Softball: Nazareth ends Montini's repeat hopes

Montini spent all of Monday's Class 3A Rosemont softball supersectional trying to overcome Nazareth's first at-bats.

It never did work out for the Broncos.

Nazareth ended Montini's season with a 3-0 defeat of the defending state champion, scoring all 3 runs in the top of the first inning.

"We didn't execute in the first inning defensively," said Montini coach Mike Bukovsky. "They weren't blatant errors, but you've got to make those plays. (The Roadrunners) made those plays. Defensively, they did a great job today. They stole hits."

Gloria Corona led off the game by slapping a single to left field. With one out Taylor Gipson singled to center, and Ciara Mardirosian's single to left loaded the bases.

"We came out like, you know what, we're going to pick our pitches out," Mardirosian said. "We saw (Montini pitcher Bri Clifton) last year and we said we know she's going to throw us all curveballs, all riseballs, everything outside.

"And when I got up there in the box she made the mistake of throwing me inside once and I took it to the 5-6 hole. I was lucky enough to get a hit off it. You've got to build off their mistakes."

Corona scored the game's first run on Jordan Barnes' sacrifice fly to right field. Gipson and Mardirosian scored on Julia Dallman's bloop double to right.

Clifton, the winning pitcher in the 2016 state championship game, shut down the Roadrunners the rest of the game. Clifton struck out five, walked one and got 17 consecutive outs to end the game.

"Montini's a great program, and we're lucky to come out with a win, for sure," Mardirosian said.

Zuro limited the Broncos (27-7) to 4 hits, all singles, but never gave up 2 hits in the same inning. She hit a Broncos batter in the fifth, one in the sixth and another in the seventh, but she stranded five runners in the final three innings.

"Devyn Zuro was a lights-out pitcher," Mardirosian said. "She's one of my best friends. I'm just so proud of her. She pitched a perfect game. She hit every spot. She went out there with so much confidence. I've never seen a girl carry herself so well in a game of softball."

"Their pitcher did a really good job," Bukovsky added. "Devyn did a really good job. We had some poor approaches that really hurt us this game by some of our hitters, but I think some of that was due to her. She kept us off-balance and really did a nice job."

Junior third baseman Nikki Cuchran led the Broncos by going 2-for-3.

"If we would have managed the first inning better, then it would have been a whole different game," Bukovsky said. "It would have been a 1-run game the whole game maybe. ... It's a different situation."