Final Chapter

Cinderella doesn’t have a thing on the St. Bonaventure High softball team.

Six weeks ago, not even the Seraphs expected to attend the Big Dance.

They were too busy bickering among themselves and struggling to stay above .500.

A handful of defensive changes later and . . . poof.

As if covered in magic stardust, the Seraphs are enjoying the most unlikely run through the playoffs of any team in recent memory.

“It’s been seriously like a miracle season,” first baseman Shannon Fink said.

Since beating Providence, 13-0, in a first-round playoff game, St. Bonaventure (19-10) has strung together three dramatic, if not unlikely, victories to get to the Southern Section Division V championship final tonight against top-seeded La Reina (23-4).

“I can’t explain it,” Coach Craig Parrish said. “It’s been a nice roll we’re on.”

After finishing third in the Tri-Valley League, St. Bonaventure had to beat four first-place teams to advance to the final, including No. 2-seeded Santa Maria St. Joseph, 4-3, and No. 3 Whitney, 1-0.

And to think the Seraphs narrowly qualified for the playoffs.

“If we would have lost any of our last three league games, we wouldn’t have made the playoffs,” Parrish said.

St. Bonaventure was 2-5 in league play before defeating Fillmore twice and Bishop Diego to claim the league’s final playoff berth.

Weeks earlier, nobody was thinking or even dreaming about postseason possibilities.

“It didn’t seem like anyone wanted to be there,” Fink said. “It was probably the worst bickering of any team I’ve ever been on.”

The Seraphs started the season 7-1, but then lost nine of 12 games because of a porous defense and a lackluster offense.

“We went into a tailspin,” Parrish said.

Trying to salvage the season--and with nothing to lose--Parrish shuffled the lineup, making defensive changes at first and second base and all three outfield positions.

“For some reason it turned the team completely around,” Parrish said. “These changes settled everybody down.”

For Fink, a four-year starter playing first base for the first time in her life, it did much more.

“Since I’ve been playing first, my whole game has improved,” said Fink, who is batting .341 with 17 runs batted in.

Ditto for her teammates. St. Bonaventure has won nine consecutive games since the changes.

The last three victories, however, have been nothing short of spectacular.

Consider:

* Trailing St. Joseph, 3-0, the Seraphs scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh of a second-round game.

Danielle Morales hit a bases-loaded triple with two out to win it.

“We were ecstatic,” Fink said. “Right there it felt like we won [the Southern Section title.]”

But it was only the beginning.

* In a quarterfinal against Pasadena Poly, Elisabeth Spagnolia hit a run-scoring single in the bottom of the ninth for a 1-0 victory.

* In a semifinal against Whitney on Tuesday, Annie Marostica hit a home run in the second inning, the Seraphs’ only hit in a 1-0 upset.

Marostica (17-7) has allowed only 12 hits and has struck out 28 in four playoff games.

The senior right-hander will try to do the unthinkable tonight by defeating league foe La Reina, a team that has beaten the Seraphs this season, 5-0 and 8-0.

While a victory might seem unlikely, the Seraphs believe anything is possible.

They’ve been living it for weeks.

“[La Reina] played some other team that disappeared nine games ago,” Fink said. “We’re not the same team they beat before.”