See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Joseph Staszewski
Brooklyn Daily
The Fontbonne Hall softball team is closing in on history. The Bonnies have won the Brooklyn-Queens regular season title, and now are the favorite to win the school’s first diocesan crown.
If they complete the feat they would reach the school’s first final since 1999, and become the first Brooklyn team to win it all since Bishop Kearney beat Mary Louis in 2001.
“It means a lot to be a Brooklyn team when Queens has been dominating,” junior centerfielder Christina Calascione said.
Nothing is a given, as evidenced by Fontbonne’s late-season loss to Archbishop Molloy — the only blemish its league record other than an early loss to second-place St. Francis Prep. Even so, this Fontbonne team is Brooklyn’s best chance for a diocesan title in nearly a decade.
“There are no weak teams in our division,” said Bonnies coach Frank Marinello. “Anybody can win this. This is up for grabs.”
The mental image junior Calascione conjured after the team topped St. Francis Prep for the regular season crown still lingers. She called Fontbonne, “a little school on the hill on Shore Road.” It means the players have embraced their underdog status, going up against league powers such as St. Francis and Molloy, which won the last four crowns.
Fontbonne learning to contend isn’t something that just happened. There have been plenty of growing pains for this group, including a 1-0 loss to Molloy in last year’s semifinals. The key juniors, Nicolette Trapani, Maria Serrantino, Natalia Sroga and Calascione, where on a team as freshman that won a play-in game just to get in the diocesan playoffs.
When watching them then, you knew they had a chance to do special things when they finally became juniors alongside a solid senior class. Marinello and his coaches felt the same way.
It finally happened this year with still one more to go for the team’s core four. Trapani has developed into one of the city’s most dominant pitchers, Serrantino and Sroga have formed a dangerous middle of the order and Calascione provides speed and the ability to get on base leading off.
“We’ve been wanting this for so long.” Calascione said. “It’s been three years for all this. It’s a great feeling.”
Marinello loaded up the non-league schedule this year. It included games against Paramus Catholic, St. Joseph by the Sea, St. Dominic’s, Moore Catholic and others.
“It helped,” Trapani said. “Instead of staying home and having practices we were out in the field doing the plays we practiced and kept getting better at it. I’m happy we had all those games even though it was really tiring.”
All of those hours and struggles will be worth it if they can bring home the diocesan championship plaque.
Reach reporter Joseph Staszewski at jstaszewski@cnglocal.com. Follow him on twitter @cng_staszewski.