Sunday, May 3, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Gen Cohen drove in Ramapo's first run with a second inning doubel and three-time defending champion Ramapo rolled to its 16th straight Bergen County Tournament win with a 5-0 win over Wood-Ridge in the opening round.

FRANKLIN LAKES -- It is the three-time defending Bergen County champions and entered Saturday's opening round matchup against Wood-Ridge having won 15 straight tournament games and 19 of its last 20 with its last loss having come in the 2005 championship game. And while its resume is as good as it gets, Ramapo also came into this year’s tournament without a familiar burden, that of being the favorite to win it all. This year, the Green Raiders are the No. 9 seed and are, for the first time in a long time, more of a dark horse than a frontrunner.

But that doesn’t necessarily lessen the stress.

“Even though we are not the favorite, I still think that there is a pressure to do well. I don’t think that any of these kids on this particular team don’t think that they are going to go on and win a county championship,” said Ramapo head coach Leslie Stephen. “In one sense it is good not to feel the pressure of being the favorite, but I think there is internal pressure. We’ve set a level of expectation here and when you get to this time of the year you hope that the work you have put in to get to this point of the season now comes together.”

Wood-Ridge starter Angela Raleigh allowed just two hits through the first five innings.

Everything was in working order on Saturday when the Green Raiders opened defense of their title. Julie Shaw was dominant in the pitching circle; Ramapo was error free on defense and came through with enough timely hits to post a 5-0 win and move on to the Round of 16 where it will face a stiff test in No. 8 Paramus Catholic, a 4-1 first round winner over New Milford.

Ramapo has a core group of four seniors – Shaw, Amanda Schellaci, Mallory Brown and Gen Cohen – that has been through the wringer over the past couple of seasons and it was Cohen who got the first big hit of the game.

With two outs and Emily Brown on second base in the bottom of the second inning, Cohen, hitting in the No. 9 hole, hit a double to deep left center that plated the game’s first run. When Sil Imbimbo followed with a single back through the middle, Ramapo had a 2-0 lead, more than enough a cushion for Shaw, who gave up just two hits in the game.

“I haven’t been batting lately, so just to be up there with a chance to help was really great for me and I just wanted to come through for the team,” said Cohen, Ramapo’s first baseman. “That girl [Wood-Ridge pitcher Angela Raleigh] has a weird motion, but I didn’t even notice when I was up there, I was just concentrating on the ball and hitting it when it came.”

Ramapo's Julie Shaw allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out 13.

With the lead, Shaw settled in. She retired 10 straight hitters starting with a strikeout to end the second inning and ending when Danielle Natol drew a lead off walk to start the top of the sixth inning. Shaw walked just two in the game and got stronger as the innings melted away. Of her 13 strikeouts, six came in the final three innings and she struck out the side in the sixth inning with all three Ks coming on called third strikes.

“I really just tried to work the corners, keep them off balance and make them hit my pitch instead of getting behind and having to throw meatballs. It happened a couple of times but I got through it,” said Shaw. “It is so exhilarating to be back in the county tournament and back in competitive, intense games. Me and Mallory [Brown] have been through this tournament for the last three years, Gen [Cohen] and Amanda [Schellaci] have been though it the last two and as seniors there is a lot of responsibility on us to keep it going. The younger kids might not now how big a county tournament game really is, but they bring such great energy and that helps us.”

Wood-Ridge is not quite as comfortable playing in these do-or-die type games and it might have been a combination of nerves and inexperience that hindered the Blue Devils. To their credit, they didn’t implode, but could never really get their footing enough to make a comeback.

Ally Lidner had one of Wood-Ridge's two hits.

“We’ve kind of been slumping as a team and that is something you can’t do, especially at this time of the year. But Julie [Shaw] did a great job and Leslie [Stephen] does a great job with them. Obviously they are the three time defending champs and they played well today,” said Wood-Ridge head coach Jill Clemente, whose team fell to 10-6 on the season. “It was kind of a terrible draw for my kids, a Group 1 versus a Group 3 and Ramapo is a team that has done this a million times and we haven’t. I would say that inexperience got us a little bit and we might have been a little intimidated. But we have at least 10 games left and we have to play hard in the league and play hard for the states and we have a good team. We are better than we played today and hopefully the experience of playing a team like Ramapo in the county tournament will help us in some way.”

Ramapo put the game away for good in the bottom of the sixth when it struck for three insurance runs. Emily Brown led off with a single and Lana Auerbach crushed a double to drive her home. After a Tori Sobel sacrifice bunt, an error allowed Cohen to reach base and a fielder’s choice on a ground ball hit by Imbimbo loaded the bases for Christine Boylan, who walked to force home the second run of the inning. Shaw than lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to plate the game’s final run.

Emily Brown had two hits and scored twice for Ramapo.

Emily Brown had two of Ramapo’s six hits, Imbimbo hit the ball hard in all four of her at bats out of the lead off spot, and Auerbach filled the scorebook with a successful sacrifice and extra base hit, a run scored and an RBI. Those three players are sophomores and their contributions are the key to Ramapo’s success as they try for a 17th straight county tournament win against Paramus Catholic in the Round of 16.

“The chemistry is fabulous right now. The younger kids are coming along and the seniors are leading us. This group has really gone through a learning process and it has been fun to watch,” said Stephen, whose team improved to 13-4 on the season and is tied for first place with Old Tappan in Division 1 of the NBIL. “From where we were in [a preseason trip to] Florida where we had one win and six losses to where we are now, it’s really nice to see the progress.”

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