St. Joseph by the Sea’s Jackie Kelly had three hits and five RBIs. (Denis Gostev)
In the preseason, St. Joseph by the Sea hailed itself as a different team stylistically than the past two seasons. It wasn’t going to beat you with the three-run homer and booming doubles, but instead hit after hit after hit.
“This year we just have to put the ball in play,” senior third baseman Jackie Kelly said. “I guess hitting is contagious. It just kept coming through the lineup.”
The Vikings scored in every inning, collected 12 hits – just three for extra bases – and did not strikeout for the third straight game. Sophomore Jackie Cautela was brilliant in her first start of the season to help send Sea to an 11-0 five-inning run-rule victory over rival Moore Catholic in CHSAA Staten Island softball Sunday in Huguenot.
“We are putting the ball in play, not with as much authority, but we are putting the ball in play all the time and making the defense have to execute,” Vikings coach Mike Ponsiglione said.
Sea (3-0), ranked No. 2 in the city by The Post, got a two-run first inning thanks to a Kristina Mazzarisi double into the left field corner and a ground out by Kelly, who was 3-for-4 with five RBIs. Kelly fisted a Kelly Graham pitch into shallow left field for a single to drive in two during a four-run second inning that made it 6-0. Ponsiglione said Kelly broke out of an early funk for the defending CHSAA state champions.
“When she got to third base I said to her, ‘It’s hits like that that get you going,’” he said. “The little doinkers are the ones that get you going.’”
Kelly helped her team break things wide open in the fourth. Five of the first six batters reached base via a hit, including four straight at one point. Lianna Jordan, who was up second, put down a sac bunt. Mazzarisi drove in a run with a double over the third base bag, Kelly had a bases-loaded RBI single up the middle, Cautela lined a ball off reliever Gianna DeCesare’s glove and Michelle Abolt singled to right field with two outs to extend the lead to 10-0 over No. 5 Moore (2-1).
“I just got to sit back and be patient,” said Kelly, who added a booming RBI double to the left center field gap in the fifth. “That’s what I tried to do, adjust from my first at bat.”
All of that offense was more than enough for Cautela, who is the Vikings’ ace this season after pitching meaningful innings as a freshman. She kept the Mavericks completely off balance in the first three innings by moving the ball around the plate and using her curveball away for a strikeout pitch. Cautela allowed two hits, walked one and fanned eight, including seven of the first nine batters she faced. Maria Scopellito tracked down a ball in the right center field gap to take a double away from Taylor Baggs in fourth.
“I didn’t really expect that,” she said of her seven strikeouts. … “I saw them swinging at it so I moved it out more each time and they just kept swinging.”
The Vikings passed their first league test of the season in what was supposed to be three straight days with games against some of the city’s top teams. Saturday’s state championship game rematch with Archbishop Molloy was called off because of weather, but Sea will travel to play defending PSAL champion James Madison at 4 p.m. Monday.
“I was very upset that it got rained out,” Kelly said. “I’m really not liking this weather. I’m excited for tomorrow, hoping to bring the same intensity we did today.”