NEW ROCHELLE, NY - The Iona College softball team split with Manhattan on Saturday in the first of two games in a best-of-three series to advance to the Championship Round of the MAAC postseason. Junior
Kara Zazzaro pitched both games for Iona, securing the win in game two to keep Iona's postseason alive.
GAME ONE: (MANHATTAN 6, IONA 2)
It was a less than ideal start to the postseason for the MAAC Pitcher of the Year Kara Zazzaro, who walked the first two batters she faced and watched them both come around to score after back-to-back one-out singles by Daniela Chiorazzi and Marika Deemer. Zazzaro would strike the next two hitters out, but the damage had already been done.
Manhattan's ace, Nicole Williams, set down the side in order in the bottom of the first, striking out the MAAC Player of the Year, Jessica Chilcott, and the MAAC Rookie of the Year, Jamie Sheeran. Iona could not get the bats going in the first turn through the order against Williams, who allowed just one baserunner through the first three innings, a walk to Alana Evans in the second.
The Jaspers tacked on insurance runs in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings, building a 6-1 lead as the game waned to a close. Iona's first run of the afternoon came on a Natalia Meray solo shot to leftfield to lead off the bottom of the fourth. Her second homer of the season cut the lead to 4-1 at that point, but Manhattan got the run right back when Annie Moore led off the top of the fifth with a moonshot over the fence in left.
Jesse Rising hit a ringing double to the opposite field gap, just out of the reach of the diving Chilcott, with one out in the top of the sixth. A wild pitch, followed by a grounder to short allowed Rising to score, giving Manhattan a 6-1 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth. Meray recorded her second hit of the day, a single down the line in left with one out, but she remained there after Williams retired the next two hitters.
With the Gaels trailing by a sizable margin and facing their last three outs, Evans began things in the seventh with a looping single into left center. Jasmine Temple pinch hit, but her fly ball into center was snared out of the air for the first out. Freshman Kaylin Flukey pinch hit after Temple, smoking a ball through the hole on the right side of the infield to put two runners on for Iona for the first time that afternoon. Ritchey reached on a fielder's choice, but now the Maroon & Gold were down to their last out. A wild pitch in the middle of Kaelene Walter's at bat allowed a run to score for Iona, but Walter fouled out to end the game.
GAME TWO: (IONA 3, MANHATTAN 1)
Zazzaro started game two for Iona after pitching six innings in the first game. Manhattan head coach Tom Pardalis sent out Kali Puppolo for the second game. The two pitchers tossed clean innings to start things in game two.
Iona did all of its damage in the second inning against Puppolo. A leadoff walk to DiGuilio started things, then Walter moved her up a base with a sacrifice bunt. Evans followed with a single that put runners on the corners with one away. The Gaels sacrificed an out for a run on a Kayla Haywood fly ball to right. Puppolo walked the next two batters on full-count offerings to load the bases, then hit Chilcott and walked Meray to push two more runs across. Deemer entered in relief, leaving three ducks on the pond after Victoria Alonso handled a sharply hit grounder in the infield.
Zazzaro set the Jaspers down 1-2-3 in the third after being handed a three-run lead. Manhattan scratched across a run on an Alonso single through the middle in the top of the fourth, but Zazzaro struck Rising out looking to end the frame.
The Jaspers put a runner on with one out in the fifth, but Zazzaro got Rende to bounce out and Moore to fly out to end the inning. She worked around another one-out single in the sixth to strand another runner and protect her two-run lead. The junior from Southington, Connecticut finished strong, striking out the side in the seventh to notch her 19th win of the season and keep Iona alive in the 2021 MAAC Softball Championship.
NOTABLE NUGGETS
- Zazzaro moved to 19-3 on the season and now stands alone in second place in program history in single-season pitching wins. Her six earned runs in game one matched the most earned runs allowed in her career.
- Meray's game one homer was her second of the season and got Iona on the scoreboard against Manhattan's ace. She was the only Gael today to register a multi-hit game.
- Iona's other game one hits belonged to Evans, Flukey and Ritchey.
- The Gaels won game two despite being one-hit in a combined effort by Puppolo and Deemer. Since before 2015, Iona never won a game in which they only registered one hit offensively.
- Iona's only hit in game two came off of the bat of Evans. She was the only Gael to register a hit in both contests today.
- Two of Iona's runs came around to score despite the ball not being put in play. Chilcott was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and then Meray followed with a bases-loaded walk.
- The Gaels' first run came via a Haywood sacrifice fly to the opposite field, scoring DiGuilio.
AROUND THE MAAC
- No. 2 Canisius and No. 7 Rider split its doubleheader in Buffalo. Rider took game one, and Canisius won the second to force a third game tomorrow.
- Yesterday, No. 8 Marist defeated No. 1 Monmouth and No. 4 Fairfield swept No. 5 Siena to push both teams into the next round of the league's postseason.
UP NEXT
Iona and Manhattan face off tomorrow in a winner take all game to see who will advance to the next round of the 2021 MAAC Softball Championship. The Gaels and the Jaspers are scheduled for first pitch at noon on ESPN+ from New Rochelle.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Be sure to follow Iona College athletics on all social media platforms:
ICGaels: Twitter,
Facebook,
Instagram and
YouTube (
E-Mail Updates)
Iona Softball: Twitter,
Facebook,
Instagram and
YouTube (
E-Mail Updates)
