Tuesday,
May 13, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Erica Huber threw a complete game and did not allow an earned run as 17th-seeded Park Ridge rolled to a 10-1 win over No. 16 Old Tappan on Monday in the Round of 32 of the Bergen County Tournament. |
OLD TAPPAN – Through the first three-and-two-thirds innings Park Ridge had four at bats with the bases loaded and all it had to show for it was three strikeouts, one ground out and zero runs scored. Needing to change things up while still locked in a scoreless game at Northern Valley/Old Tappan in the Round of 32 in the Bergen County Softball Tournament, Park Ridge head coach Cindy Turner gave the the two-out bunt sign to her leadoff hitter Alexis Criscuolo.
Criscuolo got the bunt down and by the time the carousel on the basepaths stopped turning, Park Ridge had knocked the lid off the plate and the runs flowed freely. Criscuolo had the throw beaten anyway so she earned her base hit and RBI, but even if the throw had arrived at the bag first, there was no defender there to catch it anyway. An extra run scored as the Old Tappan rotation was late and the two runs scored there were a prelude of things to come.
Park Ridge sent 20 hitters to the plate in the fourth and fifth innings combined and scored nine times in those two frames on the way to a 10-1 victory that moves the 17th-seeded Owls into the Round of 16 next weekend against top-seeded Indian Hills.
“In the [second] inning I came up in the same position [with the bases loaded and two outs] and I made an out and I knew that when I came up [in the fourth] I knew I had to do my job. I have done it in the past and I am confident when I am at the plate, so I just put [the bunt] down and ran for it,” said Criscuolo, Park Ridge's senior shortstop and leadoff hitter. “With two outs, I was just thinking that I had to get there [to first base]. We started to hit after that and once that happened we were all confident after that.'
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Emma Nelson had two of Old Tappan's seven hits and both were doubles. |
Following Criscuolo's bunt, which scored Lindsay Beer and Anna Lemba, Erica Huber and KellyAnn Rubino, two freshmen who his in the No.2 and No. 3 spot in the Owls' order, both drew walks to reload the bases for sophomore Angela Rivera, who delivered a two-run single to make it 4-0. A throwing error on a groundball hit by Beer in her second at bat of the inning made it 6-0 and the game was pretty much decided right there.
Not done, however, Park Ridge batted around again in the fifth during a three-run rally that started with Martina McGee's leadoff double. Kelly Hansen drove in the first run with a bloop single just over the first base bag and Rubino hit a two-run single that was hit too hard off an infielder's glove to be scored an error. Park Ridge was close to invoking the mercy rule as the bases were loaded again with one out, but two pop-ups ended the inning and the Owls had to settle for a 9-0 advantage.
This game was originally scheduled for Saturday, but Park Ridge never got off its bus as it was washed away by rain, but fully invested in the season, the Owls did not let that disappointment slow them down.
“We were sitting here in the park lot on Saturday and I told the girls, 'Well, we'll just come back here on Monday,' but they asked to practice yesterday even though it was Mother's Day. That was what they wanted, that is what they are bringing right now and we were ready for it,” said Park Ridge head coach Cindy Turner. “I just can't believe how great our kids played today. They brought their heart and soul to this game today and we just talked about trying to pick up the intensity. We had nothing to lose today. We were going to come in here and give it our best shot and everybody did that today.”
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Alexis Criscuolo's bases loaded bunt single set up Park Ridge's six-run fourth inning. |
Everybody including Huber, the junior pitcher who just kept pumping strikes through the zone and letting her defense work behind her. Huber (7 IP, 1 R, 0 ER, 7 H, 2 K, 3 BB) struck out just two in the game, but she never let Old Tappan (12-6) string together a group of hits that might have led to a big inning. Huber, who took over as the No. 1 starter when senior Emily Cline was injured early in the season, has been more than up to the challenge.
“I was ready. I don't just work hard during the season, I work hard all year round,” said Huber, a right-hander. “As soon as I am done with a regular season I go for pitching lessons and work throughout the summer, fall and winter to be ready for whatever I need to do.”
While just about everything Park Ridge put in play -- its bloops, blasts and bunts – found comfortable places to land, it was the opposite for Old Tappan, which was stymied by a host of good defensive plays by the Owls, starting with the Knights' first hitter of the game who was throw out from right field by Beer. The bottom of the sixth inning summed it up perfectly as Lana Davidoff hit a one-out grounder that ticked off the glove of Rivera, PR's first baseman, and ricocheted right to McGee at second, who flipped it right back to first for the 3-4-3 putout. The next hitter, Carol Oberhelman, hit a screamer to right only to see Beer turn and sprint before making a slick running catch with her back to home plate to retire the side.
“As soon as [Oberhelman] hit that I thought, 'That is gone,' so I just sprinted and when I got close to it I knew I had to catch it,” said Beer, who did it in all facets, including a 3-for-5 day at the plate with an RBI and a run scored. “There was no sense in running that far and missing the ball.”
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Freshman Julie Rodriguez had two hits and drove in Old Tappan's lone run. |
Old Tappan managed to avoid the shutout when Park Ridge's only error of the game allowed Rebecca Blekht to reach with one out and Julie Rodriguez doubled her home two batters later. The top three hitters in the Knights lineup – Alexa Smedberg (2-for-4), Rodriguez (2-for-4, RBI) and Emma Nelson (2-for-4, 2B) – combined for six of Old Tappan's seven hits in the game.
“Park Ridge executed extremely well and I was impressed with the way they made things happen up and down the order with some small ball and they flat out beat us today,” said Old Tappan head coach Melissa Landeck, whose team was the No. 16 seed. “We did not play what I know to be our best softball today.”
Park Ridge (15-5) will have to play its best softball again next week as it draws top-seeded Indian Hills in next weekend's Round of 16. To put it in perspective, Indian Hills is undefeated, it is the defending Group 3 state champion and was a county finalist last season. Park Ridge is a Group 1 school that has 18 players in its entire program with no freshman team and a semi-regular JV squad made up of players that drop down from the varsity level.
Indian Hills beat Park Ridge, 4-0, at the EDSAF Tournament back in mid April, but in a one-game, one-and-done scenario, stranger things have happened.
“It will be the second time we play Indian Hills this year and we know that they are a very strong team,” said Turner. “But we are going to go in with the same attitude we had for today's game, which is that we have nothing to lose and we will try our best. We'll give it all we got.”
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