Lady Bears Defeat Mont Alto to Capture 7th Place at Nationals

AKRON, OH – The St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn) softball team concluded their season with a 10-0 win in five innings over Penn State Mont Alto in the seventh place game of the 2012 United States Collegiate Athletic Association Softball National Championships.

The victory wraps up the Lady Bears record at 27-12, matching the second most wins in school history.  The graduating class of five seniors finishes with 107 wins over their four-year careers, a St. Joseph's College record for any sport.

Senior Alyson Chiaramonte (Staten Island, NY/Moore Catholic) was named Player of the Game going 3-for-4 at the dish, collecting two RBI and two doubles. She also earned the win in the circle, tossing four innings of two-hit, shutout ball, striking out seven.  Chiaramonte improved to 18-8 in the circle, setting a new single-season record for victories, and finishing as the all-time leader with 65 wins for her career.

The Lady Bears bats finally came alive, knocking three of their 12 hits in the game in the first inning to draw first blood and post a solo run.  Millicia Malvasio (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Kearney) and Danielle Marino (Maspeth, NY/Mary Louis) led off the game with singles and Chiaramonte brought home Malvasio with a ground rule double.

St. Joseph's tacked on another run in the second taking advantage of back-to-back Mont Alto errors both coming with two outs. 

The Lady Bears went up 3-0 after the fourth scoring another unearned run off a Mont Alto error that allowed Megan Moran (Syosset, NY/St. Dominic's) to score from second after leading off the frame with a double.

In the home half of the fourth, Mont Alto received a leadoff single from Diamond Byers and advanced her to third on a pair of groundouts, but Chiaramonte extinguished the Lions only threat with her seventh strikeout.

St. Joseph's opened the game up in the top of the fifth, exploding for seven runs, all coming unearned to starter Jessica Miller after a leadoff error extended the frame. Senior Jillian Troise (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Kearney) highlighted the inning belting a triple down the right field line in her final collegiate at-bat that scored fellow seniors Caitlyn Kakavas (Bayside, NY/St. Agnes) and Emily Palmieri (Staten Island, NY/St, John's Villa). A Moran single scored Troise, finishing the game, 2-for-2 with a RBI and two runs scored. All the seniors contributed to the final frame with Lisa Scheer (Bayside, NY/Mary Louis) lining a two-run double and Chiaramonte following her with her second double also scoring Scheer.

Scheer entered the circle in relief in the bottom half of the inning, retiring the side in order to close out the victory.