The ball left Elena DeSantis’ bat and she couldn’t help but look. The Fontbonne Hall shortstop saw the ball sail toward the open green turf in centerfield.
“I had a feeling,” DeSantis said. “I was watching. I shouldn’t have been watching it, but I had a gut feeling it was going to drop.”
The ball fell in front of St. Edmund centerfielder Shelly Cranston, scoring Kristina Mandala from second for the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth inning. The Bonnies would add another run in the frame to beat St. Edmund, 4-2, in CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens softball Monday in Dyker Beach Park. Fontbonne scored three runs over the fifth and sixth innings.
“I see all the open space,” DeSantis said. “In times like that you want to get it in play where they are not standing.”
Making the defense have to make plays will likely be the Bonnies’ strategy for attack this season. Their first run came in the fourth when Rebecca Muccigrosso smartly tagged up from second on a low line drive to second by Mandala to tie the score at 1. St. Edmund’s Christina Quinata tried to tag the runner coming back to second. Jackie Mitchell’s bunt single made it 4-2 in the seventh.
“Different team,” Fontbonne coach Frank Marinello said. “Different doesn’t mean you are going to lose. Different doesn’t mean you can’t win.”
Last year his team lived with the big bats of Corine Fitzgibbons, Ashley Schirripa and Krissy DeMasi. With all of them graduated it has had to play more small ball and put pressure on opposing fielders. But that doesn’t mean Fontbonne (3-2) lacks pop. With two outs in the fifth Jenna Nixon hit a ball into right-center field that went under the charging glove of Cranston for a game-tying homer.
“Everyone jumped into the game,” pitcher Michelle Fioto said of the effect of Nixon’s home run. “We knew we were in it.”
Fioto was a big reason for that, too. The senior allowed four hits, walked just one and struck out nine, many times getting Eagles hitters looking on the inside corner. She allowed a run in the third on a Cassandra Molinari single and another in the fifth on a wild pitch. Jenny Russo collected a hit, scored twice and stole two bases for St. Edmund. Fioto stranded Garvey at third with no one out in the fourth by striking out the side.
“I just trust myself,” Fioto said. … “I just try to not let myself get all worked up.”
St. Edmund (0-5) again lacked the big hit after creating numerous scoring chances and didn’t execute on the bases. Pitcher Emma Ferrington, who allowed nine hits and struck out four, was thrown out stealing in the third and again in the seventh for the second out with Molinari, the team’s hottest hitter, at the plate.
“It’s not something that is going to elude us the whole season,” St. Edmund coach Rowena Motylewski of her team’s lack of a big hit. “It takes awhile to build your confidence up especially when you are going up against teams and you know you are beating yourself.”
Fontbonne, despite losing a large senior group, on the other hand has already beaten its top threats for a Brooklyn division title, including defending champions Kearney.
“I think after least year people don’t see us as big of a threat as we were last year,” DeSantis said. “But we are working to change their minds.”
