Rowena Motylewski hopes her team took note of what happened in the fourth inning against St. Francis Prep. For the second straight league game, her St. Edmund team had a meltdown in the field, where errors and miscues yielded big runs.
“I’m kind of glad that it happened all in the same inning because it was such a dramatic difference,” the coach said.
The seven-run fourth erased a newly grabbed one-run lead and opened the door for a comfortable 9-3 win for St. Francis Prep over the Eagles in CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens softball on April 7 in Bergen Beach. St. Edmund had just taken a 2-1 lead with an RBI triple from Cassandra Molinari, who also scored on a bad relay throw. St. Edmund (0-2 B/Q) gave up five runs in the second inning in a loss to Mary Louis last week.
“We should have had it,” said Molinari, who was 2-for-4. “We always seem to have that one inning that digs us into a deep hole. This really killed us because we had just taken the lead back.”
With runners on first and second and one out in the fifth, SFP’s No. 9 hitter Kalyssa Daley grounded a ball to Janelle Garvey at third. Instead of taking the ball to the bag herself she waited for Molinari, the shortstop, to cover. The flip was close and Molinari never found the base to load the bases. The Terriers (1-0) then got runs on a throw to home on a ground ball that was not in time, a wide throw off the first baseman’s glove and a three-run homer from Alex Sobrino to open up an 8-2 lead.
“I really hope one of these games we are going to be able to support [Emma Ferrington] the way she keeps supporting us,” Motylewski said.
They wasted a fine performance from their ace. The senior scattered six hits, a few of the bloop variety, walked three and struck out four. The Eagles had just four hits, but put the ball in the play, except most were ground outs. They had a chance to get back into the game in the fifth inning. But No. 3 hitter Casey Sclafani grounded out on the first pitch she saw with runners on first and second with two out. Garvey added a run in the six with a home run.
“I think most of the practices are going to revolve around defense,” Molinari said. “We are hitting good. We have to do both, defense is just as important as offense. If we work on that we should be good.”
