Thursday,
April 8, 2010
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Hoboken pitcher Jalya Vega helped her own cause by going 3-for-4 at the plate. |
HOBOKEN – Through four innings, Hoboken’s Amanda Spano was as frustrated at the plate as the rest of her team was. In what was supposed to be an easy win against Holy Family Academy, the Red Wings found themselves trailing by a run after four innings. But with power up and down the Hoboken lineup, it can take just one swing of the bat for the Red Wings to right the ship. With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the fifth, Spano stepped to the plate and used that one swing to put her team ahead to stay.
Her grand slam to left-center put Hoboken in front. The Red Wings tacked on seven more runs in the sixth to turn a potential upset loss into a win via the mercy rule over Holy Family, 14-4.
“It wasn’t the prettiest win but we’ll take something from it and use it to improve and become a better team,” said Hoboken head coach Carmine Ronga.
After losing their first three games of the season, Holy Family came out swinging and put the bat on the ball against Hoboken starter Jalya Vega. They benefited from two outfield errors in the top of the first inning before a two-run double from Payton Micewicz capped the quick start and gave Holy Family a 4-0 lead.
The Red Wings got a run back in the bottom half of the frame. Vega helped her own cause an inning later with a two-run single off of Holy Family’s Meghan Kiernan to trim the lead to 4-3.
Kiernan settled down to retire seven straight batters and put the pressure on the Hoboken lineup to start finding holes in the Falcons’ defense with Holy Family still clinging to that one-run lead in the fifth.
“To be honest, this is a victory of sorts today with the way we played through four innings,” said Holy Family head coach Rich Asarnow. “Hoboken is one of the best teams in the county and we had them on the ropes for a little while. But this is a young team and we’re going to struggle and take our lumps at times like we did in the last two innings today.”
Renee Zabaleta led off with a single and moved to third on one-out walks to Ashley Barron and Nicolette Martinez to load the bases for Spano. While a grand slam was the last thing on her mind, she went up the plate with a job in mind and accomplished her goal. She took a change-up right over the plate and belted it to deep left-center to come home easily with an inside-the-park grand slam to give Hoboken a 7-4 lead.
“I just wanted to hit the ball hard and at least bring one or two of the runners on base home,” said Spano. “I kept my weight back, got a good pitch to hit. The big thing was that I wasn’t trying to do too much with it, just hit the ball hard and drive in some runs.”
The Red Wings fed off of Spano’s bomb and strung together four straight one-out hits in the sixth to get the ball rolling. Barron delivered a two-run single and a hard line-drive by Spano was misplayed for a four-base error that brought in three more runs. Madeline Rodriguez put an end to the game with an RBI single to invoke the mercy rule.
Vega went 3-4 with two RBIs, two runs scored, and also picked the win for Hoboken (4-0). Zabaleta and Barron also scored three times apiece for the Red Wings, who will look to keep their hot start going tomorrow against Kearny.
Micewicz had two hits and two RBIs to pace Holy Family (0-4).
With showdowns looming next week against North Bergen and High Tech, the Red Wings learned a valuable lesson they feel will help them for the remainder of the season.
“We weren’t working as a team early on in the game, and you can’t do that and be successful,” added Spano. “You also can’t underestimate anyone because you have to be ready to play hard every game. We can’t afford to start the way we did today and play well against the tougher teams on our schedule. We know what it takes to win and we will work hard to make sure we don’t start like this again.”
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