AnnaMarie Gatti leads Syracuse in its 6-4 win over No. 17 Notre Dame for 2nd complete game in 3-game series

A dull clunk came off the bat of Notre Dame’s Karley Wester. A second later, the ball was in her third base coach’s front right pocket. Deanna Gumpf, UND’s head coach, turned around before patting herself down.

Another second went by and then, in the front pocket of her gray jacket, she found the ball, which had just sawed off the left-handed hitting Wester.

On the next pitch, Wester waved at and missed an outside changeup from the hands of Syracuse’s AnnaMarie Gatti. The at bat, which moments later ended in a strikeout, epitomized Gatti’s outing on Saturday.

The SU sophomore quieted a powerful Notre Dame offense, allowing just four hits and one earned run across seven innings. The weekend series-clinching win marked Gatti’s second complete game victory against UND in less than 24 hours, leading Syracuse (16-15, 3-6 Atlantic Coast) past No. 17 Notre Dame (24-5, 4-2) 6-4 at SU Softball Stadium.

“I could feel my fingers today, so that was helping,” Gatti said, alluding to Friday’s game, when temperatures hovered around 32 degrees. On Saturday, it was slightly windy, but a mild 45 degrees.

In game one of Saturday’s doubleheader, UND banged out nine hits against SU left-hander Jocelyn Cater, winning 6-1. But in game two, Gatti pitched just as she did the day prior, tossing her second complete game in as many days. In both outings, she beat UND’s Allie Rhodes, a crafty left-hander who entered the weekend leading her team in wins, with 11.

Before it saw Gatti on Friday, UND won 19 straight games. The Fighting Irish had scored six or more runs in 10 straight games. Seven of its hitters had batting averages over .300. Four of those seven were also hitting over .400, including Wester.

But by pounding the strike zone and forcing groundballs, Gatti kept the UND offense to just one earned run on four hits. She struck out three and induced 17 groundballs, thanks largely to her drop ball. She walked just one.

“(Gatti) keeps the pitch count down,” SU head coach Mike Bosch said. “As long as we’re rolling groundballs and fielding the ball … really you want to get in there and attack the batters and she’s really done an excellent job of that.”

The only blemish to a near-perfect outing came in the sixth. After an infield error and a walk, UND had two runners on base for the only time in the game. So, Gatti called catcher Olivia Martinez to come out and chat.

“I needed a second,” Gatti said. “Sometimes it’s just like, softball, softball, throwing, throwing. You just need to take a breath, talk. We literally just talked about how, when we’re done with this game, life is going to go on, whatever happens, happens. Just try to make this pitch and focus.”

The next batter was UND’s three hitter, Melissa Rochford. Gatti struck her out for the second out of the inning. Up through that point, Gatti had held the Fighting Irish’s top four hitters to just two hits in 10 at bats. Then, Micaela Arizmendi hit a three-run shot to left to make it a two-run game.

Gatti remained stoic, though, and forced a weak groundout to end the inning. She did give up one single in the seventh inning, but, fittingly, got all three of her outs via the groundout. She tossed a first pitch strike to each of the first three hitters she faced in that final frame. Each of them swung.

“They were like grunting and swinging and I was like, ‘Wow, they want to rally back,’” Gatti said. “But that kind of just made me want to get them out even more. So I mean they tried, but we won.”