Cheryl Lopez sat on the hill behind the back stop and looked blankly at the St. Joseph by the Sea field, her first varsity season complete.
“We actually hit when no one was on base and couldn’t hit when someone was on base,” the Notre Dame Academy freshman windmiller said.
She did her part, like she has done the majority of the season, by giving her team a chance to win. She gave up three earned runs on nine hits and struck out three, but the Gators could not muster much offense for the second straight game against St. Joseph Hill starter Maggie Sarlo.
A two-run seventh would give the Hilltoppers a 4-0 win in both teams’ CHSAA Staten Island softball finale Thursday at St. Joseph by the Sea. The loss knocks NDA out of the playoffs for the second straight year. A win would have forced a three-way tie with Hill and St. John Villa that would put the Gators in the playoffs as the No. 3 seed based on runs against.
“I got on [three times] and was at third base,” centerfielder Meghan O’Keefe said. “I’m like, ‘Please get a hit so I can score.’ That always happens to us though. We hit and then we just can’t get people on base and we never catch a break.”
The loss completes what was a season of success mixed with growing pains for Lopez, who gave the Gators the quality starter they were looking for. She took the ball whenever asked and throws with enough speed to challenge hitters. Coach Tony Curatolo believes his ace has a bright future, but she needs to learn how to change speeds more and locate better. Lopez showed an excellent changeup at times.
“I tried doing it the last two innings and it worked really well,” Lopez said.
Added Curatolo: “If she can control that pitch she will be tough,”
Lopez allowed a first-inning run on a groundout and an errant throw on a steal of second sailed into the outfield and led to another run in the third to make it 2-0 Hill. The Hilltoppers (7-8) added two more runs on four hits in the seventh.
Notre Dame (5-10) had runners on in every inning but one. O’Keefe, who had two hits and reached on a fielder’s choice,w as left at third three times. NDA, which had seven hits, had second and third and two outs in the second, and first and third in two other innings, but couldn’t get a run across. O’Keefe said that Sarlo throws a bit slower than they are used to and has an excellent changeup.
“She is sneaky a times,” Curatolo said of Sarlo. … “They swing like they are swinging at the fastest pitcher in the league.”
For his hurler he believes it is about learning and that it cannot all be about speed moving forward. He wants her to mix her pitches and Lopez believe she has already gotten mentally tougher.
“I learned that you can’t let anything bother you,” she said. “The other team will tear you down if you show any weakness.”