Yogi Berra’s immortal line, “It’s like déjà vu all over again,” could apply to the Fontbonne varsity softball team,which was once again beaten in a close contest by the same Archbishop Molloy Stanners in this season’s Brooklyn-Queens semi-final playoff game.
For the second straight year, Fontbonne was leading the game, but the resilient Stanners had another seventh-inning rally to win the game and advance to the CHSAA championship round.
Fontbonne got on the board first in the second inning when Sam Spyliopulos doubled and Kylie Mendez bunted her home to score on an overthrow to first. Molloy tied the game 1-1 in the fifth. Fontbonne took a 2-1 lead in the sixth when Grace McGinn was hit by a pitch and Kate Kmiotek doubled her home.
Holding Molloy scoreless in the bottom of the sixth, it appeared that the Bonnies would hold on for the win with just one more inning to go. But the upstart Stanners came back to win in a controversial seventh inning.
With the bases loaded and no outs, Rebecca DiLeo’s pitch got away from Fontbonne catcher Spyliopulos and rolled to the backstop. Spyliopulos quickly retrieved the ball and flipped it to DiLeo covering home just a split second too late in the umpire’s judgment as Molloy’s runner from thirdbase slid across the plate to tie the game 2-2.
With two out and the bases still loaded, Fontbonne was looking to hold on to the tie to go into extra innings, but another close call went against the Bonnies. With a 1-2count on what should have been Molloy’s last batter of the inning, DiLeo three a pitch across the outside of the plate that was called a “ball,” giving the batter a new life with a2-2 count. After the previous close play at the plate and now a questionable “ball two,” Spyliopulos defiantly held her glove with the ball over home plate to show her objection to the call. Despite her objection, the game was over after a few more pitches as Molloy’s last batter singled up the middle to win the semi-final 3-2.
Fontbonne manager Pete McCarthy summed up the seasonby saying, “Our Fontbonne varsity lost a nail-biter in the semi-finals to Molloy, just losing 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning. It was a great job by our team competing all year long. Best of luck to our seniors, and congratulations to Rebecca DiLeo for winning the All League Award for the 2025 varsity.”
After their semi-final win, Molloy advanced to play Xaverian for the Brooklyn-Queens Championship at St. John’s. For their semi-final win, Xaverian beat Monsignor McClancy 8-0 to advance to the finals. However, the Clippers had their own déjà vu moment, losing 1-0 to the Stanners for the second straight year
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