The Grudge Match of '92

It was Thursday, and by now, the week had already been an interesting one at Point Pleasant Boro Middle/High School's softball field.

On Monday, June 1, it rained and the first semifinal matchup between top-seeded Central Regional and fourth-seeded Southern Regional had been postponed. And since both semifinals were played on that same field that night, it meant having to stick around and wait for the Jackson Memorial and Toms River East buses to arrive and tell them to turn back the other way and try again tomorrow.

Since this was my first venture into co-directing the Ocean County Tournament with Boro coach Ric Malta, it meant making sure everything was right. But when rain comes, it makes things awfully difficult. And that meant finances, too. The four umpires who were to make calls on the field all had to be paid for that night because they all showed up.

Still OK, though, since we were going to get them again for the two semifinals the next night under absolutely beautiful conditions at Point Boro. In the first game, Southern and Central started over again, and Central would outlast Southern, 10-8, to advance to its first final in four years. The second game was an absolute thriller with East coming out on top in eight innings, 8-7.

We had our championship game albeit a day late. The top-seeded Golden Eagles would be taking on the second-seeded Raiders for the first time ever in the final on Thursday night, June 4, 1992.

But this was more than just No. 1 vs. No. 2. This was going to be a grudge match where no one was going to be really friendly before, during and after the game. The cause? That was Toms River East sophomore pitcher Erin Tulko. Tulko was a member of Central Regional's team as a freshman, but was relegated to "sometimes" duty behind fellow freshman Tara Menschner, who was beginning to make a name for herself in the circle. 

So during the next school year, Tulko's family transferred her to Toms River East. And, immediatley, Raiders coach Debbie Schwartz had an instant ace to return after taking a year off for maternity leave. Schwartz was not afraid to ride Tulko's high-powered arm and the Raiders were a big-time threat after a five-win season under temporary head coach Joe Arminio.

Tulko was a threat both in the circle and in the batter's box, where she delivered seven home runs for the Raiders. She was the main attraction of a Raiders team that turned things around in 1992. The "other" parts of the Raider lineup fit nicely, starting with catcher and leadoff hitter Vicki Kube, sisters Angela and Stephanie Velardi, shortstop Amy Mullane and freshman center fielder Vicki Guarneri.

But, let's face facts -- Tulko's heat was a major reason for the Raiders' success. A 1-0 deficit felt like 3-0, maybe 4-0 and a 2-0 deficit felt like 6-0. She was that good.

Still, there was a reason why Tulko was no longer at Central Regional. I mean, you don't force kids to go somewhere else, and a lot of it ... was attitude. If you knew Golden Eagles coach Norm Selby and assistant Gloria Garibaldi, they were no-nonsense people. They didn't want prima donnas dotting their premier lineup and they would tell you in not so many words to get an "attitude adjustment." 

Selby had run this program since 1981 when he took over for Marshall Davenport and had won numerous division titles and four OCT championships in the 1980s. The Golden Eagles even went to the NJSIAA Group III championship game in 1986, and won another NJSIAA South Jersey Group III title in 1988.

But after that 27-3 season for the Golden Eagles, the wheels began to loosen up. Star third baseman Michelle Carlson transferred from Central to East -- not her choice, mind you. And though the Golden Eagles were still winning, the win totals were not very high between 1989-91.

However, the 1991 Golden Eagles team offered a glimpse into the future. That team offered a look at very young players growing up. By the following year, the Golden Eagles had won 20 games and shared the Shore Conference Class B South title.

Now in what was the final game of the season for the Golden Eagles, they had that first county championship in four years on their minds. Menschner was back in her normal place in the circle. Senior Amy McGowan was her catcher the last two years. They had a steady infield of junior first baseman Amber Dafeldecker, junior second baseman Tara Gardner, freshman shortstop Dana Kennett and sophomore Erika Applegate.

Anchoring Central's outfield were a pair of seniors -- Selby's daughter, Lorrin, was in left field, and easily the best senior athlete in Ocean County, Lauren Wagner, was roaming center field. Freshman April Rose was in right field.

The night was already long. For the one and only time in the tournament's history, a third-place game was played (both Ric and I thought it was a great idea when we came up with it). And that game took over two and a half hours to play, but in the end, it was Southern outlasting Jackson, 9-8, in eight innings.

So a 7:30 p.m. start time was already not happening. Immediately, you can see a difference in both finalists' approach in this game. East struggled with its 15 minutes of warmup before the finale, struggling to come up with groundballs. East used up every last second of that 15 minutes of warmup. I can still see Selby pointing to the watch on his right wrist. Thankfully, East was finishing up and Central took the field. Central's fielders looked confident in snagging groundball after groundball, while the outfielders were snagging all the flyballs.

Usually, you don't read much into that whatsoever. Just because you have a good or bad warmup doesn't mean you can carry that onto the field.

On this night, both teams did.

In my normal position as public address announcer, I did my normal duties of announcing the substitutes and the starters for both teams. I played the national anthem and then there was a first pitch -- provided by OCT Most Valuable Player Lynne Prudhomme of Toms River South, who had won the honor 10 years before in 1982. She delivered a throw like she was still playing shortstop that I thought was going to take McGowan's glove off her hand.

But it was all finished and we finally got to play ball as the darkness was slowly settling in on the Point Boro field that evening.

If Menschner had any jitters, she did not show it. She struck out Kube looking to begin the game. She got third baseman Theresa Madden to pop out to Menschner. Tulko would bloop a single into right-center field for the first hit of the game. But Menschner controlled Angela Velardi, forcing her to hit a comebacker to end the first.

So far so good at Central's end. Now it was Tulko's turn to watch her let rip of her fastball on this night. She simply had one thing in mind -- overpower her former teammates, make them understand how much they missed not having her. And right off the bat, she began to prove that point against leadoff hitter Wagtner. She blew her fastball past Wagner for the first out on strikes.

Next was Lorrin Selby. She was able to make contact with Tulko and lofted a single into right field.

Selby's hit proved that their former teammate was not invincible. Then again, I'm sure coach Selby and Garibaldi had already shared that bit of wisdom with the players beforehand. Rose was next at the plate. She hit a grounder that should have been at least a forceout at second. Nope! Gyurecz fumbled the grounder for an error and runners were on first and second.

McGowan was the cleanup hitter, but she was not your quintessential cleanup hitter. But she was smart enough to stay away from chasing Tulko's pitches. Eventually, she worked out a walk and suddenly, Tulko had issues with the bases loaded and one out.

Her opposite number, Menschner, was at the plate. But it didn't take long for Tulko to overwhelm her, striking her out for the second out of the inning. All that was left was No. 6 hitter Applegate. Tulko got ahead of Applegate at 0-2. Then she tried to put one to the outside part of the plate. Applegate got enough of the bat on the ball to loft it into an area where no one was.

Selby and Rose scampered home with the first two Golden Eagles runs. After getting the ball late at the plate, Kube tried to make a pickoff of Applegate back at first.

Big mistake. The ball sailed over Angela Velardi's head and into the outfield to easily plate McGowan. Applegate got to second on the overthrow. Then Dafeldecker made things easily by hitting a grounder in between the plate and the circle. Tulko was slow to get to the ball and it took Kube's cat-like reflexes to throw Dafeldecker out by a step to end the inning.

The smoke figuratively cleared and the Raiders were down 3-0 after one inning. Their shoddy defense failed them in this moment. Still, East had a good enough team that they could gets hits off the accurate Menschner, put the ball in play and force the Golden Eagles to make plays. That's the plan, right?

The first out of the second inning was going to be all you needed to know about this game. Stephanie Klunk hit a foul ball over by the first-base fence. Dafeldecker hustled from her position lunged out and made the catch while also trapping East assistant coach Dawn Dziedzic, who could not get out of the way of the foul pop.

That play signified the rest of the night for the Golden Eagles defensively.

East, though, got a rally started as left fielder Jen Beresh and Mullane delivered back-to-back singles. That brought up Stephanie Velardi. Schwartz put the bunt on for Velardi, but she popped it up by the first-base line. Anticipating the bunt, Dafeldecker rushed in to make the snag, then turned around to where Gardner was at first base and fired a strike to double off Mullane to end the inning.

We were not in the bottom of the second inning, yet the Golden Eagles were operating on all cylinders, making big play after big play, holding the 3-0 lead.

In the bottom of the second, Tulko turned it up a notch. She struck out Kennett, Stacey Sperling and Wagner all swinging, winning her battle with Sperling after Sperling fouled off seven straight two-strike offerings.

Both teams went down in order in the third and by the top of the fourth, we were in darkness with the lights above us detailing what was happening. In the top of the fourth, Menschner got Tulko for the East slugger's first time in the tournament on a flyball out to Selby. But the Golden Eagles would make their only mistake of the night defensively, courtesy of the freshman Kennett, who threw an Angela Velardi groundball away and into dead-ball territory, putting Velardi on second. 

How would East's bats respond? How would Central respond from the error? These were very important questions as we neared the midway point of this so-called grudge match.

It didn't take long to answer. Klunk hit a grounder back to Menschner, who looked Velardi back to second. She threw to Dafeldecker, but Velardi started toward third. The out was made at first and Dafeldecker delivered a low strike to Kennett covering third to nail Velardi to end the inning.

Once again, it was Central's defense saving the proverbial day. How could this keep happening, especially with East being the constant victim of this defensive wizardry?

East's own defensive wizardry? It was missing a wizard. With one out, Applegate beat out an infield hit. Dafeldecker hit a grounder to Mullane, but second baseman Kelly Gyurecz was not fast enough to get to second. That didn't stop Mullane from throwing toward the bag and throwing the ball into right field, allowing the runners to move up a base on what was East's third error of the game.

Central had a chance to put this one away, but Tulko found the gear to go into and strike out Kennett and get Sperling to softly line out to Angela Velardi, keeping it a three-run game.

While many in the crowd were awed by Tulko's speed and go-after-it attitude with Central hitters, no one was noticing the masterpiece Menschner was putting together. In the fifth, she got Beresh to ground out, Mullane to fly out and Stephanie Velardi to ground out.

Tulko induced three groundouts from Wagner, Selby and Rose in the bottom of the fifth.

My vantage point for this final was on the right side behind the backstop next to East's dugout on the first base side. You could start seeing the concern on their faces and the body movements were not as spry as before. This sixth inning was going to be a big moment for the Raiders. Either they were going to break through and make this game or they were just not destined to do anything on this night.

And the sixth started simply with an innocent bunt laid down by Guarneri along the first-base side. Dafeldecker had made just about every play on this evening, but couldn't for this one time. Eats had a baserunner. Kube then roped a single to left to move Guarneri up to first and second with no one out.

Suddenly, this was the moment East was looking for. With Tulko in the on-deck circle, Schwartz most of the time had Madden lay down a sacrifice bunt. And this time, she was perfect in her quest to do so as Dafeldecker got the ball and made the tag for the first out.

There were Guarneri and Kube in scoring position and the biggest threat at the plate. Let Tulko get her three rips in and make something happen. She hit the ball well in her two at-bats so far. Everyone within shouting distance was anticipating this moment -- the biggest moment of this championship.

What happened next still defies explanation to this day. Tulko squared up to bunt. Whether Schwartz asked for the bunt or not, I've never asked. But Tulko was there bunting, trying to catch the Golden Eagles' defense off guard. But all Menschner did was pick up the ball, look Guarneri back to third base, and put the ball back in her glove.

Yes, she knew when she did that the tying run was on base in a 3-0 game. This was the risk she and her Golden Eagles teammates were making on this tense night. Menschner -- as well as coach Selby -- knew the next two hitters weren't going to beat his pitcher the way Tulko could have.

On the very first pitch to Angela Velardi, she popped up. The infield fly rule was in effect as Kennett squeezed the ball for the second out. Now it was up to Klunk to finally loosen the vice grip of a lead Central held. The count got to 3-2. Then Menschner threw a pitch down a bit in the plate. Klunk lofted a sinking fly ball toward Lorrin Selby in left. It seemed to take an hour for Selby to get to the ball, but she reached out and snagged the flyball that ended the bases-loaded, one-out rally.

And was the next dagger mark in East's collective body. Now it was up to Central to add to the lead. And while I can hear Schwartz encouraging her players to get back up and get out of the bottom of the sixth, the Raiders looked already like a beaten team.

Tulko was also losing her invincibility. McGowan singled to right field. Menschner hit a grounder to Madden at third, but Madden threw the ball away for the fourth East error, moving the runners to second and third.

Now it was Central's turn to put it away. Denise Reiser came in to run for Menschner to give the Golden Eagles some added speed. Up stepped Applegate. She, like Tulko, attempted to surprise the defense by putting down a bunt along the third-base line. Tulko picked the ball up, never looked back at third and fired the ball away from Velardi into right field. The fifth East error of the game brought in both McGowan and Reiser and it was 5-0.

Game. Set. Match.

Applegate got to third on the play, but she would be left there as Tulko got Dafeldecker on strikes, Kennett on a foulout to Kube and Sperling looking to give her 11 strikeouts for the night, the most by a pitcher an OCT final that was set only one year earlier by Brick's Viki Kara with 10 in a 9-2 win over Toms River North.

But while Tulko may have been the person most talked about in this final, it was her ex-teammate Menschner who was the star of the game. She was three outs from making history -- the first pitcher to ever throw a shutout in an OCT final.

She didn't waste time, either. She got Beresh to pop out to start the seventh. Mullane would deliver her second hit of the game, a single to left-center field. But once again -- and it wasn't all that successful on this evening -- the Raiders tried to bunt on Menschner. This time, Stephanie Velardi popped out to Dafeldecker.

One out to go. It was No. 9 hitter Guarneri. And she, too, attempted to put a bunt down.

But like almost every other bunt on this night, Central had an answer. Menschner calmly picked the ball up and fired to Dafeldecker.

Central players began to mob McGowan, Menschner and Dafeldecker by first base. After an entire season of proving the Central Regional product was still a strong one you can rely on, the Golden Eagles had their championship in a 5-0 triumph over East ... and their former teammate.

Schwartz would say to me afterward her team did not have a good practice Wednesday after playing a late OCT semifinal on Tuesday night. Selby, meanwhile, was elated about the fifth OCT championship.

Tulko would win the top hitter honor of the tournament at .875, going 7-for-8 with two home runs. Kube was the tournament's top defensive player, fielding 21 out of 22 attempts successfully. Menschner would be the Most Valuable Pitcher.

And the Most Valuable Player? That was a surprise to quite a few people ... including the young lady who won it. And as I announced Erika Applegate's name for the honor, I can still see the hands over her face in disbelief as she went over to Malta to pick up her honor.

But this was also an emotional night, too. Not just for the fact Central won. This was supposed to be Norm Selby's swan song as coach. He was taking his 244 career wins and riding off into the sunset. There were plenty of tears being shed. Menschner in these big moments was a river of tears. 

Selby told me this was going to be it ... period. He had no plans of coming back in 1993. Well, those plans were taken back when he was reminded that his niece, Jill Hirschblond, was only a sophomore and wanted to play for Uncle Norm until SHE graduated in 1994.

So Selby and Garibaldi stayed for two more years, accumulating 50 more wins and in the 1994 finale -- and Selby's finale for real -- the Golden Eagles took down Allentown, 7-0, for the Shore Conference Tournament championship on East's field.

Selby would tell me two years later that he had a conversation with Schwartz and Dziedzic and that the pair sarcastically thanked Norm for letting them have Tulko. Apparently, she was wore out her welcome, though two years later, she was the Most Valuable Pitcher in East's OCT championship win over Lacey, 9-5, after Lacey upset Central in the semifinal round.

Schwartz would go on to a Hall of Fame career herself in which she would win numerous titles at East, then switch over to Donovan Catholic (former Monsignor Donovan) and win state and overall Tournament of Champions titles there.

But my mind always goes back to that night at Point Boro in June 1992. And the Grudge Match.

That night also defined both the two greatest programs in Ocean County softball history. Central Regional on that night was the teacher. East was the student which one day would be the teacher.

It was just magical what happened.