St. Anthony's showed its grit en route to third straight CHSAA state title

With two comeback wins in the state tournament, the St. Anthony’s softball team proved it has just as much grit as it has talent. 

St. Anthony’s used speed, smart base running and timely hitting to string together a four-run sixth inning on its way to a 4-2 win over St. Joseph by the Sea to capture its third straight CHSAA state title on May 30 at Hofstra.

“If one person wasn’t hitting, the person behind her had to hit,” leadoff hitter Bella Cruz said.

“We had to pick each other up,” added Jackie Morra, the Nassau-Suffolk CHSAA Player of the Year.

After five innings, St. Anthony’s had just two hits, both of which came from freshman Sophia Lee.

In the sixth, Morra came through with an RBI single up the middle for the first run. Morra took second on a grounder by Valentina Iula, and then both runners made aggressive base-running decisions to advance to third and second base, respectively. Morra scored the tying run and then Iula would score later in the inning for the 3-2 lead.

After Juli Murillo put the finishing touches on the rally with an RBI single, Mila Fiordalisi relieved Lia Fong and worked through a two-out single and walk to earn the save.

The Friars credit their late-game heroics to their three tough losses earlier in the season.

They traveled to New Jersey on April 8, where they suffered a heartbreaking 5-4 walk-off loss Donavan Catholic, one of the top teams in the state. Later that day, they fell 4-0 to Immaculate Heart Academy, another Jersey powerhouse.

“They put us in positions that we aren’t always put in during the regular season,” Morra said. “We were prepared for those tough situations at the end of the year."

“We faced that level of competition in the beginning of the season," Cruz added, "so we had the rest of the year to make adjustments and work on the little things we needed to work on for the postseason."

On May 6, Fiordalisi threw a no-hitter against Buffalo’s Nardin Academy, but St. Anthony’s took a 1-0 loss as Nardin’s pitcher, Erin Nuwer, also twirled a no-hitter.

St. Anthony’s (24-3) met Nardin in the state semifinals and although the Friars fell behind 2-1 in the fourth inning on two unearned runs, Fiordalisi was confident her prolific lineup would get to Nuwer, her travel teammate.

“I knew that my teammates had already seen her once, so they were better prepared than the first time,” said Fiordalisi, the NSCHSAA Pitcher of the Year. “I also had a chip on my shoulder and I really wanted to prove that we could get the job done against them.”

It was another four-run sixth inning, started by a walk and stolen base by Cruz and capped by a two-run single by Ava Vandernoth, that propelled the Friars to the final.

It's the second state championship for a large junior class, that included seven starters this season. For the likes of Cruz, Fiordalisi and Morra, the only thing left to prove is that they can do it one more time.

“We want more,” Fiordalisi said. “We want to come back next year and win it again.”