Fontbonne makes a “fresh” start for the 2017 season

With his two senior pitchers moving on to college, Fontbonne Varsity Softball Head Coach Frank Marinello is placing his faith in two freshmen hurlers to keep the Bonnies competitive for the 2017 season.

Lining up first in the pitching rotation is Arianna Heinsch, a very familiar face to the Bonnies. Daughter of Assistant Coach John Heinsch, Arianna has proven to be a steady performer on the mound with a number of years of travel team experience with the New York Cyclones.

Second in the rotation is newcomer Anna Acevedo who also has travel team experience, most notably with the Dyker Heights Knights. According to Fontbonne Pitching Coach Robert Rocca, “Anna has a lot of potential and is a work in progress.”

For this upcoming season, Rocca is looking forward to improving the freshman’s pitching mechanics so she can be successful against tougher competition.

For the Bonnies who ended the 2016 season with a stinging 3-2 late inning loss to St. Francis Prep in the finals, that game has still carried over during the off-season according to Emily Manti who is a member of this year’s seven Varsity seniors.

“We still should be pretty good this year,” maintained senior Samantha Marletta whose four-year Varsity sister Bianca is now pitching for Mount St. Mary’s College.  “We’ve got a good defense; all we have to do is put the ball into play with some good line drives.”

Insisting that his team would still remain competitive at the end of the 2016 season, Coach Marinello stated that it was time for his underclassmen to step up along with forthcoming additions to the Varsity. With the completion of this weekend’s pre-season practice, it appears that those pieces are now in place.

Mary Louis 7 Fontbonne 6

After the Bonnies posted a 4-0 lead in the second inning that featured a booming triple by Alexa Bertelle, Mary Louis rallied back in the third inning to take a 7-4 lead.

In the sixth inning, the Bonnies made an attempt to come back with a solo home run by Heinsch to make the score 7-6, but fell short on a golden opportunity to win the game on an inning-ending strikeout with the bases loaded.