Sunday, May 9, 2010

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Alexis Durando lining the 10th-inning triple that gave IHA the winning run in its 3-2 victory over Paramus Catholic in the quarterfinals of the Bergen County Softball Tournament on Saturday.

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP – Everybody knows the advantages that private schools have over public schools in procuring talented athletes. No sending districts; no borders, either state or municipal, to worry about and no lack of players looking to play for the high profile parochials. The issue is a hot-button across the state of New Jersey, it led to a total realignment of leagues and everybody has an opinion and a wink-and-a-nod recruiting story. We’ve written about it, we’ve talked about it, we’ve asked other about it…yada, yada, yada.

But even with its undeniable depth of talent, the Immaculate Heart Academy softball team has something else and it is some that can’t measured by names on a roster and what club teams they play for. The Blue Eagles win close games, big-time, high-pressure close games, and they do it against all comers, public and parochial schools alike.

Last season it was Christina Miguel’s three-run, walk-off homer in the ninth inning of Bergen County final, a do-over win over Paramus Catholic in the Non-Public North A state sectional final and then the 11-inning win over Bishop Ahr in the Non-Public A state final, the best game played on a softball field anywhere last season. This year’s playoff run started to take on a similar feel on Saturday when IHA was locked in a tie game against Paramus Catholic heading into the 10th inning in the first of four Bergen County Softball Tournament quarterfinals played on the turf in Washington Township.

Rachel Cannatta threw all 10 innnings and did it well for Paramus Catholic.

IHA head coach Anthony LaRezza made the courageous decision to bring on Alicia Daniele in relief with two runners on base and one out in the bottom of the sixth inning. Daniele then walked the first hitter she faced to load the bases. Had PC scored a run thereafter, IHA would have been down to its final three outs as the No. 5 seed and the visitor on its own home field.

“Just another IHA-PC game,” said IHA head coach Anthony LaRezza. “They had the bases loaded with one out and we had Alicia out there just trying to weather that storm.”

Daniele not only weathered that storm, using a called strike three and a ground ball, but she weathered the next four innings adeptly as well. Daniele held Paramus Catholic scoreless in 4 1/3 innings of sterling relief and long enough for her team to post a 3-2 win in the 10-inning marathon that started an hour-and-15 minutes late and ended only after the tie-breaker rule was put into effect.

With one out and Nikki Osafsky placed at second base, Alexis Durando steered a line drive just over the glove of Paramus Catholic first baseman Candice Beards. It rattled around in the right field corner and went for a triple and the game-winning RBI.

IHA senior Alicia Daniele came on a tight spot and responded with 4 1/3 innings of scoreless relief to pick up the win.

“If Candice [Beards] caught that, and I thought she might because she is a great athlete, I would have been miserable. I wasn’t hitting well at all today, but I just wanted to do something in that at bat,” said Durando, an Oakland resident who will play next season at Rutgers. “We were just trying to stay up and stay positive even though we had the rain delay, it was a long game and it took a lot out of us. It was doing the same thing to PC and we just had to keep fighting.”

Even though IHA scored a run to take the lead in the top of the first inning, there was the nagging feeling for the next 9 innings that it had missed out on a golden opportunity. The Eagles had the bases loaded with no outs, but had to settle for a single run on Taylor Cosentino’s sacrifice fly.
PC’s Rachel Cannata struck out the next two hitters to stem the bleeding.

IHA took a 2-0 lead in the second inning with a gift run courtesy of a one-out error on a groundball hit by Lauren Currens and Kaitlyn McGillycuddy’s two-out single up the middle. But Cannata only got stronger and threw seven straight scoreless innings to give her team the time to catch up, which it finally did in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The Paladins had some good swings through the first five innings, but had little to show for it other than two harmless singles. In the fourth, Maria Maresca hit a shot to the gap that went for naught when Taylor Cosentino, IHA’s centerfielder, drew a bead on it and made a sliding catch in right centerfield. The next hitter, Cannata, also hit one on the screws, but it was right at Cosentino and the loud outs meant nothing but a two-run deficit heading into the sixth.

Maria Maresca's sixth inning single got Paramus Catholic all even at 2.

That was when the Paladins strung together four singles by their first five hitters into the inning. Lauren Milligan got it started and, after a pop-up for the first out of the inning, Beards, Maresca and Cannata all recorded base hits. Milligan scored on Maresca’s knock and Cannata’s single plated Beards with the tying run and forced LaRezza’s hand into making the pitching change.

In stepped Daniele, right into the frying pan.

“You just have to stay calm, try to do your job and do your best,” said Daniele, more of a No. 1A starter than a No. 2. “It was crazy. This game was so long but it feels like it went so quickly. It was kind of a blur from when I went in to the time it was over.”

After giving up the walk to the first hitter she faced, Daniele gave up just one more walk and one hit over the final four innings and retired the side in order in the bottom of the 10th, even after Milligan was placed on second with the tying run to start the inning. The last out came on a diving catch by Durando at first base.

“I am very proud of my team for the way we fought back. We played sloppy early in the game, but we came back strong and it was a good show of our character, our capabilities and of our talent, but we have to finish it,” said PC head coach Brielle Cosentino, whose team was eliminated in a tie-breaker situation last season by Ramapo in the Round of 16. “I think every game that we play for the rest of the season we have to play at 100-percent. Whether we win or lose is to be determined, but if we play at 100-percent, I think that we are capable of a lot of success.”

Kaityn McGillycuddy had 2 hits, an RBI and scored run batting leadoff for IHA.

Cannata had a lot of success on Saturday as she threw all 10 innings and allowed 9 hits (just one in innings 3 through 7) and two walks while striking out 8. The first six hitters in the PC lineup accounted for all seven of Paramus Catholic’s hits and Erin Trippi had two of them.

McGillycuddy (2-for-4, R, RBI) and Durando (2-for-4, RBI, 3B), the top two hitters in IHA’s lineup combined for four hit and Taylor Cosentino finished 2-for-3 with an RBI and a stolen base. Daniele was clean over the final 4 1/3 innings to pick up the win after allowed just a hit and two walks while striking out two for the Blue Eagles, who will play top-seeded Indian Hills in Oakland next weekend in the semifinals.

“In the last couple of innings it was just about having somebody step up and make a play. Alicia did a great job keeping us in it and it was good to see her come up on the winning end today,” said LaRezza. “Durando had the big hit and the big catch to end it. She is an all-county caliber player who hasn’t gotten that recognition yet, but she stepped up when we needed her. We need that again next week either from her or someone else.”

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