Monday, June 8, 2009

By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director

Ramapo's Julie Shaw held Middletown South scoreless for seven inning before the Eagles were able to push across the game's lone run in the Group 3 state final in Toms River.

TOMS RIVER – Of all the teams left playing in state finals on Sunday, the Ramapo softball team might have been the least likely participant. Although the program has established itself as one of the State’s best over the past decade, graduation hit the Green Raiders hard after last season and to start this one a talented, but inexperienced group of sophomores took a crash course in varsity softball while a core group of seniors tried to hold the team together.

The formula needed time to work, but it started to click about midway through the year and a season that started with six losses in a preseason trip to Florida had come fill circle on Sunday in the Group 3 state final as Ramapo’s senior pitcher Julie Shaw matched zeros with Middletown South ace Liz Kuhn through seven scoreless innings.

Unfortunately for Ramapo, their improbable run to the final day of the season ended, literally, a few inches short on two separate plays in the eighth inning.

Liz Kuhn allowed just one hit and struck out 13 for Middletown South.

Tori Sobel drew a walk leading off the top of the inning for Ramapo and she was sacrificed to second by Gen Cohen. Emily Brown hit a groundball and the throw to first base skipped off the first baseman’s glove. Had a it rolled a couple of more inches toward the Ramapo dugout, Sobel might have been able to score, but instead she was stuck at third as Kuhn struck out the final two hitters of the inning.

The measuring tape was favorable again for Middletown South in the bottom of the inning when, with a runner on third and two outs, Julia Kuhn hit a bloop shot into short rightfeld that fell a few inches short of a friendly glove and allowed the lone run to score in the Eagles’ 1-0 victory at Toms River East High School.

Although Ramapo managed just one hit in the game, a leadoff single by Shaw in the top of the seventh, the Green Raiders did get runners into scoring position with less than two outs in both the seventh and eighth innings to put themselves one big hit from a state title.

“You couldn’t have drawn it up any better. We had the runners in the spots we wanted, we were just one big hit away,” said Ramapo head coach Leslie Stephen. “The last couple of innings we got those runners in key spots and they made a couple of nice plays in the field. Unfortunately those runners don’t come in and they took advantage of their chance.”

Second baseman Christine Boylan making a catch for Ramapo.

It was a disappointing ending, but the rest of the story of Ramapo’s season was pretty darn good.

“Hey, how many of you thought we were going eight innings with this team? C’mon,” said Ramapo head coach Leslie Stephen. “For what we started out with and what this group was able to do, I can’t be anything but proud of them. It was a game that was well-played by both sides, we just didn’t get that good break at the end.”

Ramapo finished its season with a 24-10 record, shared the NBIL Division 1 title and won the North 1, Group 3 state sectional championship in a season that was thought to rebuilding year before it began.

“They are going to remember coming here [for the state final], they are going to remember their teammates. Yeah, it is terrible that we lost, but the rest of what we accomplished, they should be nothing but proud of themselves,” said Stephen. “They represented us very well. They lived up to that tradition of excellence that has been developed of the years and they did a great job.”

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