John Jay Loses Heartbreaker in the Bottom of the Seventh

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On Tuesday April 28, Julia Gieras stood in the circle with a 2-1 lead and needed one more strike to complete a true pitching gem. The subsequent pitch had the John Jay crowd roaring and ready to celebrate. Unfortunately, the thumb did not up and that left Kaitlyn Horn sitting on a 3-2 fastball. Over the fence for a walk off homer, Theresa Swertfager’s disappointment didn’t extend to her pitcher.

“She had a lot of movement, has great promise and did a great job,” boasted the coach.

Her counterpart got off to a rocky start, though. Elise Templeton led off with a perfectly executed bunt single up first, and then the centerfielder won the race to second on McKenna Foote’s slow roller to Adriana Barca at second.

First and second with no one out and Templeton moved 60 feet away on Charlotte Bender’s ground out to third. One more time, Riley Foote’s hot shot to the hot corner squirted past Kayla DiSanzo, and John Jay took a 1-0 lead to the bottom of the inning.

The Yorktown bats could not keep up either. Gieras got Katie Egan and Nina Fasce with a strikeout looking and swinging respectively. The freshman did falter with a pair of walks, but Laney Daly took care of business by gobbling up a grounder to short.

Onto the second, John Jay once again put Kate Brown to the test. Bella Barry smoked a bouncer down the third base line for a double, and a ground out to third by Kristin Zabrocki advanced the runner. Another ground out left Daly to pull the clutch, and her grounder to deep short was good enough for an RBI infield single.

Down two, Brown took matters into her own hands and dropped a single to left. Unfortunately, the starter bit off more than she could chew when trying to steal second. Carys Cooper gunned the pitcher down, and Gieras finished off the second with a pair of strikeouts.

No response from the John Jay bats, pitching and defense were up to the task. Gieras opened the inning with another strikeout, and despite two runners reaching, Templeton perfectly tracked a pair of deep fly balls to move the game to the fourth.

The John Jay bats tempted fate, though. Three up and three down, and Barca took the cue. The second baseman went deep to left, and the lead was cut in half. Even so, Gieras responded by getting a fly out to right and two more strikeouts.

Nonetheless, Brown wasn’t giving in. She answered with a pair of strikeouts, and a ground out to third.

Four and a half complete, the Yorktown bats continued to be lively. Egan led off with a single, and Fasce followed with a line drive to the right side. The hit and run on, Bender made a lunging grab and tag to register a double play.

Yorktown kept swinging anyway and Kaitlyn Horn singled to left. Still, Gieras closed the fifth with a strikeout.

Insurance now a priority, Riley Foote doubled to lead off the inning. Two pop ups and a ground out later, the status quo remained but so did Gieras.

She opened with yet another strikeout, and after a single and a fly out to left, Bender was on the spot again. She throttled down on Sienna Katzenberg’s line drive and made the snare to put John Jay three outs away.

Brown then made quick work in the top of the seventh, and it was Gieras’s turn. The defense too, McKenna Foote made a running catch on Skylar Benfante’s baby bloop in foul territory.

Two outs to go, Gieras faltered with a walk to Egan. Although the Wolf regained the upper hand by striking out Fasce. The happy ending was not to be, though, and the shortcoming was easy for Swertfager to identify. “We got to get our bats moving,” she said.

A prospect that is in no way far fetched. “We’ve seen so much growth since the beginning of the season. So it’s only up from here,” the coach concluded.

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