CROSS RIVER, N.Y. - On Monday, April 13 at AP Farms Field, Carys Cooper and Maria DeGaetano came in with a clear strategy against Brewster.
“Mixing speeds and locations,” said Cooper. “We were trying to get them to chase.”
The plan worked early, as Brewster was held scoreless in the first. But in the second, a pair of walks and two hits put John Jay in a 3-0 hole.
As the game progressed, Cooper and DeGaetano adjusted.
“With her speed and movement, we thought it would be better to go right at them,” Cooper said.
By the end, the sharp, echoing pop of the ball in the catcher’s mitt told the story of an 8-3 John Jay victory.
DeGaetano settled in after the rocky start. She overpowered Giana Kusterer with an off-speed pitch for a swinging strikeout, and Taylor Slavkin followed with a fly out to left. A single and an error briefly threatened, but Ava Medina’s fly ball to right ended the inning.
In the bottom half, Clare Doherty sparked the offense with a one-out bloop single to left. It was the first of three hits for the first baseman, who credited her approach.
“I stay in on the ball and keep my head in,” she said.
Still, Doherty was stranded, and Brewster added to its lead. After the opening walks, Kusterer and Carly Krebbs delivered two-out hits to make it 3-0.
John Jay responded quickly. Kristin Zabrocki, down 0-2, turned the at-bat around.
“I just hit the ball,” she said.
The result was a deep triple to center. McKenna Foote followed with a soft liner into the infield to score her, cutting the deficit to 3-1.
Though John Jay left runners on base later in the inning, DeGaetano kept her team within striking distance, retiring the next six batters in order.
That set the stage for a decisive fourth inning.
Kusterer issued walks to Foote and Bella Barry, and a ground ball off Cooper’s bat wasn’t handled cleanly by the Brewster defense, bringing John Jay within one.
Laney Daley then lined a ball back up the middle that struck Kusterer, tying the game. Elise Templeton followed with a sacrifice fly to give John Jay the lead, and Doherty added an RBI single to make it 5-3.
With momentum firmly on their side, John Jay didn’t let up.
DeGaetano breezed through the fifth with a pop-up, groundout, and strikeout. In the bottom half, Zabrocki reached on a hard-hit ball that turned into two bases thanks to throwing errors. She later scored on Cooper’s RBI contact.
“I was just trying to make contact,” Cooper said.
Behind the plate, she also handled DeGaetano’s rising velocity.
“My hand hurts a little,” she joked.
John Jay added insurance in the sixth. Templeton and Doherty opened with bunt singles, and Zabrocki’s pop-up to first was misplayed, allowing two more runs to score.
From there, DeGaetano closed it out with authority.
“At the end, we were just trying to focus on being clean and getting it done,” the winning pitcher said.
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