Back in the day when the Ocean County Softball Tournament was a well-run machine and coaches handled the tournament directing duties, there was Quarterfinal Saturday.
Whether it was at Lakewood High School or Point Pleasant Boro High School or Toms River High School East, it was an all-day, all-night Saturday of softball at one particular site.
And in 1996, that site was East, the first full year the Raiders' field had lights on it. The lights were to be installed to play in the 1995 season, but it took a while -- like the whole freakin' season -- for the lights to finally be put up for the county tournament championship on May 20, 1995. And for the record, Central Regional defeated Jackson Memorial, 11-4, for the title.
The lights now fully in use for 1996, it made running the county tournament all that much better, and gave us back a true Quarterfinal Saturday with all four tournament games on the same day.
And so this Quarterfinal Saturday was held on Saturday, May 25, 1996. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon at East. The first two games in the late morning and afternoon were blowouts -- defending champion Central Regional went first and pummeled Lacey, 10-2. The other game saw Jackson Memorial handle its business against coach Amy Tice's Brick Green Dragons, 12-3.
One semifinal was set for the following weekend with Central and Jackson having a rematch.
Now we had the other half of the quarterfinals to play. Top-seeded Southern Regional was to face No. 9 seed Toms River South in the prime-time game starting at 8 p.m. But at 5 p.m., we had the showcase game between No. 5 seed Point Pleasant Boro and No. 4 seed Toms River North.
The one girl on Point Boro's team, coached by former tournament director Ric Malta, with any name recognition was shortstop and leadoff hitter Jodie Cheasty, who had been a member of the Panthers' NJSIAA Group II championship girls basketball team two months before, the first Ocean County team to win a girls basketball state championship.
North's Mariners had a mostly young team, though senior second baseman Dawn Albruzzese and senior center fielder Carrie Brown were the upper-class leaders. North's team was building toward a stronger future with sophomores Lisa Miller at third base and Teresa Andreani behind the plate and shortstop Kathy Acosta at shortstop leading the way.
But the game featured two promising freshmen stars in the circle on this day. For Point Boro, it was Kristin Handwerk. I had seen her pitch maybe once that year, and the only other thing I knew about her was that I knew her father, Tom, who was a longtime basketball coach at the Boro and previously at Lakewood.
The other pitcher would eventually become a legend -- Lauren Anderson. L.A. The "Big M."
Already, she had begun to build her reputation as a bad-ass, hard-throwing right-hander who used every inch of the plate made possible to her, but preferred wiping you away with her fastball. Riseball? She did not need one. No one in most of these teams' lineups was catching up to the No. 1.
And as the sun shined brightly over Toms River East behind the field for the 5 o'clock start, I settled into my public address spot behind the plate to watch what I thought had every right to be a pitcher's duel from start to finish.
The Panthers had first crack against Anderson. In 10 pitches, Anderson vanquished Cheasty, Jessica McMullen and Summer Marini on a flyout, groundout and strikeout. North had its first crack at Handwerk and she went 1-2-3 in 11 pitches as Albruzzese popped out, and Miller and Andreani flied out.
Then Anderson got it cranked up in the second against an offensively challenged Panthers team. She struck out Meghan Shank, Handwerk and Dawn Christie all swinging.
Meanwhile, Handwerk ran into trouble in her half of the second. With two outs, Acosta walked. Toni Lynn Trombino walked and both stole bases. But Handwerk worked her way out of the jam by getting Melissa Dague to pop out to Christie to keep it scoreless.
The third inning for Anderson was more of the same -- three-up, three-down as she got a lineout, flyout and strikeout. Nine up, nine down so far for the star-in-the-making Anderson.
The Mariners mustered up another threat in the third inning. With one out, Albruzzese beat out an infield hit. Miller put down a sacrifice bunt that Handwerk fielded and threw to first baseman Julie Bishop for the out, but on the play, Albruzzese hustled all the way to third. Yet another Mariner in scoring position. Was THIS the moment to break through.
Turns out it wasn't. Andreani flied out to right fielder Wendi Baenziger to end the threat.
It was now the fourth. The Panthers had one go-round with Anderson and had no hits and four strikeouts to show for it. And it wasn't starting any better when Cheasty grounded out weakly to Anderson.
But Malta had a different strategy for No. 2 hitter McMullen. She had her lay down a bunt on the right side of the infield. McMullen beat the play at first and the Panthers had a baserunner and hit at last.
This brought up Marini, the Panthers' durable catcher. Marini hit a 1-2 pitch on the left side of the infield, a slow roller that it seemed to take forever for Miller to get to. Miller did retrieve the ball, but she was late in getting Marini at first. While all this is going on, McMullen was not stopping, heading for third base. First baseman Alyson Barnett fired back across the diamond to Acosta covering third, only to miss her target.
Badly, no less. The ball rolled on East's open field into dead-ball territory, allowing McMullen to come home with the first run of the game, making it 1-0. Chaos in no more than eight seconds and the Panthers had a run after doing nothing for three innings. Shank walked after Marini was allowed to advance to third on that errant throw. Shank stole second, but Anderson got a strikeout and flyout to end the inning.
Now the Mariners had to battle back. Seemed easy for them throughout this '96 season as they had a 14-7 record going into the game. With one out, things got started for North when a throwing error by third baseman Shank allowed Brown to get to second. An infield hit, followed by a stolen base, by Acosta put runners on second and third. But Handwerk showed the large crowd at East why as a freshman she had ice water in her veins, striking out both Trombino and Dague to end another North threat.
After the errant throw that allowed the Panthers to score, Anderson allowed the Panthers practically nothing the rest of the afternoon and early evening. She would retire 11 of the last 12 batters she faced, five of which were strikeouts, giving her 10 for the day.
For Handwerk, though, things were not as easy. In the bottom of the fifth inning, she hit Albruzzese with a pitch. She was forced out on a Miller grounder, then Miller moved to third on a bloop single to right-center field by Andreani, who would take second one pitch later. But against her counterpart, Handwerk prevailed by getting Anderson on a groundout to Cheasty.
The real battles, though, were about to take place. Brown started the sixth inning by booming a double over left fielder Diana Shank's head. Acosta bunted successfully for a hit to put runners on first and third with no outs.
Could this be the moment that North finally -- FINALLY -- broke through against Handwerk, who had navigated rough waters throughout the game? Trombino came up. On the first pitch, she hit a flyball to right fielder Baenziger. She caught it and North coach Becky Miller sent Brown home. Baenziger threw a strike to Marini at the plate. As she caught the ball, she turned to make the tag and right on top of her was Brown.
Marini, who had successfully blocked the plate, got plastered by Brown. Somehow, though, Marini held on to the ball and home plate umpire Jerry Caldarise called Brown at the plate. I'm pretty sure over 25 years later, that would not be allowed (blocking the plate, that is), but in this moment, it meant the Panthers secured their one-run lead. However, with Acosta now on third after the bang-bang play at the plate, the Panthers still had to hold their ground. Handwerk dominated Dague in striking her out to end the sixth.
One more inning and the Panthers would advance to their first OCT semifinal since 1991.
The bottom of the seventh began with pinch-hitter Nicolette Schellato beating out an infield hit.
There was the spark North needed for one last rally. Albruzzese, though, grounded into a force play as Cheasty fielded the grounder and tossed to second baseman Christie for the out. Lisa Miller then hit a grounder to Christie, who could have thrown to second to force out Albruzzese, but opted to throw to Bishop for the second out.
That was downright dangerous. That put Albruzzese in scoring position with two outs and a dangerous hitter at the plate in Andreani, who two years later would earn first-team all-state honors as North's catcher on a memorable 24-3 team. This lefty-hitting catcher was a star in the making like her battery mate. For this game, Andreani was 1-for-3 with each ball going to right-center field.
Boro played her straight away with McMullen edged a tad over toward right fielder Baenziger. Handwerk was 1-1 in the count to Andreani when she threw a waist-high pitch that Andreani got a hold of.
Boro fans stood up. North fans stood up as the ball was heading for the right-center field gap. If the ball lands, Miller easily scores, and if it goes by the two outfielders, there's no question that Andreani gets at least a triple, maybe an inside-the-park home run to win it.
It looked like a sure hit. But out of nowhere came McMullen, who had only one play -- stretching out and diving to make the catch. She went for it ... and the ball found its way into her glove.
Boro fans jumped up and down in joy. North fans stood in disbelief. And Panthers players raced out to where McMullen was still on the ground with the ball in her glove, saving the Panthers' 1-0 victory.
I'm pretty sure McMullen never made another play quite like that in her life. But the senior had delivered in the biggest of moments and had sent the Mariners packing for the rest of the tournament.
On the field, our writer for that game, Nick Huba (because I took the day off), was interviewing both coaches Malta and Miller afterward. I had seen the Boro state title win in girls basketball and, at this point, it was just more Boro magic.
Ironically, it was a throwing error on a play at third base by a first baseman, this time Bishop, that let the go-ahead run score and lift top-seeded Southern Regional to a 2-1 win over Boro in the following weekend's semifinal matchup.
And by the way, the final game of the Quarterfinal Saturday after that thrilling Boro victory was a 10-1 no-hitter by Southern's Dana O'Hearn against South that saw her set a then-OCT record 15 strikeouts.
North would get to the OCT final the following year behind Anderson's brut pitching force and lose on a dramatic solo inside-the-park home run by Central Regional's Cheryl Zellman, 2-1, in nine innings. But in 1998, the year belonged to North as it won the OCT and Shore Conference Tournament titles with Anderson as a junior and Andreani as a senior.
Then in 1999, North and Boro hooked up again, this time in the SCT second round. And just like in 1996, Boro won the game behind senior Handwerk. Anderson was the hard-luck loser as she had to do a lot more for a team that could not hit its way out of a paper bag after those players in '97 and '98 had graduated.
But it's always wonderful to go back to when those players were so much younger, most notably Handwerk and Anderson as freshmen, facing each other in a tournament game like that one.
I knew the future was pretty secure the rest of the 1990s.
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