Archbishop Molloy gave Fontbonne Hall a taste of its own medicine.
Just four days after the Bonnies pulled off a come-from-behind win against Mary Louis, the Stanners rallied from a four-run late-inning deficit for a 7–5 win in Catholic High School Athletic Association Brooklyn–Queens softball at Cunningham Park on April 19.
“Against a very good team, once you have them on the ropes, you have to continue to tack on runs,” Fontbonne coach Frank Marinello said. “Today we didn’t continue to tack on runs.”
Molloy scored three runs in both the fifth and six innings to pull away for the victory, which moves the defending champions into first place.
“We’ve battled through every game so far this season,” Molloy coach Maureen Rosenbaum said. “They stayed together, and they played as a team, and we came back.”
Starting hurler Bianca Marletta and the Bonnies, however, had clear control of the game for the first four innings.
Fontbonne jumped on the board in the top of the first after a two-out rally in which five straight batters reached base. Four straight singles from Martella, Natalie Lacognata, Gabby Casagrande, and Abigail Fogliano — along with a pair of outfield errors from Molloy — helped the Bonnies go 3–0 in the opening frame.
Molloy tried to answer quickly, but left runners on second and third to end the bottom half of the inning. Fontbonne (2–1)then added one more runs in the top of the second after a Lacognata groundout with the bases loaded made it 4–0.
The Stanners (3–1) got a run back in the bottom of the third after Giovanna Bonilla singled and later came around to score on a wild pitch, but Molloy again left runners stranded on second and third the following innings. It was 4–1 Fontbonne after four.
In the top of the fifth, Fontbonne pushed across a run to extend its lead to 5-1, but left the bases loaded and could not score much needed insurance runs. Molloy starter Camille Sears allowed five runs on 10 hits with six strikeouts.
Molloy got itself back in the game in the bottom of the inning. Bonilla led off with a single and Jamie Durso then followed with a two-run inside-the-park home run to right-center. Molloy scratched across one more run in the inning to cut the Fontbonne lead down to one.
“Honestly, I wasn’t really hitting well, so I knew that I just needed to hit the ball,” Durso said. “I didn’t care how big it was, I just wanted a little hit.”
The Stanners made the final push in the bottom of the sixth. Stephanie Leyden got the rally started with a leadoff single, and MollyRose McMahon, Bonilla, and Durso all reached base safely to continue the momentum.
Those three each came across to score on wild pitches later in the inning as Marletta lost control and began to overthrow.
“I was trying to get mad and throw as hard as I could,” Marletta said. “When I don’t have my full motion going on … I’ll go wild.”
It helped contribute to the Bonnies’ first league loss, which will be a motivator going forward as they hope to unseat the division-champion Stanners.
“We’re going to look forward to playing these guys again,” Marinello said.
