Thursday, April 3, 2007

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP – Year in and year out, the Immaculate Heart Academy softball team holds itself to a very high standard. Nobody knows the lofty standards better than IHA head coach Anthony Larezza, who has the kind of team this year that just might be able to live up to all of those expectations. The Blue Eagles did not have to wait long into the season to get their first chance to make a statement and they wasted little time in doing so against a familiar opponent and a familiar opposing coach.

Paramus Catholc’s new head coach knows all about the rivalry between the two NNJIL parochial schools. Brielle Cosentino, who was New Jersey’s Player of the Year her senior year at IHA, takes over for Larry Hughes at the helm and she inherited a Paramus Catholic team with talent, but also one that is relatively inexperienced. That inexperience showed in the third inning on Wednesday and IHA took full advantage of it.

The Paladins made six errors in the frame and IHA scored five runs to break open the game on its way to a season-opening 10-1 triumph.

“We’re looking to play hard and play our best every game,” said IHA senior Alyssa Sceppaguercio, who will play at Siena College next year. “We made some mental mistakes today, but we overcame them by hitting the ball well and being aggressive on the bases. We have a lot of versatile players who hit and run well, which gives us a lot of confidence coming into this season.”

Paramus Catholic got singles from Candace Beards and Erin Trippi in the top of the first and had two runners in scoring position with two outs. IHA’s sophomore right-hander Christina Miguel got out of the jam with an inning-ending strikeout.

IHA got the bats going early as Sceppaguercio tripled to lead off the bottom of the first and scored on a double by Alexis Durando. The Blue Eagles had a chance to tack on another run, but a base running miscue on a fly ball was followed by a fantastic over-the-shoulder catch by PC shortstop Pooja Patel that ended the inning.

The Blue Eagles tacked on five more runs in the third inning, despite getting just one hit. Paramus Catholic made three consecutive errors to start the inning. After a sacrifice fly by Jen Keller cleared the bases, Taylor Cosentino clubbed a solo shot to make it 5-0. The Paladins made three more errors, including two on one play as IHA plated another run.

“The third inning was a tough one for us,” said Brielle Cosentino, who played her collegiate ball at Rutgers University. “We didn’t make routine plays and you can’t give a team like IHA one extra out after another. This is a young team though and we’re going to go through some growing pains. But this is an experience that we’ll learn from and we know we’re capable of playing much better than we did today.”

The Paladins got on the scoreboard in the fifth by taking advantage of back-to-back errors. They loaded the bases with two outs before Miguel got another strikeout to end the threat.

Taylor Cosentino capped a four-run sixth inning with a two-run single. Meg Garlasco came on for Miguel and pitched two scoreless innings to close out the victory.

Miguel allowed three hits, walked one, and struck out seven to get the win for IHA (1-0). Sceppaguercio, Durando, Keller, Taylor Cosentino each had two hits for the Blue Eagles. Garlasco allowed one hit, walked one, and had four Ks in her two innings of work.

Beards reach base in all four plate appearances, including two hits and a stolen base for Paramus Catholic (0-1). Jenn Levine took the loss for the Paladins. She allowed four hits, walked two, and struck out two; only two of the six runs she allowed were earned. Trippi and Alex Pestrichella had the other hits for PC.

Normally a nine-run win over an archrival would be reason to celebrate. But Larezza knows that there is a ton of fine tuning that needs to be done.

“It’s always nice to get a win over PC, but we’re not looking at anything less than perfection,” said Larezza. “We know that is a very high standard to live up to, but if we’re going to win the counties and the states, that is how well we have to play.”

“Our goal is to make it down to Toms River for the state final. If we played the way we did today, the only way we’ll get in is by paying the seven dollars and watching from the stands. We want to be playing our best ball in May. We did some things well today, but there are lots of other things we could have done better. It’s weird for me to say that after a (10-1) win over a good team, but we can’t rest on this one game. We have to keep playing hard and work on improving as a whole.”

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