Molloy survived. The Stanners added another to their list of close wins this season.
It took eight innings for them to pull out a 5-4 win over rival St. Francis Prep in CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens softball Friday at Cunningham Park. The victory is Molloy’s seventh straight over the Terriers and second this year.
“We have been known to have slow starts this year,” said Molloy’s head coach Maureen Rosenbaum. “But we were really slow today. St. Francis Prep always gives us a great game.”
St. Francis Prep took a one-run lead in the top of the eight, but Dana Moss tied the score with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning and Marissa Puzino brought home the winning run with a bloop single that landed just beyond the first base line in the bottom of the eighth inning. Once the ball dropped, Puzino didn’t know what to do. She ran to the dugout since no one had run to home plate to greet the winning run. She called the hit a confidence.,
“I didn’t even see it. I was just running,” Puzino said. “I thought I had hit a pop fly into foul play so I threw my bat.”
Molloy (7-0) notched their third extra inning win of the year. Goldbach’s performance was key during a game when Molloy struggled to score in the game’s opening innings. Goldbach, who improved to 4-0, struck out nine and pitched six scoreless innings before the Terriers (6-3) finally got to her in the bottom of the seventh. Briana Franceschini hit a game-tying three-run home run to center. It was the only hard hit ball off Goldbach, was confident that her team rebound.
“I knew we would come back,” Goldbach said. “We had been playing strong and my coach just told me to relax and get through the inning.”
It was Molloy’s Maria Palmeri, the team’s ace in the circle, who opened the scoring in the bottom of the fourth inning with a two-run home run. Moss added an RBI double in the sixth inning to score Palmeri to give the Stanners a 3-0 lead that they looked poised to hold. Franceschini had other ideas, but like that have many times this season Molloy, which visits St. Joseph by the Sea on Saturday morning, found a way to pull out a win.
“This team has come back a few times this year,” Rosenbaum said. “And we were in the heart of the lineup.”