It was a huge comeback on Friday night, giving the Donovan Catholic High School softball team the State Non-Public A Title 8-7 over Immaculate Heart in 10 innings.
On Sunday morning, the No. 1 Griffins beat a die-hard, disgruntled No. 17 Clayton team in the semi-finals of the Tournament of Champions with a 3-2 win that earned them a return to the TOC game after hitting it all in 2019 had won.
Julia Apostolakos landed in the top of the sixth from a second and third one-out jam after replacing Adriana Romano – who hit 12 in 5 1/3 innings and 500th then knocked out the side in the seventh.
Donovan Catholic had a fortunate breakthrough in the lower part of the second inning when Adriana Romano’s routine flyball was apparently lost in the sun, landing for a leadoff triple. She faced Emily Kurth’s sacrificial flies to give Donovan Catholic a 1-0 lead.
The Clippers were patient early on on the plate, taking a step in each of the first three innings, but Romano recorded a pair of strikeouts with two to the third and hit the side in the fourth as Clayton began chasing their riser.
Romano caught another break in the fourth when her soft line drive tipped pitcher Meadow Lake’s glove into no man’s land to attract two runners with no outs rather than double play.
The Griffins made great again. Kurtz dropped a Bunt for an outfield player’s pick to load the bases and Charlotte Dwyer put down a Bunt single to make the 2-0. Alexis Letiza ripped an RBI single to the left for a 3-0 lead.
But Lake rushed his way out of further trouble by causing a popup, recording a strikeout, and getting a line drive for the finale to leave the bases loaded. The next inning, the escape, was big when Clayton leadoff hitter Gianna Muhaw put a shot over the line and into the corner for a double home run in the park, reducing the deficit to one.
The Clippers kept going, but the Griffins held on.
