Syracuse walks off in 4-3 win over Louisville

Lailoni Mayfield took three steps out of the box, awaiting the fate of her blooper. Teammates, fans and opponents mirrored her emotions, bringing pre-pitch chants and cheers to silence.

When the ball dunked down into the outfield past the outstretched arm of Louisville second baseman Maddy Newman, Mayfield leaped into the air with both of her arms outstretched, celebrating before the winning run had even reached home plate. Her hands still in the air, Mayfield reached first base and wasted no time to turn to the Syracuse dugout, where her teammates stood relieved.

Mayfield’s bases-loaded single in the bottom of the seventh broke a 3-3 tie, pushing Syracuse (21-18, 5-11 Atlantic Coast) past Louisville (24-17, 7-7 ACC), 4-3, on Friday at Skytop Softball Stadium. The win snaps a nine-game conference losing streak for the Orange, which dropped the first game of Friday’s doubleheader, 3-2. The Cardinals scored two runs in the top of the seventh to take their first lead of the game before Mayfield’s clutch hit after going down 0-2 in the count plated SU’s second run of the inning to clinch the game.

“(Louisville pitcher Kyra Snyder) has just walked the batter before me, so I was gonna be selective,” Mayfield said. “I knew she was gonna come hard with me and I knew I just wasn’t gonna get beat.”

Syracuse controlled the majority of the game thanks in part to starting pitcher AnnaMarie Gatti, who gave up just one earned run on seven hits. But after failing to capitalize on a scoring chance in the bottom of the sixth, the Orange’s lead was just 2-1 heading into the final inning.

In the top half of the seventh Syracuse first began to lose its grip on the game. The inning began with a single off of Mayfield’s glove and then Alexa Romero walked the only batter she saw after entering the game for four pitches in relief. Gatti was reinserted and another walked batter loaded the bases. An ensuing single scored two, and Syracuse, who led the whole game, found themselves down one to the Cardinals on one swing.

On the play, shortstop and SU’s all-time hits leader Sammy Fernandez collided with a Louisville base runner and had to leave the game. Her departure forced first baseman Hannah Dossett to move to third base and the ball found her on the next at-bat. Dossett caught a line drive in foul territory and doubled the runner off of third. Gatti induced a flyout to the next batter to get Syracuse out of the inning without any further damage.

“We were lucky,” Gatti said. “Hannah moved to third for reasons that were bizarre, made that huge double play. It was a weird game.”

Sparked by the defensive play to end the inning and perhaps inspired by the loss of its senior leader, the Orange came to bat with life in the bottom of the seventh. After walking to lead off the inning, Gabby Teran came around to score on Miranda Hearn’s single to right-center two batters later.

An error and a walk brought up Mayfield, who was 1-3 on the day including an error and the play at third base that began the inning. She was the ninth batter in the order, but the Orange knew she could get it done.

“There was not a doubt in my mind that she was gonna be able to do it,” Alicia Hansen said. “I looked in the dugout and I said, ‘I know Lailoni’s gonna do this, I want Lailoni up right now.’”

Mayfield didn’t let Hansen down, delivering the game-winning hit on the fifth pitch of the at-bat. After touching first base and turning to face the mass of teammates rushing her, Mayfield was hugged and thrusted up into the air by fellow infielder Andrea Bombace.

Bombace’s embrace encapsulated the feeling of relief for the Orange, a team with six out of its 11 ACC losses coming by one run – including its defeat earlier on Friday.

“We’ve had…not the best luck with one-run games,” head coach Mike Bosch said, “finding ways to do the little things right to win, fortunately we found some things to go right to get that. For us to have a walk-off at home is awesome.”