St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
0-4
Clemson
2-2
St. John’s Downed by Clemson and UCF
2/9/2020 5:44:00 PM | Softball
Kaitlin Mattera goes 4-for-5 with two RBIs, Gabriella Conca hits first career home run against Clemson
Game 1
The Johnnies dropped game one to the Tigers despite stellar outings from senior Kaitlin Mattera and junior Gabriella Conca.
Mattera went a career-best 4-for-5 at the plate with two RBIs in the Johnnies' final game of the weekend.
Gabriella Conca put forth the best effort of her three-year stint with St. John's, going 2-for-4 at the dish with her first career home run and four RBIs. Conca's two base knocks against the Tigers mark her second multi-hit game of her career. The Cranston, R.I., native's first game came against Central Michigan on March 1, 2019.
Elyse Morris registered a 2-for-4 performance against the Tigers, plating two Johnnies while scoring one run.
St. John's (0-5) went down 2-0 in the opening frame following a solo home run and a bases loaded walk by the Tigers (2-3).
In the bottom of the second inning, Conca knocked Jessi Bryant in on an RBI groundout to short, cutting the deficit to one, 2-1. However, Clemson added on two more runs in the top of the third, extending its lead to three, 4-1.
The Johnnies inched their way back into the game with a Mattera RBI single to left-center, bringing Amelia Ditolvo across the dish and cutting the Tigers' lead to two, 4-2.
St. John's stormed back in the bottom half of the fourth, starting with back-to-back singles from Laura Delgado and Conca. With a 2-2 count, Elyse Morris knotted the game at four with a two-run base knock down the left field line. Gretchen Bowie drove in another run on a sacrifice bunt before Mattera rocked her second RBI single of the contest to lift the Red Storm to its first lead of the game, 6-4.
Following a scoreless top of the fifth inning, the Johnnies opened the bottom half with a hit by pitch to Kalei Sorensen and a walk to Delgado. With runners on first and second and no outs, Conca roped the first pitch she saw over the left field fence for a three-run shot, giving the Johnnies a 9-4 advantage.
Clemson fought back in the sixth and seventh innings, scoring 15 unanswered runs to knock off the Johnnies, 15-9.
Game 2
The Johnnies fell in their final game of the UCF Black & Gold Tournament to the host-Knights, 6-2.
After allowing a run in each of the first two innings, St. John's battled to cut its deficit in half. Conca walked to start the frame, followed by a single from Peyton Cody and a walk to Amy Mallah to load the bases. Two batters later, Bowie reached on a fielder's choice, forcing Conca to score from third for a 2-1 advantage in favor of the Knights.
UCF (5-1) held the Johnnies scoreless in the top of the fourth before tagging the visiting team with a two-spot in the bottom half to lead by three, 4-1.
St. John's continued to battle the Knights, posting another tally in the top of the fifth. Conca, Cody and Morris all singled to start the inning, forcing UCF to deal with yet another the bases loaded situation. Two batters later, Bowie registered her second RBI groundout of the game to cut the Johnnies' deficit to two, 4-2.
The Knights responded in the bottom half of the fifth with a solo shot from Justine Molina, pushing the UCF lead back to three, 5-2.
The home team tallied one more run in the sixth inning to extend its lead to four, 6-2, on its second solo home run in as many frames.
Cody singled and Natalie Giroux reached on an error in the final frame, but the Knights held off the visiting team's threat.
St. John's will return to action on Feb. 14-16, when the team heads to College Station for the Texas A&M Invitational.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Cagle,Valerie (1-2)
L: Brown, Erin (0-3)
Batting:
2B: Guimbarda,Marissa 1 ; Mattimore,Grace 1 ; Stuart,Abi 1
HR: Cagle,Valerie 1 ; Bonamy,MK 1 ; Stuart,Abi 1
RBI: Cagle,Valerie 1 ; Bonamy,MK 6 ; Guimbarda,Marissa 3 ; Taylor,Bailey 1 ; Mattimore,Grace 4 ; Johnson,Morgan 2 ; Stuart,Abi 2
SF: Taylor,Bailey 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Cagle,Valerie 3 ; Pereira,Cammy 2 ; Bonamy,MK 3 ; Shannon,Carlee 1 ; Guimbarda,Marissa 1 ; Goodwin,Hannah 1 ; Taylor,Bailey 1 ; Mattimore,Grace 1 ; Johnson,Morgan 1 ; Keller,Kyah 1 ; Stuart,Abi 3 ; Oda,Arielle 1
SB: Cagle,Valerie 1 ; Bonamy,MK 1 ; Shannon,Carlee 1 ; Johnson,Morgan 1
HBP: Goodwin,Hannah 1 ; Taylor,Bailey 1
Batting:
HR: Conca, Gabriella 1
RBI: Morris, Elyse 2 ; Bowie, Gretchen 1 ; Mattera, Kaitlin 2 ; Conca, Gabriella 4
SH: Bowie, Gretchen 1 ; Sorensen, Kalei 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Morris, Elyse 1 ; Ditolvo, Amelia 1 ; Bryant, Jessi 1 ; Mallah, Amy 1 ; Delgado, Laura 2 ; Conca, Gabriella 2 ; Lologo, Kaitlyn 1
SB: Lologo, Kaitlyn 1
HBP: Sorensen, Kalei 1
