By Rob Silverstein
The Greenwich Village Blazers evened their record at 1-1 with an exciting come from behind 12-11 victory over the Yorkville Dodgers in Division A of the Bronx and Manhattan Senior Girls Softball League. Division A consists of the four strongest teams of 13-to-16 year-old girls. The victory was particularly satisfying for Greenwich Village because Yorkville eliminated them in last year’s playoffs.
The score of the game seesawed back and forth with Blazers taking a 4-2 lead after the first inning — on timely hits by Tricia Fratta, Jessica Cornils and Erica Silverstein — and a 7-5 lead into the fifth — thanks to a monstrous double to the left center field wall by Mariama Bonnetti. Sophie Spiegel was the Blazers’ starting pitcher and was very effective over her four innings of work and even more effective in the fifth.
In the fifth inning, the Blazers brought in Tricia Fratta for her first pitching appearance of the season. After retiring the first two batters she faced, Fratta got into trouble, surrendering three runs to the Dodgers and loading the bases with Emily Allen, the Dodgers number three batter coming to the plate. Spiegel was brought back to the mound as a reliever to try to get the Blazers out of the jam and managed to get Allen to ground to second to end the scare.
Heading into the top of the sixth inning, the score was tied 8-8. In the sixth, Jannelle Rosario made her pitching debut for the Blazers and held the hard-hitting Dodgers to just one run, ending the inning by snagging a sizzling ground ball destined to go through the middle and throwing the runner out at first. The Blazers tied the score in the bottom of the sixth on a walk and aggressive base running by Mollie Schwartz. Rosario pitched well in the seventh but faced the heart of the order and surrendered two runs on two walks and two hits. With one out and the bases loaded, it was essential that Rosario keep any more runs from scoring. The second out came on a sensational diving catch by first baseman Mollie Schwartz of a looping foul ball. Then the Dodgers’ number five hitter, Angelina Dedvukat, ripped a rising line drive over second base, and the Blazers feared the game would now surely be out of reach. But Blazers’ short center fielder, Alexa Nicolas, made the play of the game by leaping with an outstretched arm to snare the rocketing liner and hold the Dodgers’ lead to two runs heading into to the bottom of the seventh.
The Blazers answered with two quick runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game on walks to Fratta and Silverstein, who scored on aggressive base running and an RBI fielder’s choice by Spiegel. Bonnetti also walked and stole second. Jessica Cornils won the game with a walk-off double to left. It was Cornils’ third RBI of the day, and Rosario picked up the win in her pitching debut.
