Softball: Montini wins league title on Alonzo walkoff grand slam
Montini stayed in Monday's GCAC Red softball game thanks to the long ball. Then the Broncos ended the game with a grand slam.
The Broncos hit 4 home runs to defeat Providence 9-6 in Lombard in a game that decided the regular-season league championship, walking off the field happy after junior Naomi Alonzo's grand slam in the bottom of the eighth.
"A lot of people probably wouldn't have guessed we'd have been the ones (to win the conference), but we like to prove everybody wrong," said Alonzo, who started the game at first base and finished as the winning pitcher in relief of Brianna Clifton.
Providence took a 5-3 lead in the top of the sixth inning by pushing four runs across the plate through a steady rain on 4 hits, an error and a sacrifice fly. Montini (23-3, 15-1) answered in the bottom of the sixth by tying the game with Nicole Cuchran's no-doubt home run to center field, driving in shortstop Amy Bukovsky, who also scored on Cuchran's fourth-inning homer to center.
"She's been doing that all year," Montini coach Mike Bukovsky said of Cuchran, who hit her 11th and 12th homers of the season Monday. "For my money she's one of the players around."
Providence, now 14-2 in the league, took the lead in the eighth inning on an RBI double by leadoff hitter Taylor Young, who reached base all five at-bats, including a solo home run to start the game.
"We had some work to do," Alonzo said, "but that's what we're known for. We win ugly, but we pull through."
Cuchran led off the bottom of the eighth by walking on four pitches. Catcher Alyssa Sclafani, who scored the Broncos' first run of the game on a solo home run in the second inning, followed with a long single to left. Emily Lezcano loaded the bases when Providence couldn't field her sacrifice bunt.
That brought Alonzo to the plate.
On a 1-and-1 count, Alonzo took an outside fastball to left-center, clearing the fence, the bases and the Montini bench.
"She was just missing all day," Mike Bukovsky said of Alonzo, who was 0-for-3 before the grand slam. "She's a real good hitter. She struggled today. The last couple of days she's been struggling. We believe in her, her teammates believe in her and more importantly she still believes in herself. And she came through and just put the ball in play."
Alonzo said she was a little surprised and feeling many emotions about the walkoff grand slam, her third homer of the season.
"My team, we worked hard for this," she said.
Despite losing the league title Providence will have the top seed in the league tournament starting Tuesday, a decision made prior to Monday's game for scheduling reasons. Montini will be the second seed. Monday's game had been rescheduled several times and barely beat the rain this time.
"We lost to these guys down in New Lenox about four weeks ago and we said after the game we would do anything if we could come back and play them again when it means something," Mike Bukovsky said. "We won a lot of tough games since then. We've been talking all week we've got a chance to play them when it means something on our home field."
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