Wednesday,
April 22, 2015
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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Freshman Katie Kudlacik got the last of her 10 strikeouts at a key moment. It was the last out of the game in IHA's 3-2 win at Old Tappan. |
OLD TAPPAN – It was impossible to ignore. While IHA freshman Katie Kudlacik was trying to protect a one-run lead in the bottom of the seventh inning against Northern Valley/Old Tappan on Thursday afternoon, there was no way she could have missed the fact that the sixth batter of the inning would have been Julie Rodriguez, Old Tappan’s No. 3 hitter who was just hoping for one more turn at the plate.
If Rodriguez, who hit one ball harder than the next in her first three plate appearances, had gotten a last lick, then it would have come in a situation where she could have handed IHA its first loss of the season.
The pressure was on Kudlacik and she knew it.
“It was a little nerve-racking to say the least,” said the freshman southpaw. “I just tried to focus on my mechanics and I know when I do that I can get the ball to go where I want it to go. I have confidence in the players behind me and we had to find a way to get that last out.”
The situation was that Old Tappan had runners on the corners with two outs. It trailed by a run and Rodriguez, who had three of the Golden Knights’ five hits in the game, was standing in the on deck circle. The showdown would have been entertaining because it was entirely possible that the bases might have been loaded and to the victor would most likely have gone the victory.
But it never came to pass.
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Old Tappan sophomore Julie Rodriguez, pitched a gem, had three hits and was in the on deck circle when the final out was recorded. |
Rodriguez was left taking practice swings as Kudlacik notched the last of her 10 strikeouts to strand the tying and winning runs on base as IHA got out of Old Tappan with a 3-2 win, its 10th straight to start the season.
“Like I just told the girls after the game, we have to play clean. We made two errors and hit a batter and in the end that is what had us facing their No. 2 batter to end the game instead of the bottom of the order,” said IHA head coach Anthony Larezza. “We were lucky that we left Rodriguez on deck to end it. She was hitting like Babe Ruth today and if she came up I might have had to walk her and walk in the tying run. That thought was going through my head. I wasn’t going to let her beat me with a hit because she probably would have.”
There were so many interesting storylines; many more than are usually found on random Tuesday afternoon between two teams that are not even in the same league or state sectional playoff bracket. Old Tappan has been Bergen County’s the best public school team through the first three weeks of the season and IHA is, well…IHA, the state powerhouse that is doing what it seems to do every year despite graduating the Class of 2014, one of the best to ever come through.
There was the matchup between Rodriguez and IHA centerfielder Reese Guevarra, two of the best sophomores in the state and two of the best players in North Jersey and both had their highlight moments. And there was the absence of Old Tappan senior Alexa Smedberg, the accomplished slap-hitter who used to bat in the No. 2 hole before having her hand broken by a pitched ball in the seventh inning of the Knights’ win over defending county champion Indian Hills last week. Smedberg is hoping to return this season, but it is a race against the clock.
All of those subplots came in to play at one point or another starting with the very first batter of the game when Guevarra smoked a double into the left centerfield gap before Rodriguez, a left-handed batter and pitcher, rebounded to retire the next three hitters in order to strand Guevarra at third.
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Victoria Casey had three of IHA's five hits and she scored two runs. |
The two met up again in the third and this time Guevarra had a chance to be a run producer. Victoria Casey had singled leading off the inning, got into scoring position on Sarah Browning’s sacrifice bunt and then scored the game’s first run when Guevarra split the same gap for her second double in the first three innings.
“Julie has always been a great player. I’ve seen her since I was little and she is a great challenge to go up against because we both love to compete,” said Guevarra. “It sounds funny, but I try to relax at the plate, but be aggressive at the same time. My approach is that I am always thinking that I can hit the next pitch.”
Then it was Rodriguez’s turn. She crushed a double to centerfield leading off the fourth and tied the game at 1 two batters later when senior Kristen Farrell drove a 3-2 pitch the other way for an RBI double. That was it for the earned runs in the game as the outcome was decided by a couple of costly errors both ways.
IHA took the lead for good in the top of the fifth and again it was the Casey/Guevarra combination that did the trick. Casey (3-for-3, 2 R), batting out of the No. 8 spot, tripled to straight away center with one out and then, two batters later, Guevarra hit one hard, but high in the air and in the park. The resulting fly ball fell out of a glove and Guevarra circled the bases on a two-run, four-base error as the Eagles went up 3-1.
Old Tappan cut its deficit in half in the bottom of the sixth as Rodriguez (3-for-3, 2 R) led off with her third hit of the game, a seed back through the box that never deviated from its flight path of about one foot off the ground. She later scored when Farrell’s hard ground ball was misplayed and the Knights drew to with 3-2.
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Old Tappan senior Kristen Farrell drove in a run and got the other one home by putting the ball in play. |
Rodriguez (7 IP, 3 R, 1 ER, 4 H, 6 K, 0 BB) worked around a one-out single by Casey in the top of the seventh to keep her team right there and Julia Spinelli represented the tying run on base when she was hit by a pitch with one out in the seventh. With two outs, Emma Nelson sliced a line drive to the opposite field to put runners on the corners, which left Kudlacik (7 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 5 H, 10 K, 0 BB) one last chance to end the game without having to face Rodriguez again. One well-placed fastball on a 1-2 pitch ended the festivities.
Rebuilding is just a rumor at IHA as it improved to 10-0 of the year, while one loss in excruciating fashion against one of the state’s best teams does nothing to take away from Old Tappan’s stellar start to the season. The Knights are now 9-2 and, the Smedberg injury notwithstanding, are in good form.
“We were right there. Our energy, our effort, our confidence…they were all right there. If one or two plays go a different way we might have come out of here with a win today,” said Old Tappan head coach Melissa Landeck. “Yes there are some positives to point to from this game, but on another note we are in a position with our team right now where we don’t want to come away feeling good because we played them close. We want to win.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: As if there were not enough things going on during this entertaining game, there was even more to report from the between innings warm-up. Speaking to Larezza during the game, we thought it best to get this in print before it is stolen and patented by some other coach from some other place. This is an IHA original.
Instead of the first baseman throwing ground balls to the other infielders from an angle that they will never see during live game action, Larezza sends a player out to stand just up the first baseline from where she fires ground balls. It makes sense as not only do the warm-up grounders come from a more natural starting point, but it also allows first baseman to take a couple of grounders. Everyone takes their turn and fires to first base as usual, but the first baseman also gets in on the practice and then fires toward home plate, a throw that might actually be made during live play.
There, it is documented at 1:36 a.m. on Wednesday, April 22, 2015.
Well done, Ant.
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