Procopio finished with a hit in each game while tossing seven innings on the afternoon
The College of Staten Island women’s softball team dropped a non-conference pair of games to visiting Briarcliffe College this afternoon at the CSI Softball Complex. The Bulldogs took the opener, 5-0, before using 9 unearned runs to grab a 12-6 win in the late game. CSI fell to 2-5 overall on the season, while BC upped their mark to 8-1 with the pair of wins.
The visitors got a complete game gem from hurler Jillian McGovern in the opener. McGovern went the distance, pitching a three-hit shutout, walking a single batter while fanning five. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs steadily built their lead off of 10 hits off of CSI starter Victoria Procopio. Emily Mazzaro’s RBI-single opened the scoring in the first, yielding the game’s only unearned run, as scoring on the play was Alicia Sharon, who earned on via an error. CSI left two runners stranded in their turn of the first frame, and one inning later, BC made it 2-0 on a Bianca Iaquinta sac fly.
The Bulldogs then doubled their lead in the third when Raina Bunai bunted home a runner and two batters later, Lyndsay Coppola doubled home Bunai, making the score 4-0. BC added an insurance marker in the fifth on a Bunai solo homer over the left field wall, but it hardly mattered, as CSi was held to just one base runner over the final three innings.
Procopio took the loss, going seven innings, yielding five runs (four earned) on 10 hits, walking none and striking out two.
As the temperatures dropped and freezing rain and hail cascaded on the game in stretches, errors began to mount in time for the second game, and it showed in the game’s first inning, as the teams combined for 12 runs, 11 of them unearned.
Seven of those runs belonged to BC against CSI starter Brittany Smith. After registering an out, an error charged to Alissa Setteducato allowed Sheron to reach base on a play where the CSi coaches felt Sheron was out on the play. The event proved costly as CSi prompty registered another out which could have been the end of the inning. Instead, Smith yielded a fielder’s choice RBI to McGovern, a base hit by Bunai, and a walk to Coppola, loading the bases. From there, a wild pitch, passed ball, a bases-loaded walk, and then a bases-clearing three-RBI double by Shannon Dougherty accounted for the seven-run onslaught, all unearned.
CSI made up ground, however, in their turn of the first. Smith promptly reached on a two-base error in the outfield and came in to score on Procopio’s triple to right-center. Procopio then scored on a Solari single. Later in the inning Danielle Locke reached on yet another error allowing the inning to continue while scoring Maxine Jasko. Finally, another two runs would score on pitcher Ivette Yi-Santiago errant throw to first to try and get Setteducato out, leading to another pair of CSI runs coming in, making the score a dubious, 7-5, after a single inning.
BC struck right back in the second inning, scoring another four runs. Coppola delivered an RBI-double in the inning before Yi-Santiago blasted another BC homer to left field, scoring a pair of runs. From there, both pitcher’s settled and worked quickly. CSi was able to scratch a run in the fifth inning when Solari doubled in Smith. Solari then came on in relief of Smith in the circle and pitched will, yielding a BC insurance run in the seventh for the final tally in the 12-6 affair. Solari also had CSI’s only multi-hit game of the day, going to 2-4 with 2 RBI in the nightcap.
CSI is back in action on Saturday afternoon when they open up the CUNYAC portion of their schedule against Hunter College at the CSI Softball Complex. It will be a special game at CSI, as it will also be the “Heart For Jake” benefit game, as all proceeds generated with go to support Jake Schron and his family. The Schron’s have spent the better part of the year at Montefiore Hospital with Jake, 21 months, where this past Saturday, he received a new heart from a donor family. The Heart For Jake Foundation raises money and awareness for his family who have been by his side the entire way. Recently, Jake was featured on NBC News and the Staten Island Advance. Jake’s aunt, Kelly Payne, played softball for four years at CSI from 1998-01, where she won a pair of CUNYAC Championships. She ranks 8th all-time at CSI in strikeouts thrown, and her career batting average of .406 ranks 6th best in CSI career history.
