BINGHAMTON – When this decade began, the Marcellus softball team had not won a Section III championship in its history.
Three sectional titles later, the Mustangs continue to break down barriers, now reaching the program’s first-ever state final four and doing so with a dramatic flair.
Down to its last two outs in Friday’s Class B regional final against Section IV champion Susquehanna Valley at Binghamton’s Greenlights Grand Slam Park, Marcellus rallied and, by a 5-3 margin, secured its first-ever regional crown.
Once before, the Mustangs got this far, only to drop an epic 10-inning battle to Chenango Valley in the 2022 regional final. Once again, it came down to a last at-bat, but the outcome was different.
Entering the top of the seventh inning, Marcellus trailed SV 3-2, having seen the Sabers score all of its runs in the bottom of the sixth to erase the 2-0 lead the Mustangs had built through the game’s early stages.
With one out in the seventh, senior Bryn Goldsworthy drew a walk from SV pitcher LilliOnna D’Introno, who then threw back-to-back wild pitches that sent Goldsworthy to third.
When Amelia Novitsky walked, another wild pitch allowed Goldsworthy to score the tying run, but it didn’t stay 3-3 for long.
Bella Mondello, who had gone three-for-three and doubled twice, was intentionally walked. Then Chloe Kuttruff delivered a perfectly placed bloop single that brought Novitsky home with the go-ahead run and sent Mondello to third, still with just one out.
Jill O’Connor then grounded to the right side, bringing Mondello home and giving the Mustangs a two-run margin to protect going into the bottom of the seventh.
Despite allowing a one-out double to Kianna Cipolla, Mondello did what D’Introno could not, securing the final three outs.
Much like the sectional final against Utica Notre Dame, the game started 0-0 through the first three innings before Mondello’s double in the top of the fourth and two wild pitches put the Mustangs in front 1-0.
That margin doubled to 2-0 two innings later. Mondello nearly hit it out, but her double to the wall, a groundout by Kuttruff that put her on third and yet another wild pitch produced a run.
On her way to eight strikeouts without surrendering a walk, Mondello was maintaining a shutout when, in the bottom of the sixth, SV turned it around.
Paige Weaver tripled home a run, scored on Alexis Burns’ grounder to tie it 2-2, then watched Kylee Richardson single and come all the way home on Danica LaBarre’s go-ahead triple.
Somehow, Marcellus absorbed all this, answered an inning later and secured a trip to Long Island’s Martha Avenue Recreational Park, where next Friday at 6 p.m. it meets Wellsville (Section V) or Fredonia (Section VI) in the state semifinal. The title game is June 8 at 1:30.
