When we last left the Central Regional High School softball team, it was Wednesday, June 8, 1988, and the Golden Eagles had just scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning on Stacy Witfill and Monsignor Donovan to win the Ocean County Tournament in dramatic fashion, 3-2, at Toms River High School South.
It was truly one of those moments in time that showed those in attendance what the Golden Eagles' softball program was all about under coach Norm Selby -- the grit of a comeback victory and doing so without the panic that would dull that calmness this club exuded.
And so after the championship was over and the Golden Eagles had received the championship trophy from tournament director and Lakewood High softball coach Dave MacKelvey, you'd thought they'd have a little party on the bus as they immediately went back to Bayville to the school and party some more there, right?
Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!
"Selby, you know we should just drive over to Donovan and do a lap around the school with the trophy!" Angel Slack told Selby. Normally, that would be an idea left to the side of the road after being laughed at during the moment. But these two teams were big-time rivals. Selby and assistant coach Gloria Garibaldi prided themselves on the program they built into a winner in the 1980s, first under previous coach Marshall Davenport. Selby and Garibaldi just enhanced it further. Johnny Come Latelys were frowned upon, especially when a new pitcher with Witfill's talent and power shows up at the team's doorstep from St. Rose the year before and automatically transforms a Donovan program that struggled for years into a winning club.
So the idea that Selby's star pitcher threw out there was taken into consideration. Central's bus headed from South up Hooper Avenue no more than a mile and a half to Donovan where -- sure as anything -- Central's bus did the one lap around Donovan's parking lot showing off the trophy, then headed back to Bayville.
Truth is, for all the celebrating these Central ladies wanted to do, they still had one last bit of business to attend to -- capturing the Shore Conference Class B South championship all to themselves. Because of postseason tournaments, which took precedent over regular-season games, the Golden Eagles had one last game to play for the division title against another team Central had a history with -- Manasquan High School, led by longtime mentor Pat Barnaba, who, too, had a ton of talented young ladies on her club, led by leadoff hitter and catcher Chris Hilla and No. 3 hitter and second baseman Amy Faas.
Manasquan would go into the game with a 20-6 record and 9-2 divisional record, the only blemishes being to Central on Central's field and to an up-and-coming Wall team of second-year Tony Vodola. The Golden Eagles were trying to top off the greatest season by an Ocean County softball team, taking a 26-3 record into the game with the losses coming to Wall in the regular season in divisional play, JFK-Iselin in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III state semifinal round and to Manasquan in the Shore Conference Tournament semifinals.
So that loss to Manasquan was still in the front of Selby's mind as well as his players' minds when they loaded up the bus at 8:15 in the morning on Saturday, June 11, 1988, and headed north to Manasquan to arrive for a 10 a.m. game that would determine if Central was going to win this divisional title by itself or have to share it with both Wall and Manasquan at 10-2 since the Knights' season was over with that 10-2 mark. As for myself, I left my childhood home at 8:40 a.m. to get to Manasquan's field -- which I never covered a game on before -- for the 10 a.m. game. I used to leave way early when I was heading to a school I had never been to before and frankly, I had never covered an event at Manasquan High in the nearly four years I was at the Ocean County Observer.
I arrived at Manasquan High at about 9:15 a.m., the field located in the back of the school along a street in the back. Neat little set-up. I parked my car a few blocks away from the field (foul balls, windshields, you know what I'm talking about here, don't you?). I walked over to the field and Central was already there, but there was a problem.
The gates were locked to get onto the field from the street and this forced Central players to have to practice outside the fence with simple tossing. You didn't have to ask Norm Selby how he was feeling at the moment -- he was pissed off to say the least. He wanted to start practicing infield/outfield with his players like he had for 29 previous games. Normally, he would take catcher Lisa Wallace with him to the plate and he'd hit grounders to a sound infield of Dawn Boertmann at first base, Dee Boudah at second, and star players Kelly McGowan at shortstop and Michelle Carlson at third. Garibaldi would take the outfielders, hitting fungos to left fielder Alison Duffy, center fielder Sue Faella and right fielder Sue Bitten. Then Slack, who was slated to start this finale to her season and career, would come to the circle and start taking grounders and relays after warming up.
This would be the normal routine. This is what Central Regional would be doing over a half hour before the game. But they couldn't because they couldn't get on the field, and worse, there was no sight of Barnaba and her Big Blue players in the distance of the school. Suddenly, 9:20 became 9:25, then 9:30, then 9:35 and finally at 9:41 a.m., the doors opened and the Big Blue players just casually walked out of the school and to the field.
It was Manasquan's home game, and the umpires were arriving five minutes after Barnaba and her players showed up. Needless to say, none of Central's bunch were too pleased having to wait this long to have the gates unlocked and properly warm up. We were all wondering if this was just a mental game Manasquan was playing in making Central wait to get on the field.
If it was, all it did was fuel Central further. And needless to say, the game didn't start until 10 minutes after 10. Manasquan pitcher Debra Swaney started and got two groundouts and a strikeout in the first. In the bottom of the first, Hilla led off with a single and Barnaba decided to shake things up by having Hilla steal second. But Wallace put a perfect throw to McGowan to throw her out.
This was key because both Amy Burns and Faas singled to put runners on first and second immediately after the caught stealing. But the shaky Slack got a forceout of Melissa Metuch's grounder to Carlson at third and struck out Denise Aromando to end the inning.
Maybe those early jitters were out of the way. Soon, though, Slack was back on the mound after Central's middle of the lineup went groundout, popout and foulout to end the second.
Big Blue third baseman Jenny deCastro singled and moved to second on a wild pitch. That was followed by a walk to Katy Hoos (Manasquan had some interesting last names on its roster) and an infield single by designated hitter Kim Lockenmeyer to load the bases.
Uh-oh. Maybe the mental games of before the first pitch were playing tricks on Slack and her teammates. Slack settled down, though, to strike out No. 9 hitter Stacey Schilling. But that meant Hilla was back up. She looped a 1-2 pitch into center field to bring in deCastro. Burns hit a comebacker to Slack, who threw to Wallace to get Hoos at the plate, but Faas walked on four pitches to bring in the second run to make it 2-0. Slack got Matuch to pop out to end the inning, but the Golden Eagles were down to 2-0.
And to a casual viewer of the game such as myself, something didn't seem right or feel right with Slack. It turns out she wasn't 100 percent for the game. Selby told me after the game, "Angel was pitching with a 102-degree temperature. Gloria knew she was ill and we just sent her home Friday. She wasn't doing us any good practicing with us on Friday, so we told her to get the day's rest and come back today."
It may have been short-sighted for Slack to be out there trying to pitch her guts out when she wasn't at her best, but nonetheless, there she was trying to secure Central's first outright Class B South title ever and first outright divisional title in seven years.
After going six up and six down, though, there needed to be a wakeup call. Faella began the top of the third inning with an infield single. After Boertmann popped out, No. 9 hitter Boudah forced Faella at second base.
There was two outs, but at least it was back to the dangerous top of the Golden Eagles' lineup. Carlson, who was building an impressive softball resume as the cat burglar-quick third baseman and an eight-game winner in the circle as the backup pitcher, while also being the quintessential "do-everything-to-get-on-base" leadoff hitter, dropped a two-out bunt on an unsuspecting Big Blue infield and beat it out for an infield hit.
This brought up Duffy, a solid junior leftfielder. She hit a grounder that shortstop Matuch should have just swallowed up and stepped on second base for the forceout of Carlson. But she may have seen Carlson barreling into second base with her speed and for one second took her eye off the ball. The bobble and error allowed the bases to be loaded for No. 3 hitter Wallace.
Like Duffy with older sister Dee, Wallace had an older sibling who had enjoyed success in previous years as Lynn Wallace played center field for the 1986 team that won both the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III and Ocean County Tournament titles like this '88 team did.
Swaney threw a first-pitch ball. Wallace nearly lost the next pitch to her.
"Ping!" The sound still resonates to this day as Wallace nailed the delivery and put a laser shot to the right-center field gap on a fenceless field. Boudah, Carlson and Duffy all scored and suddenly, it was Central holding the 3-2 lead. Wallace would tell me after the game, "I was just looking for a base hit. I just wanted a hit. (Swaney) threw it right down the middle. I had been coming under the ball and (Selby) had his eye on it. I had to keep my hands in and back."
If not for Bitten hitting a rope right at third baseman deCastro, the inning would have gone on.
Suddenly, the fans on the Central side of the field along the back street were excited. And Slack further got them excited by finally having a 1-2-3 inning in the third.
Soon, though, the Big Blue would be back to the plate. Slack got Lockenmeyer on a strikeout and Schilling on a groundout. But that meant Hilla was back to the plate. One swing could change the game from her. And it did. Hilla sent a booming triple over Faella's head and suddenly, the Big Blue were in business again. Burns walked and stole second, but still, all Central needed was one out to get out of the inning.
It didn't happen as Faas hit a grounder to Boudah, who booted it for an error to allow Hilla to score the tying run. Slack got out of the jam by inducing Matuch into a foulout to Carlson, keeping it at 3-3.
Suddenly, I thought, "Oh, great. There goes the momentum!" For all the successes I had seen of Selby's Golden Eagles over the years, I had seen their failures, too. But with this team, I never had that "Oh, no, it's all starting to go downhill" feeling, even with Slack throwing with a 102-degree temperature, Carlson still dealing with the aftermath of a badly hurt thumb in the final week of the season, McGowan dealing with a hurt arm, Bitten having to nurse a slight knee injury and Faella sporting a toothache she had no time to take care of, all according to the coach.
Yet, all these young ladies with the physical troubles were out there trying to win that outright divisional title in the final game of the season on this sunny, blue-sky Saturday morning as Bitten and Slack were playing their final games in Central uniforms.
The Golden Eagles had a threat in the fifth inning as Duffy singled and Wallace walked, but Bitten popped out to first base to end the inning. Other than a deCastro single with one out in the bottom of the fifth, Slack navigated out of possible danger with a flyout by Hoos and a foulout by Lockenmeyer.
With all the hurts and aches Central players were dealing with, it probably was best to avoid extra innings at all costs. And the girl with the bum arm at shortstop took matters into her hands.
McGowan had delivered the game-winning hit that ultimately captured Central's first state sectional title in 1986 when she was a freshman. She was about to help put the ribbon on this amazing season. On a 1-1 pitch from Swaney, She blasted a shot over Hoos' head and didn't stop running until Selby put the hands-up stop sign at third base.
The triple was a nice start to the sixth. All Central needed to do now was get a bat on the ball and avoid a Big Blue glove to get McGowan home. The Golden Eagles had struck out just twice in the game against Swaney. Sounds easy, right?
It was! Slack hit a grounder away from danger as first baseman Burns got the ball, but had one play to Faas covering first for the out. McGowan crossed the plate and Central had a 4-3 lead.
With one out in the sixth, Hilla finished out a superb high school career for herself with her fourth hit of the game, a single to left field. But there were no thoughts of trying to steal again on Wallace. Burns flied out to Faella and her achy tooth and Faas hit a comebacker to the girl with the 102-degree temperature.
Central put two runners on base with one out in the seventh, looking to expand on the lead, but Swaney got Bitten to pop out to Matuch and McGowan hit a grounder to Matuch, who tossed to deCastro at third for the forceout and final out of the inning.
All it left was Slack to get the final three outs of the game, the season ... and her career. Matuch hit a grounder at Carlson, who swallowed it up and fired to Boertmann at first for the first out. Aromando hit a line drive, but at Boudah for the second out. All that was left was deCastro, who had touched Slack for two hits on the day.
And she hit the ball again -- but this time to the wrong player. Right at Carlson. She gobbled that grounder, too, and fired to Boertmann for the final out of the game.
Central had held on for the 4-3 win and could now add Shore Conference Class B South champions along with their titles of NJSIAA South Jersey Group III, Ocean County and early-season Pemberton tournament champions.
They ended the year with a 27-3 record, breaking the county and program record of 26 wins established by Selby's first team in 1981. Slack ended her year at 19-2, striking out five Big Blue hitters, walking three, scattering eight hits and giving up two earned runs.
There were hugs and happiness from the Central young ladies, though with all that was ailing Central on this day, I'm not sure how much partying they wanted to do.
Over the years, Selby always told me about the pride he ran his program with Garibaldi. They were never "girls" to him. They were "young ladies." And he could not have been prouder of how his "young ladies" handled the adversity on this Saturday morning, especially being locked out of a softball field so they could warm up before the game.
"That's the kind of kid we had here at Central this season," Selby started off telling me after the victory. "If they had a 2 p.m. appointment somewhere, they would get to that appointment at 2:25 p.m. They put up the time to practice and put up with me and G (Garibaldi). They had to put up with that and more."
These Golden Eagles were always devoted to the love of softball and the chance to do something special -- like this '88 group was.
It was an early day for me. I got to the Observer just after 1 p.m. and wrote the story, did some other things around the office and went home for the rest of that day.
But it was a wonderful morning, which started in that bizarre fashion of Central not being able to get onto a field to practice. Mentally, that could have ruined most good teams that the other team didn't want you to have your regular routine. Maybe it was miscommunication, too, but even 33 years later, I highly doubt that.
Central and Manasquan were, at times, very bitter rivals.
And that's what made the last game of the 1988 season -- even a regular-season game -- a special one, played by a group of special players who made it their business to not share anything with any other team that day.
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