Softball's Streak Ends at John Jay, Darkness Forces Tie in Nightcap

Softball's Streak Ends at John Jay, Darkness Forces Tie in Nightcap

NEW YORK, N.Y. – The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) softball team scored three runs on three hits and nearly earned a split against John Jay College but had to settle for a 3-3 draw in the nightcap that called after six innings due to darkness. St. Joseph's dropped the opener of the Wednesday afternoon, road doubleheader at Randall's Island 5-3.

The Lady Bears (5-8-1) have their win streak halted at four games and the tie is just the second in program history. John Jay improves to 3-6-1.

Senior Mabel Vargas (Ridgewood, NY/Mary Louis) batted 3-for-4 with three runs scored and a triple. Vargas also made the start in the circle in game one, taking the loss, and finished the day tossing 7.2 innings, allowing six runs (three earned) with four strikeouts.

Freshman Laura Innocente (Staten Island, NY/St. John Villa) finished 3-for-6 with two RBI and a run scored. Danielle Marino (Maspeth, NY/Mary Louis) blasted her second home run of the season.

In the opener, the Lady Bears couldn't overcome five errors that allowed three of the five runs to score unearned, the Bloodhounds building a 5-1 advantage through four innings. St. Joseph's assembled a rally in their final at bat, picking up two runs off a pair of John Jay errors before stranding the tying runs at second and third to end the game.

The nightcap saw St. Joseph's get on the board first with a solo run in the opening frame losing the lead momentarily in the fourth before scoring two unanswered to take the lead with solo runs in the fifth and sixth innings. John Jay would counter with a two-out RBI in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game before darkness fell.

Turning Points – Game 1

After the Lady Bears leveled the game at 1-1 in the top of the 2nd, the defense committed two costly back-to-back miscues with two outs that allowed two unearned runs to score that put John Jay back on top for good 3-1.

The Bloodhounds tacked on two more in the fourth inning, making the most of a leadoff double followed by another error.

Turning Points – Game 2

Marino's solo blast in the first put the Lady Bears up 1-0, a lead they would hold until the fourth behind Jackie Perillo's (Howard Beach, NY/Archbishop Molloy) three near-perfect innings. But Perillo found some trouble on her second pass through the lineup in the fourth as the Bloodhounds reached her for three hits posting two runs to take the lead.

St. Joseph's would take the lead back, tying the game on an Innocente single in the fifth and a Morgan Summers (Bellerose, NY/St. Mary's) grounder in the sixth.

But the lead would be short lived as Lana Kovac opened the home half of the sixth with a single, advanced to second on a sacrifice and tied the game at 3-3 on a two-out single by Jennifer Vorela just before darkness fell.

Inside the Box Scores

  • Only three different Lady Bears recorded hits over the twinbill with Innocente and Molinari knocking 6-of-the-7 St. Joseph's hits
  • After five errors in the first game, the Lady Bears remained flawless in game two.

News and Notes

  • Marino's homer was the fifth of her career and second leadoff homerun this season.
  • St. Joseph's still remains unbeaten (25-0-1) since 2008 when a Lady Bear homers.
  • The only other tie game in Lady Bear history also occured in a 3-3 draw at Brooklyn College on April 15, 2010.

Up Next for the Lady Bears - New Rochelle

St. Joseph's will look to extend their four-game home winning streak welcoming HVWAC foes The College of New Rochelle to Padavan-Preller Fields for a twinbill starting at 3:30 p.m.