Fontbonne falls to Molloy in JV finals

Molloy 13, Fontbonne 0

With the exception of the canceled 2020 season, this was the third straight year that Fontbonne played Molloy for the BQGCHSSA Softball Championship. Molloy beat Fontbonne 7-6 in 2018, and Fontbonne beat Molloy 4-3 in extra innings in 2019.

This year the JV Bonnies won the Brooklyn South Division with a 7-1 record, beating Holy Cross in the quarterfinals and Xaverian in the semi-finals to advance to the championship round. However, this season’s match-up with undefeated Molloy would be different. The 6-0 Stanners dominated their Queens East Division, scoring an average of 13 runs a game. 

After two scoreless innings, Molloy opened the floodgates in the third. Fontbonne pitcher Ashley Konner struck out the first batter but then Mary Lou Piazza hit a double off the wall and immediately stole third. Konner walked the next batter, who stole second base. 

With runners on second and third and one out, the next batter grounded to second.  Instead of getting the sure out at first, the second baseman threw home late and Piazza scored. The next batter hit a grounder to first that was also thrown home too late and Molloy had a 2-0 lead. The two-run lead grew to an unreachable 13-0 by the end of the inning.

Despite the loss, Fontbonne coach Arianna Dillon was proud of her team.

“All our long practices paid off just to get our girls to the final, something that we were able to do for the third time in a row,” she said. “This is what happens when a team pulls together.”

 “This team came together in short order,” said assistant coach Mark Surdyka. “We weren’t sure that we would even play this season. The girls showed up to play and supported each other all throughout the season.”