Lady Bears Capture Third Place at Nationals in a Thriller Over Briarcliffe

AKRON, OH – Andrea Sideli (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Kearney) scored on a walk-off sacrifice fly from Millicia Malvasio (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Kearney) in the bottom of the 7th inning to give the #6 St. Joseph's College softball team a 1-0 victory over #4 Briarcliffe College on Monday afternoon in the third place game of the USCAA National Softball Championships.

The third place victory is St. Joseph's best finish in four appearances in the national tournament. The Lady Bears complete their 2010 campaign with a 28-11-1 record, setting a new school record for wins in a season.

Sophomore pitcher Alyson Chiaramonte (Staten Island, NY/Moore Catholic) was named to the All-Tournament team, making four starts in the circle, compiling a 2-2 record with a 1.89 ERA and 40 strikeouts.  She also led St. Joseph's at the plate accumulating a .357 batting average (5-for-14) with three runs scored and one driven in.

St. Joseph's avenged a doubleheader sweep by Briarcliffe earlier in the season in which both games were decided by one run, 7-6 and 2-1, the nightcap in extra innings.

The Lady Bears also prevailed despite being outhit 7-4 and scoring the lone run without recording a hit in the final and deciding inning.

Briarcliffe applied the pressure for most of the game advancing a runner to third in the first, second and sixth frames, but Chiaramonte and the defense shut down every threat.

St. Joseph's scattered hits in the first, third, fifth and sixth frames, but didn't reach second base until the sixth inning.

In the Lady Bears final at bat of regulation, Sideli reached on a Briarcliffe miscue with one out.  St. Joe's gained runners on first and second on another miscue with second baseman Domenica Marsalla dropping a throw on the force attempt.  The Lady Bears then loaded the bases when Jackie Marinello was hit by a pitch.  Malvasio, a USCAA First-Team All-American selection, then delivered the game-winning RBI with a sacrifice fly to center, which allowed Sideli to tag up and score, the throw coming too late.

Malvasio, Mabel Vargas (Ridgewood, NY/Mary Louis), Danielle Marino (Maspeth, NY/Mary Louis) and Lauren Norris (Sunnyside, NY/Long Island City) knocked the four hits for St. Joseph's.

Marsalla had two hits for Briarcliffe, the only player with a multi-hit game.

Chiaramonte earned the win, improving to 17-5, tossing her eighth complete game shutout this season and finishing with eight strikeouts and one walk.  Ivette Yi Santiago takes the loss for Briarcliffe, her only run coming unearned, surrendering four hits, with six strikeouts and no walks.

St. Joseph's will look to make another tournament run next year with no graduating seniors on this year's squad.