Sunday,
June 1, 2014
By Cory K. Doviak
NJS.com Editorial Director
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That's it: The swing by Maddie Levine and the ball leaving the bat on its way over the fence for the two-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning that gave Indian Hills a 5-4 win over three-time defending champion IHA and the Bergen County title. |
SADDLE BROOK – This game could have been about so many things. Unbeaten team versus unbeaten team, the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the state, battling it out for a county title. It could have been about one pitcher's quest to become New Jersey's all-time leader in career victories and the other trying to erase the memory of a meltdown in last year's county final. It could have been about IHA's bid to become the first team in the history of the tournament to win four straight titles or Indian Hills making a stand for public schools everywhere.
But when all was said and done it was about one at bat, a matchup between one of the state's best hitters in Indian Hills' Maddie Levine facing one of the state's all-time pitching greats in IHA senior Steph Thomas.
Indian Hills was trailing by a run in the bottom of the seventh inning. There was a runner on first, there were two outs and two strikes and then...in came a curveball.
“[Thomas] got me a couple of times in the this game, but when I saw that pitch coming in I knew it was my spot and my time. She gave me a pitch to hit and I hit it hard,” said Levine, Indian Hills' senior catcher. “I did not know it was gone. I knew I hit it solid, but I did not know it was going to go over the fence. But it did go over the fence.”
Indeed it did and when it landed, Indian Hills had a stunning 5-4 win in front of a packed house at Smith School Field in Saddle Brook. It was the Braves first county title since 2010 and IHA's first loss in the county tournament since losing to Indian Hills in the semifinals that same year. It also means that Thomas still has 112 career victories with at least two more chances to break the all-time record and that Indian Hills is still unbeaten (32-0) with a chance to become the first team in state history to go 34-0 should it go on to win its last two state tournament games and defend its Group 3 state title.
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Daniella Ibarra, IHA's shortstop who usually hits left-handed, batted righty with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth and drove in two runs that gave the Blue Eagles a 4-3 lead. |
Indian Hills head coach Joe Leicht has won plenty of big games in his career in both basketball and softball, but his ear-to-ear smile during the postgame ceremonies, which included a dunking from the Gatorade bucket, gave away the fact that, to him, this one was special.
“It's because the kids so very, very much deserve it. If you would have seen them work from last year to this year off the field...Everybody works on the field, but off the field; the lifting, the winter cages, the leadership they showed bringing the young guys along,” said Leicht. “If you had seen that all year long then all you can do is stand there and be so proud and watch them when good things happen because there is no more deserving group.”
The two teams came in with a combined record of 61-0. Having avoided each other during the regular season in order to set up the possible winner take all scenario, the game lived up to the hype starting right from what turned out to be a pivotal first inning. In last season's final won by IHA, 10-0, the Blue Eagles took control in the first inning by drawing three walks against Devin Durando, who went on to walk seven in the game.
This time around she hit Thomas, the game's first batter, with a pitched ball, walked Reese Guevarra and, after getting a strikeout, walked Angelina McGuire to load the bases. But instead of falling apart, Durando dug in. Gina DeOliviera grabbed a ground ball at third base and threw home for the second out of the inning and Durando (7 IP, 4 R, 4 ER, 7 H, 8 K, 6 BB) fielded a comebacker for the third out.
Instead of having to fight from behind Indian Hills instead found itself in front by the end of the first full inning as Shelby Allen whacked a two-run homer to right field to give the Braves a 2-0 lead. Levine, who was hit by a pitch with two outs and the bases empty, scored in front of Allen.
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In the warm up act to the late game heroics, Indian Hills' Shelby Allen hitting the two-run homer in the bottom of the first inning that gave the Braves an early lead. |
Despite the talent inside the circle for both teams, this was never going to be a pitcher's duel as Thomas singled in Emily Walter in the top of the second to make it 2-1. Nicole Mellone got that run back for Indian Hills in the bottom of the second with a two-out single that plated Karly Jo Gruelich, who reached on an error leading off the frame.
The mark of a good team is the ability to come up with the big two-out hits with runners on base. These are two good teams so it was only fitting that eight of the nine runs in the game came courtesy of two-out hits. The only one that did not fit that category was two-out RBI fielder's choice hit by Reese Guevarra that got IHA to within 3-2 in the top of the fourth.
One of the many strengths that IHA (30-1) possesses is the length of its lineup and the bottom of its order set the table for the Blue Eagles to take the lead in the sixth. Sophomore Emilie Cieslak (2-for-4, 2 R), hitting out of the No. 7 spot, hit her third line drive of the game and led off the frame with a single to left. She was bunted up a base by Emily Walter and Reagan Jones was hit by a pitch. The lineup turned over for Thomas (2-for-2, RBI), who beat out an infield single to load the bases. After a strikeout, Daniella Ibarra, IHA's senior shortstop, came up in a key spot. Ibarra, who will play at the University of Iowa next season, usually bats left-handed, but, after striking out in two of her first three at bats, she took her fourth turn from the right side of the plate, which she has not done since at least her sophomore year and maybe not since 2011.
IHA head coach Anthony LaRezza was the one who turned her around and she responded with a rope through the right side that scored two runs and put the Eagles ahead for the first time at 4-3 with just six outs left to get.
“It looked like that was going to be the story of the game at that time. She looked bad with two strikeouts from the left side and then she gets up righty with the bases loaded and comes through,” said LaRezza. “In a game that was the first time [she batted righty] since freshman or sophomore year, but she does it everyday in practice and I thought it was the right time for the switch.”
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IHA sophomore Emilie Cieslak (2-for-4) was one of only two players in the game to have multiple hits. |
Indian Hills went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the sixth and Thomas (6 2/3 IP, 5 R, 4 ER, 6 H, 7 K, 2 BB) struck out the first batter of the seventh. But when Nicole Leocata drew a one-out walk, anything less than double play was going to give Levine an at bat in a showdown for all the marbles. Mellone moved Leocata into scoring position with a ground ball to third, but that became a moot point when Levine crushed that curveball over the mesh fence in right centerfield.
It was the best finish to a Bergen County Softball Tournament since Christina Miguel hit a three-run, walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to give IHA a similarly stunning victory over Pascack Valley in 2009. This time it went against the Eagles, who will play Lyndhurst on Monday in an independent game and then get back to the task of defending their Non-Public North A state sectional title against Mt. St. Dominic in the final on Tuesday.
“With what our team has done, I just told them to keep their heads up. There is nothing to be ashamed of and it came down to the last pitch, a bad pitch that I called. I take the blame for that. I should have called a screwball, I called a curveball and [Levine] hit it. I take total blame for that,” said LaRezza. “We still have a game on Monday, a game on Tuesday and, hopefully, a game on Saturday. I am sure on Tuesday under the lights at Seton Hall, they know what is at stake and they will respond. It is just right now that the feeling is bad. It should hurt. No one wants to lose and it shows that they care and that they were into the game.”
Indian Hills is also going to have to refocus itself but for the Braves the challenge is going to be coming down off of Cloud 9 in time for its Group 3 state semifinal against Warren Hills. That game will be played on Tuesday in South Plainfield and the Braves could rewrite history with a win there and another in Toms River next weekend.
“We are not thinking about 34-0 right now, we are only concentrating on 33. Coming out here and winning gives us a little more incentive to go all the way this year,” said Durando. “We know we can do it. We did it last year and I think this win just puts us in even a better mindset right now.”
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