Saturday, April 9, 2011

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Carla Arismendi, North Bergen's 4-year starter, has seen a lot on the diamond, but nothing like North Bergen's three-game winning streak to start the season which continued with a 9-5 win over Kearny in eight innings on Friday.

KEARNY – Over the first two games of the season, things could not have been crazier for the North Bergen softball team. First was a comeback from a three-run deficit with two innings to play to defeat Union City in the bottom of the seventh. Then there was one of the wildest games in North Bergen history as it battled back from a one-run deficit with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, then again in bottom of the 10th, before digging out of a three-run hole to score four runs with two outs in the bottom of the 11th to beat Cedar Grove. So when the Bruins took the field again on Friday against Kearny and quickly grabbed a 5-1 lead, it seemed like the heart-pounding finishes were finally behind them.

But that was not the case as numerous errors, both physical and mental, along with some timely hitting allowed Kearny to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh and put the winning run on third with no outs. The Bruins found a way to come through in the clutch once again; only this time it was the defense that kept their winning ways going.

After a nightmare of a game and a mental miscue by Kearny, North Bergen’s Jazmin Palma redeemed herself by helping turn an inning-ending double play to send the game into extra innings. Maria Montalvo, the Bruins’ No. 9 batter, notched her second game-winning hit of the season with an RBI single as North Bergen scored four times in the eighth inning to win yet another wild contest, 9-5, over Kearny at Gunnell Oval.

“We can’t keep shooting ourselves in the foot like this, but it comes off a little bit better when you come out the other side with a win,” said longtime North Bergen head coach Tom Eagleson. “We made so many mental and physical errors when we could have put the game away. But it also went the other way and we fortunate to get a break or two that got us into extra innings. When the chips are down, we seem to have that ability to buckle down and hit the ball. You wonder ‘How many times can we keep doing this?’ We’re happy with our record because we could just as easily be (0-3), but we’re not happy with the way we played today.”

Kearny battled back from a 5-1 deficit to force extra innings.

Kearny got on the scoreboard first when Kaitlyn Lima singled and came around to score on an error for a 1-0 lead.North Bergen struck back with five runs in the top of the second inning. A pair of walks sandwiched around a single by Jessica Feria loaded the bases. The first two runs came around to score on an outfield error. Ashley Heredia knocked in two more runs with a double and Palma followed with a double of her own to make the score 5-1.

Kearny got two of those runs back on a pair of errors and then an RBI double from Ashley Dunwoodie to cut the Bruins’ four-run lead in half. The miscues continued for North Bergen in the bottom of the fourth on a hard single by Janitza Aquino. The ball got by the right fielder and then the relay throw was errant allowing Aquino to come all the way around to score and trim the lead to 5-4.

The steady pitching of Kearny’s Ashleigh Amadeo along with a trio of North Bergen mistakes on the base paths allowed the Kardinals to hang around, down just a run heading into the bottom of the seventh.

Aquino got things going with a triple to left-center and the Kardinals quickly tied the game when Amadeo came up and laced an RBI single to knot the score at 5. Sarah O’Neil followed with a single and the ball was booted in the outfield with the runners moving up. It appeared North Bergen’s run of good fortune had finally run out as the winning run stood just 60 feet away with still nobody out in the inning.

“You always have to feel like you can get out of that situation, but the odds certainly were not in our favor,” added Eagleson, who surpassed the 500-win plateau for his career last year. “Carla (Arismendi) had to make some big pitches and we had to make some big plays behind her just to get it to the eighth inning.”

Kristin Stankus looked like she had at the very least a game-winning sacrifice fly when she roped an outside fastball to deep right field, forcing Ashley Vazzona to make a catch on the run. But the runner from third was off the bag and did not have enough time to tag up and score, which she would have done relatively easily. In the ensuing at-bat, Palma backhanded a hard ground ball off the bat of Dunwoodie. She got a runner caught up between third and home before flipping to catcher Nicole Bellucci for the out. Bellucci then alertly threw down to Sabrina Reyes third to complete the double play and miraculously end the inning.

North Bergen has survived three nail-biters to get to 3-0 on the season.

“We definitely dodged a bullet and I think that helped us when we came to the plate in the eighth inning,” said Arismendi. “We’ve been in tight games already this year, so we knew what we had to do.”

Tiffany Garzon led off the inning with a double and, one out later, last week’s hero in the season-opener against Union City came through again. Montalvo, a transfer from Cliffside Park, lined a single to right allowing Garzon to score to give North Bergen a 6-5 lead.

“Their pitcher (Amadeo) had good control and she was throwing strikes all game, so I was aggressive and knew I would get a good pitch to hit,” said Montalvo. “I knew if I could bring home (Garzon) from second base that we would win. I was just hoping to be in the lineup at the beginning of the season. For me to have the two big hits I’ve had in our first three games has been a great feeling. I have confidence in myself, but I’m still a little shocked at all the crazy games we’ve had so far and how I’ve been able to be a big part of it.”

Nerylix Cerda, whose two-out, bases-clearing triple was the game-winning hit that beat Cedar Grove, lifted a sacrifice fly and Arismendi capped the frame with a two-run double and then retired the side 1-2-3 in the bottom half for the win.

Arismendi scattered nine hits, walked one, and had 10 Ks while going 4-for-4 at the plate for North Bergen (3-0). Ashley Heredia drove in two runs and scored two, while she and Palma each went 3-for-5 on the day.  Melissa Nash, Dunwoodie, and Aquino each had a pair of hits for Kearny, which fell to 0-2 on the season.

Somehow, the Bruins survived seven errors and several more on the base paths to stay undefeated. While all three games won by North Bergen this season have come in exciting fashion, it hopes the best is yet to come for a team with county and section championship aspirations.

“It’s great to win exciting games, but not when we you make so many mistakes along the way because eventually your luck will run out,” added Arismendi, a four-year starter. “First it was opening-game jitters, then it was playing a real good team like Cedar Grove, and now it’s just getting frustrating because we’re running out of excuses why we’re making so many errors both on the field and mentally. This team has 11 seniors and most of us have been on varsity for a few years. If we want to be county champs and even think about being state champs, we have to step our game up a few notches and start playing like seniors who are leaders.”

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