Marissa Capparelli gently cradled the fluorescent yellow softball in her hands throughout the postgame interview as if it were as fragile as an egg.
It wasn’t, but the Rosary junior wasn’t letting go of the prized keepsake.
Not by a long shot.
Who could blame her?
“This is my first home run,” Capparelli said. “I’ve got the ball right here.”
She couldn’t have picked a better time for it, either.
With Rosary trailing IC Catholic 8-6 in a Metro Suburban Conference game, Capparelli stepped to the plate Tuesday in the bottom of the sixth with two outs and the bases loaded.
Pressure? What pressure?
She drove the ball over the center field fence for a grand slam in a 10-8 win over IC Catholic, a team that defeated the Royals 10-0 in five innings only two weeks earlier.
It was a stunning turn of events.
Before stepping into the batter’s box, Marissa had been summoned to a meeting with third base coach Rich Capparelli, who just so happens to be her father.
The elder Capparelli and Dave Pfeiffer, father of junior second baseman Brooke Pfeiffer, are co-coaches for the Royals (4-4, 3-2).
Marissa, who started the game in center field but came on in relief of starting pitcher Reagan Lightfoot for the final five innings, has only been back with Rosary for two weeks.
She missed the early part of the season recovering from mononucleosis, although weather-related postponements also limited the Royals.
“She hadn’t been doing much during the layoff, wasn’t taking her hitting lessons,” Rich Capparelli said. “We had one the day before with her hitting instructor Kevin Sullivan at Elite Sports Performance in Oswego.
“He had been working on having her staying back on her back leg and not lunging forward.”
Dad reminded daughter of that because she lunged and popped up in her previous at-bat.
“I told her, ‘Don’t try to just make contact with the ball, try to drive it,'” Rich said. “I said, ‘Sit back and try to drive it over the fence if you can.’ I didn’t think she’d take me seriously. She’s never hit one over the fence in her life. She’s come close.
“They were playing the outfield in, and I was hoping she’d put one over their heads. She got one up in the wind and it went out.”
IC Catholic (10-5, 4-1) led 4-1 after two innings, the highlight being a three-run homer from losing pitcher Anjelina Dwyer.
Kayla Montes answered for Rosary with a solo homer, her third of the season.
Capparelli gave up a three-run homer to Samantha Serrano in her first inning of relief before settling in and allowing just one run over the next four innings, leaving an 8-6 deficit.
To secure the win, Capparelli (3-1) then worked a 1-2-3 seventh, which included retiring Dwyer on a fly ball to right and Serrano on a pop-up to second.
“We knew both could hurt us by getting the barrel of the bat on the ball, so we focused on coming in on them,” Rich Capparelli said. “A lot of girls can hit anything over the plate or outside, but if you start by coming in, it’s hard to hit.”
In between, IC Catholic coach Frank Reaber continued a trend by twice intentionally walking Rosary slugger Emily Hurst, who has four home runs.
Hurst, who signed Tuesday to play basketball and softball at Waubonsee Community College, has been intentionally walked seven times this season.
“It’s definitely frustrating,” Hurst said. “You just have to keep playing the game. The next person is up and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Fortunately, Hurst’s teammates could pick her up.
“The girls came out and put the ball in play like they’re supposed to,” Rich Capparelli said. “I just stand there. We didn’t call many plays as far as bunts or steals or anything like that. It’s all on the girls.”