It felt like a long time coming for St. Edmund Prep. The Eagles spent the better part of the early season in the doldrums – they took no momentum from 2009, one of their best campaigns in a long while.
Those days, though, seem to be over. If a 13-1, six-inning run-rule win against rival Fontbonne Hall on April 27 at Bergen Beach Park was any indication, St. Edmund is back.
“We’re not used to this kind of winning,” ace windmiller Emma Ferrington said. “Today we played our ‘A’ game.”
The offensive barrage started with catcher Casey Sclafani’s opposite-field RBI triple in the first inning and finished with Sclafani’s ringing, walk-off RBI double down the line in the sixth. The middle of the Eagles’ order was the most potent it has been all season. Third baseman Janelle Garvey went 3-for-3 with a monstrous home run in the fifth, two RBIs and three runs scored and Sclafani was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored.
“We haven’t been proving that we’re this good,” Sclafani said.
Coach Rowena Motylewski said she has seen the attitude at St. Edmund (3-5) change. The Eagles, who lost their first five games in league play, oddly didn’t come into the season with much confidence, despite returning, on paper, the most talented team in CHSAA Brooklyn. But that swagger is manifesting itself now that they have won three straight, including two over division stalwarts Bishop Kearney and Fontbonne (3-4).
“Finally we have something to be proud of,” Motylewski said. “Starting 0-5 is not something we wanted to be.”
Ferrington found herself in some spots she didn’t want to be in Tuesday. But every single time the senior right-hander got out of them. She left the bases loaded in the second, third and fourth innings. Fontbonne stranded 13 runners total.
“It’s tough for me, but I just do what I gotta do,” Ferrington said. “I don’t let it bother me.”
The unflappable ace gave up just one run, on an RBI single by Jenna Nixon in the third, and four hits with 10 strikeouts in six innings. Ferrington was been the hard-luck loser in more than a few of those five straight losses to start the league season. But things are starting to click now.
“I think we’re a little more confident,” Ferrington said. “In the beginning, we didn’t know what was coming for us.”
She could breathe easy when St. Edmund staked her to a 2-0 lead in the first inning and a 6-0 advantage after two. The Eagles got a break from two Bonnies errors each in the second and the fourth innings.
In the sixth, Nicole Mangano scored what should have been the game-winning run on a Ferrington fielder’s choice, but umpires didn’t know the score. St. Edmund scored twice more – Ferrington scored on a wild pitch and Sclafani drove in Cassandra Molinari, who was hit by a pitch – before the run rule was issued.
It seemed like the Eagles would have kept on scoring until someone pulled the plug.
“It took a little while to get our groove,” Motylewski said.
St. Edmund sure has it now.
