Before the final game of Mary Dombrowski’s career, she threw out the first pitch. In the third inning, she pounded a 3-2 pitch into the trees beyond right center for a grand slam. And in the fourth, she fielded a line drive in right field and fired a strike home, throwing out Virginia’s Allison Davis and keeping UVA scoreless.

“The fact that I could add that on top of my grand slam, that was one of the best days of my life,” Dombrowski said. “Very fun, amazing memories that I’ll just cherish forever.”

On her Senior Day, Dombrowski did a little bit of everything.

She headlined a powerful offensive performance by Syracuse (20-26, 4-13 Atlantic Coast) in its five-inning, 11-2 victory over Virginia (16-40, 4-20) on Sunday afternoon at SU Softball Stadium. Six Orange batters tallied RBIs in the clinching game of the team’s first ACC series sweep of the season, and Dombrowski led all of them with four RBIs.

“What I told the girls after the game is all season, this is the team that we were expecting to see out there,” SU head coach Leigh Ross said.

While pitcher Jocelyn Cater set down the first nine batters she faced, her offense was giving her breathing room.

Center fielder Maddi Doane led off the bottom of the first with a double to left before advancing to third on a groundout. Shortstop Corinne Ozanne followed with a sharp grounder through the hole to score Doane.

“Everybody just came with their A game and we fed off each other,” Ozanne said. “When everybody hits, everybody hits and we do damage.”

While the Orange struggled to get production from the bottom half of its lineup most of the year, it got production from every slot Sunday. Each Orange starter tallied at least one hit.

To lead off the second inning, third baseman Danielle Chitkowski hit a towering fly toward the scoreboard in left field, easily clearing the fence on the first pitch she saw.

“It feels good to know that you can trust and rely on everybody in the lineup,” Ozanne said.

Syracuse finally broke through for multiple runs in the third inning. Three straight singles led off the inning and were followed by a Rachel Burkhardt single to score a run. The bases were loaded, and Dombrowski stepped to the plate.

She said she knew the ball was gone as soon as it hit her bat and she cried as she rounded third, overwhelmed by the emotion of the day.

“She struggled at the plate all weekend, but she got the one big hit and one that she’s going to remember for the rest of her life,” Ross said.

In the next inning, Dombrowski kept UVA off the board with her assist from right field. And in the bottom half SU kept pouring it on, as ninth-place hitter Alyssa Dewes delivered a home run to left center.

“That’s the player we expect to see,” Ross said of Dewes. “She got her pitch, drove it hard and that’s what happens.”

Later in the inning, first baseman Sydney O’Hara singled up the middle to score two more, giving SU 11 runs and the possibility of a mercy rule victory, which it secured in the top of the fifth.

After the game, Ross was happy with her team’s performance, but frustrated that it took the team the entire season to get to this point.

“We should be able to handle the pressure and come out and compete no matter what the situation is,” she said. “I do think that they were more relaxed.

“… Today they didn’t worry about making the next mistake because it was the last game no matter what. Now we just need to kind of transfer that mentality to games where there is pressure.”

Published on April 26, 2015 at 4:21 pm