Lady Bears Win Ninth Straight Defeating SUNY Canton, 10-2

BELLEROSE, NY – The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) softball team showed little effects of a quick turnaround after returning from their Puerto Rico trip and easily bypassed USCAA and AD3I foe SUNY Canton, 10-2, on Saturday afternoon at Padavan-Preller Field. 

The Lady Bears extend their win streak to nine games and improve to 9-6 on the season, while the Roos fall to 6-16.

The five inning triumph was a statement victory over the #15 ranked team in the latest USCAA poll released earlier this week. St. Joseph's entered the polls ranked #17 and looks to climb the rankings to earn their fourth straight bid to the USCAA National Championships.

St. Joseph's jumped all over Roos starter Heather Lottie who gave up five straight hits and quickly found herself down 4-0 and was relieved before recording an out.  Junior Mabel Vargas (Queens, NY/Mary Louis) started the scoring with a single that extended her hitting streak to a team-high eight games. Vargas finished the day going 3-for-4, her second career three-hit game, and scored a pair of runs. 

Caitlyn Kakavas (Bayside, NY/St. Agnes), Danielle Marino (Maspeth, NY/Mary Louis), Cassandra Molinari (Brooklyn, NY/St. Edmund Prep) and Emily Palmieri (Staten Island, NY/St. John's Villa) all contributed to the Lady Bears lead, bringing home a run in four straight at bats, Palmieri's triple to the right center gap highlighting the frame.  Palmieri would finish the day going 2-for-3, finding the gap again in the third for a double.  Millicia Malvasio (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Kearney) brought home Palmieri with a single, capping a seven-run opening frame.

Canton took a run back in the third inning on an Emiley Walters two-out RBI single that plated Marie Mason who led off with a single.  It would be the first run scored off starter Alyson Chiaramonte (Staten Island, NY/Moore Catholic) snapping a streak of 22 scoreless innings.  She would surrender another run in the fifth inning – her most in seven starts – after Jena Cruderman tripled to lead off the inning and later scored on a groundout.

St. Joseph's tacked on a solo run in the fourth and two more runs in the fifth inning, Megan Moran (Syosset, NY/St. Dominic's) scoring on a wild pitch after reaching on an error and Chiaramonte belting a double that scored Vargas sealing the victory for the Lady Bears. Chiaramonte finished the afternoon 3-for-4 and reached yet another milestone, knocking her 150th career hit.

Malvasio finished with a pair of hits, extending her hitting streak to six games, collecting a run, RBI and stolen base. Kakavas also had a multi-hit day accumulating a pair of hits and runs, a RBI and a stolen base.

Chiaramonte boosted her record to 7-3 in the circle, struck out six and scattered four hits.

With the game against Old Westbury originally scheduled for Monday postponed, St. Joseph's returns to action on Tuesday, April 10th against Hudson Valley Women's Athletic Conference foe College of New Rochelle.  The doubleheader will take place in Bronxville, N.Y. at fellow HVWAC rival Sarah Lawrence College with the first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m.