There have always been great players to turn to for Mount St. Dominic in the big games. Back in 2014 when the Lions won their last overall Non-Public A state championship before Wednesday afternoon, it was a player such as Kelsey Oh who pitched all 13 innings as the Mount earned a pulsating 5-2 win over Immaculata in Toms River.
Fast forward 11 years to a June 11th, 2025 afternoon at Ivy Hill Park and this time it was a solo home run by junior Jill Cianfrocca delivered on the first pitch she saw in the top of the seventh inning from Donovan Catholic pitcher Gylian Hixenbaugh, and the Mount was on its way to a thrilling 4-3 win over the No. 1 ranked Griffins for the Non-Public A state crown.
Whether it was a Kelsey Oh, who went on to have a strong college career at South Carolina, or Cianfrocca, the Villanova commit, who is set to return for one more high school season to lead a young Mount team as it tries to defend its Non-Public A title in 2026, the process and the games are never easy to traverse all the way through to an ultimately victorious conclusion in June; although these latest young Lions (27-4) completed the mission with championship smiles this time around after three straight runner-up finishes to St. John Vianney in 2023 and 2024 and Donovan Catholic, 2-0, in 2022, also at Ivy Hill Park.
Beating Donovan Catholic (26-2) also had to be an extra satisfying experience for Lions such as senior outfielder Carlee Paez, who is one of only two seniors along with Briella Longo on head coach Rob Stern's current Mount squad, and was a sophomore regular on that 2022 Mount team that was edged by the Griffins.
Paez had one of the four hits for the Lions on Wednesday as Donovan Catholic hurt itself the most by issuing 10 walks to a Mount team which displayed collective very good eyes in an effective selective approach in each at bat, leading to three runs scoring as three straight base on balls were issued with the bases loaded producing a 3-1 Mount lead in the second inning.
The Lions’ sophomore shortstop Bella Iannitelli, who reached base four times in the game, including one of the RBI walks in the second inning, would also later have a double for the Mount’s other extra base hit in the contest in a contest dominated by free passes issued by the Griffins before Cianfrocca’s round tripper in the seventh inning changed everything.
Donovan Catholic yanked starting pitcher Dani Rodriguez during that critical second inning after she walked five in just 1 2/3 IP while allowing the three runs.
The Griffins battled back with single runs in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings to tie the contest. Sophie Seager had an RBI single to plate Izzy Cino who had tripled to make it 3-2 in the fourth, and then Christina Ginex’ RBI triple drove home Olivia Kurth, who had singled, to make it 3-3 in the fifth.
The Mount’s standout sophomore pitcher Ava Kelshaw did a solid job of containing the Griffins very potent lineup, scattering seven hits while walking three and strikeout out seven and allowing just two earned runs.
The Lions had committed a pair of errors in the first inning when Donovan Catholic took an early 1-0 lead.
