Even after watching the ball clear the fence and cutting her team’s lead to a single run, Archbishop Chapelle pitcher Kayla Giardina remained unfazed.
Seven days after the game she was looking to finish was suspended in the fifth inning after a collision between two Mount Carmel players, Giardina struck out the final three batters to earn a 2-1 victory for the Chipmunks on Thursday at Muss Bertolino Playground.
Giardina retired 14 of the final 15 batters she faced, stretching to the fourth inning and struck out 13. Linda Hollander’s leadoff solo home run in the bottom of the seventh was the only blip in an otherwise dominant performance in the circle.
“I didn’t think anything of it,” Giardina said. “With the two runs I knew even if someone did score, we had the defense and that I could work out of it.”
Both runs Chapelle (21-3, 3-1 District 9-5A) scored came last Thursday night as the game was eventually halted in the top of the fifth.
With both sides struggling to get anything going, Allie Domangue singled before moving to second base after Kamryn DiMaggio was hit by a pitch.
Domangue stole third and then home as DiMaggio forced a throw down to second on a steal as the Chipmunks went up 1-0.
Kelsey Schmidt’s looping triple that followed the opening run last week allowed DiMaggio to score to make it 2-0 but resulted in the collision between Claire Murphy and Hayden Traub that brought the game to a stop.
Murphy remained on the field for an extended period. She was taken off while on a stretcher and with her neck in a brace. Traub walked off under her own power. They were both reported to be OK the next day.
Mount Carmel pitcher Chloe Krey went the distance for the Cubs (11-8, 2-2) as she struck out 10, allowing four hits in the loss.
“Chloe came in and shut down a very good hitting Chapelle team,” Mount Carmel coach Curtis Matthews said. “We’ve just got to do a better job of getting some runs behind her.”
With district play finished, Chapelle claimed its first district title since 2005 and will look to focus on where it can get better heading into the state tournament.
“We still have a lot of work to do, but this is a big win for the kids and our school,” Chapelle coach Scott O’Brien said.
As the players and coaches huddled together one more time around the pitching circle after the final out, O’Brien said he believes both sides came away with a greater appreciation for the game and what it means.
“The biggest thing that we got out of the last week is perspective,” he said. “It’s about teaching these kids how to compete in the game of softball so that they can go out and compete in the game of life.”
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