FILE PHOTO
Mia Nowicki hit the game-winning single and then struck out the side as St. Mary’s defeated Austin Prep in the completion of a game that was suspended in April due to rain.
By STEVE KRAUSE
LYNN — Apparently, St. Mary’s pitcher Mia Nowicki’s time to shine comes when she faces Austin Prep.
The two schools have become fierce softball rivals over the past decade, and that was especially evident this season as the Spartans swept the season’s series against the Cougars, even though they scored a combined three runs in the two games.
Sunday, St. Mary’s needed but an inning to finish a game that was started April 12, but was discontinued in the sixth inning when the rain got to be too heavy. The Spartans won, 2-0 at Breed, with Nowicki knocking home the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth. She then struck out the side in the seventh.
Both Nowicki and Logan MacDonald of Austin Prep had been equally unhittable back in April. Literally. Neither team was able hit a thing. Only Nowicki maintained her no-hitter.
Between the April game and Sunday, the two pitchers had battled through 13 innings, each putting up zeros, in a game in Reading that the Spartans finally won on Nowicki’s home run. She also struck out 27 batters.
“I think it’s nice that we’ve beaten them twice,” said Nowicki, a senior, who began pitching for the team when she was in the eighth grade. “But hopefully we’ll see them again (in the state tournament), and that’s the game everyone will remember. These games are great, but the tournament is what counts.”
Nowicki made a state final back when she was in the eighth grade, pitching two innings in relief in a loss to Assabet Valley. She’d love to have the experience again.
“We’re going to be working extra hard to get to that point,” she said.
While St. Mary’s coach Paige Licata is certainly grateful to look out and see Nowicki on the mound every day, she wanted to be sure to give an extra shoutout to ninth-grader Marina DeBiaso and senior Ashley Wojewodzic. They set the table for Nowicki in the bottom of the sixth, when the game resumed.
DiBiaso led off with a single off MacDonald and Wojewodzic executed the sacrifice bunt to get the runner to second.
“Can you imagine,” said Licata, “a girl her age, up at bat against a pitcher like (MacDonald)? That is awesome. And then Ashley came through with the bunt. It was just like we planned it.”
It was just like Austin Prep coach Frank Sorrenti planned it too.
“That’s what we were going to do,” he said. “We were going to try to steal a run in the top of the seventh and count on (Logan).”
In the battle between the two pitchers, Nowicki won, but barely. She dribbled a single just past the Austin Prep first baseman, scoring the go-ahead run.
Gia Santaniello hit a popup that the Cougars’ catcher caught, but in an attempt to double the runner off first, she threw wild and the pinch-runner, Ashley Sullivan, scored the second run.
“Sometimes,” said Licata, “it all comes down to when you have to make the play. Maybe if that was the fourth inning, or there was nothing at stake, they make that play. But in that situation, it gets a little tougher.”
The win means St. Mary’s can do no worse than a tie for the Catholic Central League/Large title. And if the Spartans defeat Archbishop Williams Tuesday, it’s theirs alone.