Senior Sophia Centeno went the distance and had two hits and drove in a run for Emerson, which advanced to the Bergen County Tournament's Round of 16 with a 7-3 win at Pascack Hills.
MONTVALE – Emerson is not the run-of-the-mill Group 1 softball program. For years now the Cavos have punched above their enrollment in the Bergen County Tournament and are a perennial contender in the North 1, Group 1 state sectional bracket. The tradition is handed down to each new group.
“A big part of it is that we have had a bunch of sisters go through the program and there is a lineage there, but a lot of it is the way softball is run from recreation and then into high school, we kind of are like one group,” said Emerson head coach Nancy Graf. “All the good things that happen on any of those levels are promoted and celebrated. It doesn’t matter if it is the 10U group playing in the summer, that is celebrated by the whole program.”
That means there were will be a lot of people acknowledging and celebrating the latest accomplishment by the varsity group and that was Saturday’s 7-3 victory on the road against Pascack Hills in the opening round of the Bergen County Tournament.
Down by a pair of runs heading into the top half of the sixth inning, the Cavos sent 10 hitters to the plate in the that frame, scored four times to take the lead and tacked on two more in the top of the seventh to make it to next weekend’s Round of 16.
“This is a very big win for us. It was close the whole game and then we were able to pull through with our offense,” said Sophia Centeno, the winning pitcher for Emerson, but also the clean-up hitter who had two hits and an RBI in the last two innings. “Once someone gets a hit it can start like a hit parade for us and that is kind of what happened in that [sixth] inning.”
Emerson’s offense limped into the sixth inning. Pascack Hills freshman Nina Tuli had retired nine batters in a row and then got the first out of the sixth on a weak pop-up outside the first baseline. It was so much a ball that was hit that got things rolling but more like a knee.
Addy Zoelle had two hits and drove in two runs for Pascack Hills.
Gabby Micucci took a fastball to the front leg to give Emerson a baserunner for the first time since Kylie Grompone beat out an infield hit as the second batter of the third inning. Sophia Perez followed with a walk and the Cavos built the decisive rally from there.
Centeno’s RBI single was followed by and run-scoring fielder’s choice. Perez beat the throw home on a ground ball hit by Olivia Samuels and tied the game at 3 and then back-to-back single by Julia Seretis and Demi Graham made it 5-3 as seven straight Cavos reached safely and 10 of them batted in the inning.
Centeno doubled with one out in the seventh and Samuels and Seretis each drove in runs as the Cavos tacked on and put the game away.
” We faced a similar situation against Park Ridge [on Monday]. It was a close game and then that one person brings the energy, gets the big hit and then we all just feed off of that,” said Micucci, one of six seniors in the Emerson lineup. “Sophia had the big single in the sixth and then the double and we just kept building off of that.”
Pascack Hills is at the other end of the experience spectrum. In their second year under head coach Ally Mende, the Broncos have just one senior, centerfielder Brielle Siegenthaler, on the roster and have featured Tuli, the freshman right-hander, in the circle almost exclusively this season.
Demi Graham drove in a run for Emerson, which will face top-seeded IHA in the Bergen County Round of 16.
Emerson took the early lead on Micucci’s RBI groundout in the top of the third inning. Pascack Hills (9-7), which is just one win shy of its total from last season, got that run back in the bottom of the fourth when Tuli knocked in Addy Zoelle, who singled leading off and moved up a base on wild pitch. Zoelle followed that up with a one-out, two-run single in the bottom of the fifth that gave the Broncos the 3-1 lead that lasted until Emerson (8-7) batted around in the sixth.
Zoelle (2-for-3, 2 RBI, R, BB) and Chloe Sutton (3-for-4, R) had multiple hit games for Pascack Hills. Siegenthaler had a hit and scored a run and Tuli was 1-for-3 with an RBI.
Emerson, playing in the beefed up NJIC Meadowlands Division, climbed back over .500 on the season behind Centeno (7 IP, 3 R, 3 ER, 7 H, 9 K, 2 BB), who will pitch as SUNY New Paltz next year, picked up the win and was the only Cavo with multiple hits, but seven of the other spots in the lineup all had one hit. Brielle Schumeyer (1-for-4), Perez (1-for-3, 2R, BB), Samuels (1-for-4, RBI, R), Seretis (1-for-3, 2 RBI), Graham (1-for-4, RBI), Joanna Vigna (2-for-3, R) and Grompone (1-for-3) all had hits and Micucci got down a sacrifice bunt, drove in a run and scored another.
It was a total team effort and the Cavos are going to need that and more next weekend when they face top-seeded state power IHA in the Round of 16.
“It’s a huge opportunity for us. We are a small school, we have absolutely nothing to lose and all of the pressure is on them,” said Micucci. “We have to be confident. We worked hard to get here just like they have and we will give it our best shot.”
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