EAST SYRACUSE – Upended from the top of the Section III Class B ranks in 2023, the Marcellus softball team only took 12 months to reclaim that spot.
And it was truly earned by the Mustangs, who knocked off top seed Utica Notre Dame 2-1 in the sectional Class B final at Carrier Park to earn the program’s third sectional title in four years.
“It’s kind of surreal,” said head coach Lisa MacLachlan, who offered praise for the entire softball program, all the way from Little League to the modified and junior varsity ranks in developing players that continue the high standard previous teams have established.
In particular, said MacLachlan, this title belonged to the seniors who made contributions to those 2021 and 2022 sectional champions but the led way here.
One of those seniors, Bella Mondello, would deliver another pitching gem, shutting out Utica Notre Dame until the seventh inning and only allowing four hits while striking out seven without surrendering a walk.
Mondello said this victory felt particularly great after experiencing a defeat to Westhill in last spring’s sectional semifinals, a fate she made sure would not happen again.
The anticipated pitcher’s duel between Mondello and UND’s Ella Trinkaus, who had no-hit Solvay in the semifinal round, unfolded through four scoreless innings. The Jugglers put two in scoring position in the bottom of the fourth, but Mondello got Ava Hayes to ground out.
More than anything, it was defensive mistakes by UND that turned the game in the Mustangs’ favor.
In the top of the fifth, Jill O’Connor led off with a single. A wild throw on a pickoff attempt allowed O’Connor to reach second, and she went to third on Hannah Fagan’s sacrifice bunt.
Here the Mustangs sent up freshman Jordan O’Connor as a pinch-hitter. On a two-strike pitch, O’Connor calmly delivered the ground ball to the right side that allowed her older sister to cross the plate.
Mondello kept it 1-0, then helped the Mustangs double that margin in the top of the seventh with a bloop double. When a wild throw off a catch on Chloe Kuttruff’s sacrifice bunt went into centerfield, Mondello raced home.
That run would be needed.
In the bottom of the seventh, an error allowed UND’s Bella Zalocha to reach base and get to second. After a groundout moved Zalocha to third, Emma Johnson hit a grounder to third, and Zalocha slid under the tag, cutting the Mustangs’ margin to one and putting the tying run on base, too.
Still, said Mondello, “I had confidence that we would pull through.”
A strikeout of Kloe Kiersnowski got the Mustangs within an out of victory. Then UND’s leadoff hitter, Maggie Trinkaus, sent a drive to right field – but Carly Sears, who had an assist on a second-inning putout to rob Erin Trinkaus of a single, was playing deep here, and she caught it to end the game.
Marcellus will face Section IV’s Susquehanna Valley Friday in the Class B regional final at Binghamton’s Greenlights Grand Slam Park, looking to advance to the program’s first-ever state final four on June 7-8 at Martha Avenue Park on Long Island.
