LYNN — Another chapter in the storied rivalry between Bishop Fenwick and St. Mary’s was written Saturday on the Breed Middle School softball field.
By the time the dust had settled, lightning struck in No. 13 Fenwick’s favor, thanks to Katy O’Brien’s game-winning, two-run single in the top of the ninth inning that broke open a scoreless game and secured a 2-0 upset win against the top-seeded Spartans.
The win clinched the Crusaders’ spot in the state Division 3 Softball Championship semifinals where they will play No. 4 Norton (TBD).
“She (O’Brien) did a good job just hitting where it was pitched and got the hit that one of us needed,” said Fenwick Coach Brian Seabury. “We knew it was coming down to one swing. I gave her the opportunity to hit the first pitch and she took advantage of it.”
This was the third meeting between the two teams this season. While St. Mary’s won both regular season games, they were extremely close. In April, St. Mary’s shut out Fenwick at home, 2-0. In May at Fenwick, the Spartans eked out a 2-1 win. Saturday’s game was more of the same with pitching and outstanding defense ruling the day, but the third time proved to be the charm for Fenwick.
“Defensively it was awesome. Both teams made their plays. I thought we had a chance in the ninth when they made their first error of the game. We had to get the bat on the ball more and it just wasn’t happening,” St. Mary’s coach Colleen Newbury said. “Today they didn’t make defensive mistakes. Gigi (Aupont) pitched great and you have to hit the pitcher to win.”
Both starting pitchers tossed four hitters. Fenwick ace Jaleila “Gigi” Aupont finished with eight strikeouts and issued just one walk, while St. Mary’s counterpart Anna Fringuelli struck out six and walked four.
The Spartans had the best opportunity to get on the board first, only to strand runners at third in the second, fourth and sixth innings.
Fringuelli mowed down the first nine Fenwick batters, three of them on strikeouts before issuing one-out walks to Mia Mercurio and Aupont. The Spartans got out of the jam with a bang-bang double play by second baseman Michaela Walker, who snagged a line drive and flipped to first baseman Angie Catino to double up Aupont.
In the top of the fifth, Lily Bonacorsi notched Fenwick’s first hit, a seeing-eye single to right field. Once again, the Spartans’ defense came up big, turning an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play, Aliza Crean-Oviedo to Walker to Catino.
In the bottom of the inning, Roma Braid walked, reached second on Catino’s sacrifice bunt and stole third. Aupont dug deep, striking out the final batter (looking) to end the threat.
Both teams stranded runners in scoring position in the sixth. The Crusaders’ Natasha O’Brien and Mia Mercurio hit consecutive two-out singles and advanced a base on a wild pitch. But a routine grounder to Fringuelli ended the threat.
In the bottom of the inning, Brooke Moloney singled, stole second, and reached third on an infield ground out. Suriel hit a slow roller to Mercurio at short, who gunned it to Lola Amendolare at first. Amendolare saved a run with a long stretch to pick the ball off the dirt.
St. Mary’s missed a great chance to walk off with a win in the bottom of the seventh. With one out, Gabby Marichal drilled a ball into the left-field corner for a double but was cut down when she tried to stretch it to a triple. Left fielder Lory Suriel chased down the ball and fired a perfect strike to Mercurio at the cutoff. She in turn gunned it to third baseman Sofia Longo, who applied the tag. One can only wonder what might have happened as Braid followed with a single.
“Hitting the cut and making that relay, putting that together was huge,” Seabury said. “There was going to be a man on third with one out so that was a gigantic play. The execution was excellent.”
Fringuelli had walked just two batters going into the ninth. Those runners were erased when the Spartans turned that nifty double play. This time, however, a pair of leadoff walks to Mercurio and Aupont proved costly. A perfectly-executed sacrifice bunt by Long moved the runners to second and third. Up next was Katy O’Brien. She wasted no time and flared the first pitch she saw into right field, scoring Mercurio standing up, and then Aupont, who dove head first under catcher Braid’s tag to give Fenwick a two-run cushion.
Newbury said she thought the Spartans had hope when Fringuelli reached on an infield error to lead off the bottom of the inning, the first and only error of the game. But Aupont got the next two outs on routine ground balls, then ended the game in dramatic fashion. While there were many defensive gems on the part of both teams, this last one may have been the sweetest. Aupont laid flat out, head first to snag Marichal’s soft pop-up to seal Fenwick’s win.
Despite the season-ending loss, Newbury highlighted the play of Catino, right fielder Riley Zukas, and center fielder Moloney, who chased down a long fly ball by Aupont at the fence for the second out of the first inning.
“That catch by Brooke really started us off for the game,” Newbury said. “There it was, that said we’re going to play defense and this game is going to go on forever.”
It almost did.
