No. 1 St. Thomas Aquinas, No. 2 Mercy Earn Wins on Opening Day of ECC Softball Championship

SPARKILL, NY – No. 1 Mercy and No. 2 St. Thomas Aquinas defeated their opposition on the opening day of the ECC Women's Softball Championship on Thursday afternoon at STAC's Spartan Field. NO. 1 ST. THOMAS AQUINAS d. NO. 4 D'YOUVILLE, 3-0 BOX SCORE Recap courtesy of St. Thomas Aquinas College Sports Information NO. 2 MERCY d. NO. 3 MOLLOY, 4-3 BOX SCORE Recap courtesy of Mercy University Sports Information The Mavericks (23-20) improve to 5-0 this season against the Lions (19-30) this season. Mercy wins a game in the ECC Championship for the first time since 2021. Mercy will play at top seed St. Thomas Aquinas tomorrow at 10 a.m. If the Mavericks win tomorrow morning, they will advance to the Final on Saturday at 12 p.m. If Mercy loses to STAC, they will face the winner of Molloy/D'Youville in an elimination game at 3 p.m. on Friday.  Mercy was led by Murphy who went 3-for-4 with her second home run of the season and three RBI. Salanto went 2-for-3 with an RBI and freshmen Keira Jantz (Islip, N.Y./Islip) and Jessica Fox (Rockaway, N.J./Morris Knolls) both went 2-for-3. Senior Skylar Brandemarte (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Stonehill College) tossed a complete game with two earned runs allowed and two strikeouts to earn her 13th win of the season.  Molloy was led by Natalie Moussa who went 2-for-4 with two RBI. Stevie Dabbadie allowed two runs in 5.1 innings to take the loss.  Mercy took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on a Murphy leadoff home run to left center.  The Mavericks scored two runs in the second inning to take a 3-0 lead. Fox singled and senior Madilyn Lula (Milford, Conn./Jonathan Law) walked before sophomore Dylan Reyer (Baldwin, N.Y./Baldwin) sacrificed the runners over to second and third. Murphy then singled to right center, scoring Fox and Lula to give Mercy a 3-0 lead.  Molloy scored a run in the third inning and two runs in the fifth inning to tie the game at 3-3.  The game remained tied at 3-3 heading to the bottom of the seventh. Murphy singled to lead off the game and advanced to second after a graduate student Mia Harris (West Harrison, N.Y./Harrison) sacrifice. Senior Victoria Seppala (Abington, Mass./Abington) walked before Salanto singled to left field, scoring Murphy, to give Mercy the 4-3 walk-off win. Mercy had nine hits and one error and Molloy had eight hits and one error.  Head Coach Jaime Lorenzo and the Mavericks resume action tomorrow when they play at No. 1 seed STAC at 10 a.m. in the second day of the ECC Championship.
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