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By Joseph Staszewski
Brooklyn Daily
Poly Prep didn’t earn a victory over Fieldston, but it did restore some confidence.
It was the teams’ second meeting in four days. Fieldston took the first in a 16-run thrashing in the Bronx. Poly responded by showing it can compete with the Ivy League’s best softball squad with a tight 3–1 home defeat on Monday.
The Blue Devils team feels it is a game it can build off of in the postseason starting on May 17.
“They are a really good team,” Poly coach Mildred Piscopo said of Fieldston. “It makes you feel like we can compete with a really good team. I felt today, whether we won the game or we lost the game, if it was a close game it would be a good momentum for us going into the playoffs.”
She watched ace Ciara Schirripa get herself in and out of trouble all afternoon to keep Poly Prep in the game. The senior stranded 12 runners on base over seven innings of work. She allowed 10 hits, but just a few were hit hard. Schirripa then continued to show her knack for getting out of jams.
“They used to make fun of me last year because I would get the bases loaded and walk everyone, then I’d get the bases loaded and get all the outs without anyone coming home,” Schirripa said.
Fieldston (14–1) never scored more than one run in any inning, but that was enough with hard-throwing starter Temma Levis dominating the Poly lineup. The Blue Devils (10–6) managed just two hits and three base runners. Carly Corr plated Amanda Grossman with an RBI double in the third to make it 2–1.
Piscopo believes her team is trying to hard against what they know to be a good pitcher.
“I think sometimes they get in there and they over-swing,” she said. “They are swinging hard because they think they have to catch up to the pitch.”
Savannah Stern drove in Fieldston’s first run with a RBI double to left field in the bottom of the first inning that scored Levis to make it 1–0. Fieldston picked up another in the second thanks to a RBI groundout by Caroline Elisa. The Eagles answered Poly’s run when Carolyn Susman came home on an errant throw in the top of the fourth to provide the final margin.
Even in defeat, Poly feels confident heading into postseason play. The Blue Devils remain one of the favorites to claim the private school state title. The squad knows it will need to play at the top of its game to do so — not like its initial loss to Fieldston.
“We knew it wasn’t going to happen today because that wasn’t our team on Friday,” Schirripa said. “Today we played as hard as we could. Today was our team.”