Sunday,
June 6, 2010
By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
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Indian
Hills head coach Joe Leicht showing off the county championship
trophy after the Braves knocked off Ridgewood, 3-2, in eight
innings on Sunday in Saddle Brook. |
TOMS
RIVER – It was the perfect situation for a storybook ending
for Indian Hills senior Katie Enright. Locked in a scoreless pitcher’s
duel with another one of New Jersey’s top hurlers, Overbrook
ace Jen Metzger, in Saturday’s Group 2 state final, Enright
came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom
of the seventh inning.
When
the count ran full, her visions of a dream ending came down to
one pitch with everything her team had worked so hard for on the
line.
It is a pitch that usually Enright would take a big swing at,
but a split-second reaction caused her to hold back. What happened
would eventually cause some controversy, but the end result was
still the dream ending for Enright and her teammates.
Enright
took a borderline pitch that was called just off the plate by
the home plate umpire to bring home Carey Houston with the game’s
only run as Indian Hills won its first Group 2 state title with
a 1-0 triumph over Overbrook at Toms River East High School.
“The
feeling to work so hard towards something and then end up as state
champs is something I can’t even describe,” said Enright.
“To be county and state champs is what we always wanted
and we worked our butts off every single day for this moment.
That’s especially true for the seniors because we knew our
legacy in the program was at stake. It feels amazing to be the
first softball team in school history to say we’re state
champs.”
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| Indian
Hills celebrated its 33rd win, tying a state record, and its
first ever state championship. |
Overbrook’s
best chance to score came in the top of the first inning when
Michelle Foster led off with a single and went to second on a
throwing error. Sam Barelli then cue-balled a shot that Indian
Hills second baseman Kelly Stritmatter made a shoestring catch
on and then doubled off Foster, who, along with the entire Overbrook
bench, thought the ball had hit the ground.
Indian
Hills had only one scoring opportunity through the first six innings,
that coming in the bottom of the fourth. After an Enright walk,
a bunted ball off the bat of Nicole Paotti was caught on a diving
play by Overbrook’s Mary Kate Verespy. But her momentum
carried her into dead ball territory allowing the runner to move
up to second base.
Danielle
Brogan then had an infield single before Verespy made another
big play defensively. She fielded a groundball and threw home
where teammate Lachelle Rouse slapped on the tag for the second
out of the inning before Metzger got a strikeout to get out of
the jam.
But
besides those two scoring threats, Enright and Metzger were engaged
in a game of, ‘Can you top this?’ Metzger did not
allow a ball hit to be hit to the outfield until the fifth, while
Enright was even more impressive; retiring 19 straight batters
starting in the first inning and continuing through the first
two outs of the seventh.
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| Jennifer
Metzger was outstanding in the circle for Overbrook. |
She
gave up her only walk of the game to Barelli and Rouse’s
groundball was booted to put the go-ahead run in scoring position.
Enright also showed she could play some defense by leaping to
field a high chopper off the bat of Keanna Ross and threw her
out by a step at first to end the inning.
Metzger
used an overpowering fastball and a riser to keep the Braves at
bay through six innings. But one of only two change-ups she threw
in the entire game proved to be costly in the bottom of the seventh.
Indian Hills’ No. 9 batter, Carey Houston, got in front
of the change of speed and drilled it to deep left field for a
one-out double that not only gave the Braves some life, but allowed
them to turn the lineup over and give the top of the order a chance
to win the game.
“I
honestly wasn’t expecting a change-up at all, but I had
to take a swing at it,” said Houston. “I didn’t
think I hit it all that hard, but I guess the wind helped. When
I saw it drop, I was just standing there on second and with the
girls we had coming up, I knew we had a chance to win it.”
Stritmatter
recorded the second out of the inning, but her at-bat was as important
as any in the game. She fouled off six 3-2 pitches in a 15-pitch
at-bat before popping up to short. It was the second out of the
inning, but it started to visibly take a toll on Metzger in the
circle.
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| Kelly
Strittmatter's 15-pitch at bat helped set up the game-winning
walk. |
“After
committing the error in the sixth inning, I just wanted a chance
for redemption,” said Stritmatter. “I was hoping to
get a hit, but I just wanted to make (Metzger) work as hard as
possible to get me out. I got my timing down and kept fighting
off pitches as long as I could.”
Perri
Goldberg, who was hit in the head earlier in the game, was hit
by another pitch and Ashley DeYoung worked out a walk to set the
stage for Enright.
“I
am usually pretty calm, but this was the most nerve-wracking moment
I’ve ever experienced in my life,” said Enright, who
will play at Division 2 Flagler College next year. “This
game was a true pitcher’s duel and you know if you don’t
take advantage of this chance that we might not get another one.”
Enright
quickly fell behind 0-2, but was able to foul off a few pitches
and eventually run the count full at 3-2. The crowd was buzzing,
both dugouts were yelling and screaming for their respective teams,
and Enright was somehow able to block all of that out and focus
on the task at hand. Both Enright and Metzger took a deep breath
before the game’s final pitch and Metzger fired one to the
plate. Enright took the 3-2 pitch that truly could have gone either
way. But without any hesitation it was called a ball and Enright
jogged down to first with an ear-to-ear grin and Houston trotted
home with the same wide smile as the Braves notched their first-ever
state title.
“I
know it could have went either way, so I just dropped my bat like
I knew it was a ball and went down to first,” said Enright.
“When I heard my team going crazy, I knew that we did it
and we were finally state champs.”
Enright
got the game-winning RBI, but was in the circle where she shined
throughout her career, culminating with maybe her best-ever performance
career in the biggest game of her life to this point. The leadoff
single to Foster was the only hit she allowed with one walk and
eight K’s. Brogan had two hits for the Braves, while Goldberg
and Houston had one apiece.
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| Head
coach Joe Leicht (right) led Indian Hills to league, county
and state sectional titles as well as the outright state championship. |
Although
it was in a losing effort, Metzger also pitched well for Overbrook
(26-3). She allowed four hits, walked four, and had four strikeouts.
The
win by Indian Hills was its 33rd of the season, tying a New Jersey
state record for wins in a season set back in 2004 by St. John-Vianney.
It also marked the first time in school history that the Braves
won league, county, state sectional and state titles all in the
same season.
When
head coach Joe Leicht got the team together after a 1-0 loss to
Pequannock in last year’s North 1, Group 2 final, he asked
his players ‘How hard would his team work to get one run
better so that feeling would not happen again?’ Time and
time again throughout the season he saw the hard work put in by
his players paying off and their efforts being rewarded with a
season that they will never forget.
“I
told the kids that we needed to work hard to get one run better
and we did just that,” said Leicht. “These kids have
really been special and they have given me everything they had.
Both pitchers today were fabulous and we realized pretty early
that it was going to come down to one run. We wanted Kate (Enright)
up there in that spot and we would have taken a run today any
way we could get it. I told these kids that we needed to somehow
get one run better from last year and we did it.”
FOR
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