Sunday, May 21, 2017

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

PALISADES PARK – It would take two more wins for Dumont to win its first ever Bergen County Softball Tournament championship and three more for it to win a state sectional title and neither will be easy. The Huskies will play top-seeded and undefeated Ramsey on Sunday in the county semifinals and will host Pequannock in the North 1, Group 2 quarterfinals on Monday. With all of that going on in such a short time span, the Huskies should take a minute to recognize what they have already accomplished.

With the emergence of Jennifer Sweeney in the circle as junior last season, Dumont pulled two upsets to reach the Bergen County Tournament semifinals for the first time in program history. On Saturday, with a 2-1 quarterfinal win over Northern Valley/Demarest at Overpeck Park in Palisades Park, the Huskies made it two straight years in the county Final 4.

In short, these are the glory days of Dumont softball no matter what happens from this point forward.

“Being a senior now I think I really appreciate it more,” said Sweeney. “Making it to the semifinals two years in a row is something that has never happened before in Dumont and it is really special to me and to all of us.”

To get there Dumont had to get past Demarest again just like it did in last year’s Round of 16. Nobody knew all that much about the Huskies then as they entered the 2016 tournament as the No. 15 seed and a used two late runs to upset the then second-seeded Norsewomen. In this year’s rematch, Dumont was seeded fifth and was not sneaking up on anyone, least of all fourth-seeded Demarest.

The outcome was not going be decided by any of the various subplots, but by the usual dynamics of high-level, playoff softball. Two out hits, quality pitches in key spots and solid defense were going to mean more to the final score than the fact that Demarest starting pitcher Mackenzie McGrath is a Dumont resident who was playing against her childhood friends.

Dumont had the two-out hits category covered with Eva Eder and Mackenzie Tamburro, who each came up with big one in the first and second innings. After Lauren Naveo singled and stole second with one out in the top of the first, Eder delivered a single up the middle with two outs that scored Naveo with the game’s first run. In the second Arianna Pena stroked a one-out single and, two batters later, Tamburro whacked a two-out triple to the rightfield fence to score Pena and give the Huskies the 2-0 lead that Sweeney nurtured the rest of the way.

She got help from her defense on more than one occasion as Demarest mounted multiple threats. The Norsewomen looked like they were about to get on the board when Ellen Hamlin smoked a single with two outs and a runner on second. But as it turned out, Hamlin might have hit the ball too hard as it got to Naveo, quickly and Dumont’s charging centerfielder threw a strike to the plate where catcher Devin Davis slapped the tag on Meadow Garcia, who was moving on contact from second base.

“I just saw the ball coming and I knew I had the chance to throw her out. I knew the situation, I knew we had a two-run lead and that I could take a shot,” said Naveo, who threw a one-hop strike. “I came up firing and that turned into a big play because they scored a run later on,”

Demarest left one runner in scoring position in the third and two each in the fourth and fifth innings as it kept searching for the clutch hit that might turn things around. Sweeney (7 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 H, 8 K, 2 BB) got a pop-up for the third out of the fourth inning with runners on second and third and fielded a comebacker with two outs in the fifth to escape another jam.

McGrath (7 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 9 H, 11 K, 4 BB) also worked in and out of trouble as worked just one 1-2-3 inning in the game, but never gave in. She fielded a comebacker to strand two in the third, struck out two straight hitters to leave the bases loaded in the fifth and stranded two more in the top of the sixth right before her offense finally broke through.

Michelle Diehl drew a one-out walk and went first-to-third on a Braden Renke groundout. Maddie Tredo then dunked a two-out single down the rightfield line to get Demarest back to within 2-1. But Sweeney slammed the door shut from there as she retired the final four hitters she faced and struck out two of the three hitters Demarest sent to the plate in its final turn at bat.

Sweeney (2-for-4) and Pena (2-for-4, R) each had multi-hit games for Dumont, which improved to 22-3 on the season heading into Sunday’s semifinal game against top-seeded Ramsey, which swept the regular seasons series between the two teams. Courtney Deloughney (1-for-4, SB), Naveo (1-for-2, R, 2 SB), Eder (1-for-3, RBI), Tamburro (1-for-3, RBI) and Megan O’Neil, who came on as a pinch hitter in the seventh, had the other hits for Dumont.

Hamlin (2-for-4, 3B), McGrath (1-for-3), Renke (1-for-2, BB) and Tredo (1-for-3, RBI) had the hits and Diehl scored the run for Demarest, which will try to regroup just like it did last year when it lost to Dumont in the Round of 16 and then rallied to win not just a sectional title, but also the overall Group 2 state title. This year they are the No. 3 seed in North 1, Group 3 and will host No. 11 Paramus in the quarterfinals on Monday.