SPARKILL, N.Y. (May 4, 2022) – Despite a home run from sophomore Alexandra Karavias (Westbury, N.Y./WT Clarke), the No. 4 seeded Mercy College softball team dropped a 3-2 decision to No. 1 seeded St. Thomas Aquinas College in their opening game of the East Coast Conference (ECC) Softball Championship on Wednesday afternoon at Spartan Field.
The Mavericks (11-37) fall to the Spartans (28-19) for the third time this season and will face No. 3 seed Molloy on Friday, May 6th at 12:30 p.m. at St. Thomas Aquinas in an elimination game. The loser of Friday's game will be eliminated and the winner will face the loser of Bridgeport and St. Thomas Aquinas at 3 p.m. on Friday at St. Thomas Aquinas.
Karavias went 2-for-3 with her second home run of the season and an RBI. Senior Ariana Ricci (Sacramento, Calif./Cosumnes Oaks) went 1-for-2 with an RBI and senior Alexis Crawford (Hemet, Calif./West Valley High) went 1-for-2. Junior Nicole Smart (Santa Clarita, Calif./Golden Valley) went 1-for-3 with a run and junior Alexi Benson (Fredericksburg, Va./Riverbend) pitched a complete game with two earned runs allowed and seven strikeouts to take the loss.
STAC was led by Carissa Della Vecchia who went 1-for-3 with two runs and an RBI and pitched a complete game with one earned run allowed to earn the win.
The Spartans jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on two hits. Mercy answered in the top of the second with a run to tie the game at 1-1. Smart singled and later scored on a Ricci sacrifice fly to centerfield, tying the game at 1-1.
The score remained 1-1 until the third inning when the Spartans scored a run after Della Vecchia reached on a fielder's choice, giving the hosts a 2-1 lead.
STAC added on a run in the fifth inning following a Mercy error to take a 3-1 lead.
After Mercy went down in order in the sixth inning, Karavias led off the seventh for Mercy with a home run to center field to make it 3-2. However, Della Vecchia retired the next three Mavericks in order to give STAC the 3-2 win.
Mercy had five hits and two errors and STAC had seven hits and no errors.
