Danielle Cervasio continued the St. Francis Prep domination of the NYPost.com weekly poll. The Terriers sophomore became the Fresh Meadows school’s third straight winner after Katie Derby and Chris Cannon. She took home the honor of being voted the best softball leadoff hitter in New York City.
“I was looking and my dad [John] kept bugging me about it, telling me to keep checking and voting,” Cervasio said. “It was a really big deal to my whole family.”
She survived a late charge by Susan Wagner star Danielle Locke to win with 17,667 votes, 29.04 percent of the 60,842 cast. Locke was second with 12,638 votes (20.77 percent) and Fontbonne’s Jackie Mitchell was third with 8,340 votes and 13.71 percent. Cervasio received some congratulations in the school this week, but said it was her family that put her over the top.
“I’m pretty sure all of them voted every day, all of my aunts and uncles,” she said.
After a stellar freshman season, Cervasio put herself on the map this year as one of the city’s best table setters. In the Terriers’ season-ending loss to Archbishop Molloy in the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens championship series she was a perfect 4-for-4 and scored all four times. She was a key all season to making the SFP offense go. She formed a lethal combination with junior slugger Viki Slavik.
“Viki was such a huge part of the team this year,” Cervasio said. “She has so many big RBIs and half of them were bringing me home.”
The sure-handed shortstop felt at home in the leadoff spot after a travel ball season with the Long Island Thunder helped her gain more confidence at the plate. She was more patient in the batter’s box and more aggressive on the bases. In a come-from-behind, 6-5, win over Mary Louis late in the season Cervasio reached base all four times and scored four runs, including after working a walk to lead off the seventh.
“I kind of just took what I could get,” she said. “Every time I hit a short ground ball I would hustle it out and sometimes I’d be safe. It was worth it most of the time.”
Cervasio was a big reason why the Terriers came close to ending a string of six straight defeats to rival Molloy in the Brooklyn/Queens finals. SFP played four competitive games, three decided by one run, with the eventual CHSAA state champion Stanners and she will be back with the majority of this year’s squad trying to end their reign next season.
“It just makes us want it even more,” Cervasio said. “We beat them last year one time. This year we just came so close. All the games were exciting. We want to take it next year.”