amato
The Francis Lewis softball team has battled all season.
The Lady Patriots have fought ups and downs, bounced back after losses and found a way to come together as a team despite some early-season miscues.
On May 26, however, in the second round of the PSAL Class A playoffs, Francis Lewis came up just short in one final battle. The Lady Patriots couldn’t find a way to battle back, falling 9-4 to The High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology at Leif Ericcson Park.
“We just couldn’t get that momentum,” Francis Lewis coach Bryan Brown said. “I like the fact that no matter how much we had down periods, we were always able to battle back. We were all about the battle. We even showed some resolve today.”
It had been a back-and-forth game early, as the squads desperately looked to find some rhythm. That wasn’t always easy, however, particularly with Telecom (18-3) starter Thalia Santiago and Francis Lewis starter Diana Ferreira each holding their own in the circle.
In the first four innings, the two pitchers combined for 13 strikeouts.
The Lady Patriots (16-4) thought they had, finally, seized control in the game in the top of the fourth inning as the squad put together a two-out rally, plating three runs on three hits to jump out to a two-run lead. Felicia LoPilato led the charge, blasting a two-run triple to deep right field to give Francis Lewis a renewed sense of confidence.
“I thought when we got to that 4-2 lead we had broken it open,” Brown said. “I thought when the bottom of the lineup was able to get the lead for us, that was going to spark us because Diana was pitching and starting to get into the groove.”
Telecom, however, found a way to respond.
The Yellow Jackets staged their own rally in the bottom of the fifth, sparked by a two-run inside-the-park homer by shortstop Kristen Gutekunst. The hit jump-started the Telecom lineup and the squad padded its lead with three more runs before Francis Lewis was able to get the final two outs.
“I think it was my placement with the ball,” Ferreira said of what went wrong in the inning. “I was trying to get it more inside and it was just going over the middle of the plate.”
This time, unlike so many times before this season, there was no bounceback for Francis Lewis.
Yellow Jackets pitcher Thalia Santiago struck out five of the last seven batters she faced, finishing the day with 13 strikeouts. It was enough to shut down Francis Lewis and end the squad’s season.
It’s a difficult loss for the Lady Patriots, a team that will graduate six seniors, but the obstacles this squad faced throughout the season have laid the building blocks for next spring. Francis Lewis may have lost the final battle, but the Lady Patriots can’t be too disappointed with how hard they fought. In the end, that’s what was most important.
“I liked that we showed that resolve all season,” Brown said. “It’s going to be tough losing six seniors. That’s going to be the hard part for our team.”
