How it all began ...

The Fourth of July was a Wednesday in 1984. That night, I spent it watching the fireworks go off in the parking lot of the Ocean County Mall in my hometown of Toms River, N.J. It was me and my sister, I was 17, she was 13. We were watching and my friend Jerry Gravante just happened to be passing through where we stood in the parking lot watching the fireworks go off.

It had been 18 days since I saw Jerry when we were both invited to our classmate Kirsten Goodman's graduation party at her house and 19 days since he and I graduated from Toms River High School East.

"What are you doing this summer?" I asked Jerry.

"I'm working here and there, getting ready for college," he said back as he, like me, was about to go off to nearby Ocean County College.

Neither of us knew what the future had in store. I didn't ask him what he was doing in the next 24 hours, but I sure as hell knew what I was going to be doing.

For the first time in my life, I was going to ride into downtown Toms River and find myself a job. And I only had one place in mind to go. The previous two years, I had been a student of our local high school paper, The Raider Readout, and was the features page co-editor as well as a writer on various different topics in my senior year. For as prepared as I was to go downtown and apply for a job at the local newspaper, though, I was still not professional enough to believe I could hang with the "big boys and girls."

But I remembered a couple of things. First, we all had an assignment to ask someone from the local media to come in and address the class on a career in journalism, whether it be print, radio or television. My guest was a really good guy that I got to work with over the phone at what was called Clear Cable-8 named Joe Ascolese. Joe was a whiz when it came to the technological part of covering news, but he also had a lot of knowledge in front of a camera, too, doing the sports report for that channel as well as the Fall Football Saturday show he co-hosted with a guy named Steve McGullem.

Well I forget who asked them to show up, but on one of these "media" days, the guests were Tony Gallotto and Laine Harmon from the Ocean County Observer. You could not have a more diverse pairing of journalists than we had with this duo. Tony, who was in his early-to-mid 20s, was very outgoing and wasn't afraid to tell it like it is when it came to the news reporting business. Laine was more of a laid-back speaker, who spoke about the dealings of her job, she, too, being honest, but not as outwardly as Tony was.

I grew up around newspapers as a child. My father always brought home copies of the New York Daily News, New York Times and New York Post as well as the two local papers, the Observer, which served solely Ocean County, and The Asbury Park Press, which covered the state, but mostly Ocean and Monmouth counties. As a pre-teen, I learned to have an appreciation of what the feel of a newspaper was all about, the black ink on my hands, the smell of it. We also got The Sporting News in the mail as well. When it was done, the papers were either thrown out (this was long before recycling) or taken downstairs and put into the little storage box next to the fireplace and ready to burn on the cold days downstairs when a fire was needed.

When I got into middle school at Toms River Intermediate School East, I gave journalism a try in the eighth grade. Our after-school advisor was a man named Richard Mina and I enjoyed what he offered. He didn't take the whole "putting a paper out" thing seriously and he was very, very laid back.

In other words, Mr. Mina made the time and process a lot of fun.

When I got to High School East, I was so concentrated on taking my core courses that I waited until my junior year to take journalism. My teacher was Irene Hartmann. I could not have had a better journalism teacher than Mrs. Hartmann. She made us work for everything, but she made it enjoyable and most everything I learned about basic journalism, I learned from her. We grew very close, so much to the point that she, on one occasion, could not make the trip to Avon By-The-Sea to where the newspaper was printed to look at the galleys. So she trusted in both myself and our editor -- my best friend Ted Oberti -- to check out the galleys for the April/May edition of the paper.

We were put into a room by the guy in charge of printing the papers and when Ted and I saw the absolutely crappy job done by our two sports editors where one story that got laid out came up well short of the hole drawn out for it and my feature on the East softball team's sisters, Donna and Kathy van Halem, had plenty of length on it, but wasn't getting in, the four- and seven-letter rampage began.

"How the f*ck do you go through a whole year of this course and NOT know how to properly use a word count?" was one of the things Ted ranted. "This is an absolutely f*ckin' sh*tty job!"

I stood there next to him, somewhere between angry, upset and just disappointed. He knew ... and I knew ... that Dean had just not given a crap anymore about senior year and now it was obvious that he had neglected even doing this page properly with Kristen, a young lady who was a junior and wanted to take this course -- and her job -- seriously. We had no choice but re-do the page ourselves there and when we got it done, we got the story that came up short to fit perfectly and got more of my story in with the picture of the two van Halem sisters.

And we had no choice but to tell Mrs. Hartmann about why it took a little longer to look at all four folio pages. She was disappointed, but we left it up to her to handle the matter. We had brought back almost 2,000 copies of the month's paper and had them distributed the next day. And like Mrs. Hartmann always did, she graded out the pages. The front page got an A. The editorial page got a B. The features page that I put out with a junior named Kim got an A as well. Then came the sports page.

The red ink said it all ... an F. Oh, and a note was under that grade.

"Dean, Kristen: See me after class!"

Mrs. Hartmann held a celebration for all her seniors in the journalism class at her Madison Avenue home on our class Senior Night, which was Friday, June 8, 1984. We celebrated and just had a good time. She also told me that I had the potential to continue what I did for her in her class into college and as a profession and if I ever needed any backing or references, I could just get in touch with her.

Little did she know she helped push me in that direction.

And so, it was now July 5, 1984. It was about 12:30 p.m. on that Thursday. I parked in the garage across the street from the Observer building on Robbins Street, right next to the Ocean County Library. I walked up the stairs to the second floor where the newsroom was. It was all the news reporters at that point and a pair of editors who were there. One was a guy named Jim Atkins, who was taking a phone call at the moment. The other was a young lady who had been at the paper for a short time as an editor. Her name was Kerry Brennan.

"Hi, I'm Mark Blumenthal. I called you earlier about coming down for a job interview." 

"Oh, hi there. Nice to meet you. Just take a seat over there and give me a few minutes and I'll be back to you."

Approximately 10 minutes later and after filling out the application I was given, she handed me a test. The test comprised of three scenarios. What I had to do was take all the details presented to me as if I was looking at a police report on the matter. I had to take what I felt was the important part of the reports and craft a short story on each.

There were three sets of notes that went to three different stories. Kerry gave me enough time to do this and so I began. I was working at an empty desk, working next to a guy that just got hired at the paper not too long before named Dave Sommer. He, I would come to find out later, covered southern Ocean County. On a phone behind me I can hear the voice I was familiar with from just a few months earlier. It was Tony Gallotto working on some big story.

I was doing everything I could to work on these stories, while I had to put up with the fact that both Dave and Tony were chain-smoking around me. Yes, this was the time when smoking was allowed in the newsroom. How I didn't get second-hand smoke from just that afternoon alone still amazes me.

Anyway, I took each of the information on all three stories I had and put them together like it was a jigsaw puzzle, taking the most important item and putting it at the top, all the while remembering that a good lead is written within the first three paragraphs as I learned from Mrs. Hartmann and each has the five Ws and one H -- the who, what, when, where, why and how.

The test took me over 90 minutes to do. I wasn't writing a 15-to-20 inch story. Each "story" I did was about four or five paragraphs, and I had to write them out ... no typewriters or processors. Longhand, baby!

Sometime after 2:30 p.m. I was done with the tests. I handed them back to Kerry, who was still working on the paper and a couple of other things. I waited patiently for about a half hour and remember sitting in my chair at this abandoned desk next to Dave Sommer, talking to him about the business. One thing I would learn about Dave was that he was big on talk about anything. When he wasn't busy, he could talk your ear off.

It was after 2:30 and Kerry had reviewed the three stories I had done for her. She also looked at the application I had filled out.

"The stories are a little wordy, but they have all the elements in there," she said. "They're pretty good."

I figured I could handle the necessary basics of a story, but her affirmation that I did "pretty good" at least made me feel better about myself. Then she asked me what kind of "experience" I had in the business.

"Other than the school newspaper and working for Clear Cable-8, not a whole lot else, Ms. Brennan," I told her back.

I was up for any challenge she wanted to hand me. Whether it was a night meeting of some kind or feature stories or something that involved someone somewhat important in Ocean County, I was up for it. I wanted to do this. I wanted to be a part of reporting on the scene.

She seemed pretty enthused about my enthusiasm. Then I told her the one thing that changed my entire life.

"I have a background with sports." 

I really did at that point. I had done statistics for Toms River East football games, home and away, for Joe and Steve at Cable-8. I had a very strong working knowledge of the District 18 Little League baseball scene from the years I was at Toms River Little League with my dad as a manager. And my two favorite stories I wrote while I was at The Raider Readout were both sports-related -- the feature on the van Halem sisters and a story I had done that winter of '84, traveling with a photographer named Keith DiFabio to Manchester to meet 92-year-old Abel Kiviat, a decorated Olympian who was a teammate and roommate of Jim Thorpe's on the U.S. squad in 1912 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Kerry did not even hesitate -- she walked me over to the sports side of the newsroom, the immediate right of the news desk and right next to the paste-up room. That's where I met a guy named Tom. He was the all-knowing assistant sports editor at the time. And believe me, he was "all-knowing." Just ask him! Tom was working next to a correspondent who had been in the department for a short time named George Hulse. George was not going to be around much longer with the job so in some ways, I was there to replace George for the rest of the summer.

I told Tom that I would be handling all Little League coverage for District 18, which included teams from as far south as Barnegat to as far west as Holbrook of Jackson and as far north as Brick American, Brick National, Point Pleasant Boro and Point Pleasant Beach. I got no arguments from him. As a matter of fact, I think he saw me as a God-send for this stuff.

And sometime after 3 p.m., I left to go back home. Told my mom and dad, who were the ones who said they could not really "support me" anymore and that I was to go find a job, about this job and I think they were excited.

Three days later on Sunday, July 8, I was heading out to Holbrook Little League in Jackson to watch Toms River's Junior League All-Star team, which my dad co-managed with a guy named Terry Flanagan, take on Lakewood. It was a terrific game. Toms River won the game, 6-5, as Jim Lewentowicz went the first five innings to get the win and Jim Houba went the last two innings to finish it up. Mike Wehman, who played for our Royals team during the regular season, was 3-for-4 and Brian Pietrewicz and Ken Lanzel each had two hits. For Lakewood, James Crudup collected three hits, including a two-run homer off Lewentowicz.

So after getting back home by about 6 p.m., I had dinner and then borrowed mom's car to drive to the Observer building, where Tom was waiting for me downstairs. It was about 7 p.m. and I was put into a corner in the nearly abandoned newsroom. For some reason that night, all the details of a 6-5 game weren't coming together quite the way I wanted them to come together. For my 17-year-old mind, fashioning this game story was not coming easily. Maybe I was nervous. I don't think I was. I knew this was going to be my "first published piece." I wanted to make sure I got it right.

I also had to put together two other games under the one I was at. One was a Senior Little League All-Star game that Toms River beat cross-town rival Toms River East, 1-0, in nine innings as Craig Crosby's bad-hop single off the chest of East shortstop Kenny Hoff scored winning pitcher Dave Holey, who was dynamite in going all nine innings, allowing just one hit, walking three and striking out 15. Losing pitcher Chris Wagner also had a heck of a game, allowing four hits, though walking eight and striking out 11. The other game I had to put as part of the roundup was played at Toms River where Holbrook blasted out 17 hits in an 18-4 triumph over Point Boro.

It was almost 9:15 p.m. by the time I finished writing it. I turned it in to Tom with a number that corresponded to the story. Then he hits me with the news I didn't want to hear.

"We're almost done with the paper and there's no room to get your story in. We're going to get it in tomorrow."

Yes. I was dejected. Spent all that time trying to put this story together -- my first story! And now I'm being told it will not go in until the Tuesday, July 10 edition.

And so I went home dejected and miffed, but at least Tom said to come back the next time there were games. That was two nights later. When the paper came to the house on July 10, I was excited to see my story in print. There it was! Everything I wrote the night before was there and edited well by Tom. The headline on top of the story -- "TR victory is a nail-biter'' -- was just fine. All was great.

Then I saw the byline.

"By Mark Blementhal"

Reaaaaaal-ly?! Geez Tom. I know I didn't put my name on the story, but could you have at least asked how my name was spelled before you had the chance to introduce me to the rest of the county?!

I can laugh about it now, but oh, was I embarrassed. That night, I got to watch our Toms River Senior League All-Star team beat Holbrook at Lakewood, by, coincidentally, a 6-5 score. When I got into the building again, I told Tom I had the game I was at and was ready to start writing. At that point, I got hit with a "Waaaaaait!" from a voice I had not heard.

It was not Tom. The man sitting in the slot was the main sports editor, a guy named Ken. After I get a round of "Who are you?" from Ken, I explained to him in not so many words that I was there to report on Little League-related stuff that summer. After he introduced himself to me, I went off to do my thing.

And this went on the whole summer until Little League ball ended on Saturday, August 4 with Brick American losing in Sayreville to Spring Lake-Sea Girt, 6-4, in the Section 3 championship, a game I took my sister with me so we could go get after the game ... White Castle hamburgers! Yup ... we both loved White Castles and any opportunity to pick those burgers up, we did so.

But Ken wanted me to continue on from there. I did Ed Carleton League ball and then Jersey Shore Baseball until early September. He kept me on after that to cover sports during the 1984-85 season.

I never left the building until I took a job as the sports editor of the Key West Citizen in August 1999. By the time I left, I put 15 years and a month into the Observer. 

Hard to believe it's been 30 years since I started. I really didn't know what my future was watching those fireworks go off in the Ocean County Mall parking lot. So much has happened in that time period. I put my career first above everything else in my life and don't regret ever making that decision.

I don't regret ever getting into this business, even if it pays you one step above pauper proportions. Whenever I lamented about the pay, I'd have someone tell me, "You're doing something you love."

And they're right. I am. I don't know what life would be like for me without writing. The 22 awards I've won in the last nine years are affirmation as to making the correct decision.

I can be disappointed with things that have happened to me in my life in the last 30 years -- being fired from the job in Key West under the most dysfunctional of circumstances and being unemployed for 16 months, getting engaged to be married in 2006 and having it broken off months later under a situation that I will never forgive me ex for here in Palatka where I am now working for the Daily News since 2003, and losing two of my biggest fans in this decade -- my last girlfriend Shirlene, who died suddenly at 44 years old in June 2011, then in early 2014, my mother passed away, something I never made public because honestly, I really am not a fan of hearing people tell you, "Sorry for your loss." So save it! I'm not sorry ... I was not cheated out of my life with my mom at all. I don't mourn it, actually.

It's been one heck of a journey these last 30 years. I got to cover a Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Philadelphia in 1996. In 2005, I got to cover Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville. I got to cover most of the home games involving the Jacksonville Jaguars since 2003 and have traveled to cover them in Tampa, Miami and in East Rutherford, N.J. I've done an occasional Florida Gators football game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. I covered both Philadelphia Phillies games in the late 1980s/early 1990s and then occasional Tampa Bay Rays games in St. Petersburg the last six years. I covered the Junior Little League World Series in 1996 and the big one, the Little League World Series twice, first in 1995, then in 1998 when a band of Toms River East American players led by a future Major League Baseball All-Star named Todd Frazier won it all over a team from Kashima, Japan, 12-9

To this day, that is still the greatest moment of my career, hands down.

Simply put, I can not complain. There's no reason to. I've interviewed some amazing professionals like Cal Ripken Jr., Chipper Jones, Torrey Holt and the late Tony Gwynn. I've enjoyed talking with coaches and managers such as Bobby Cox, Tony Dungy, Mike Scioscia and my all-time favorite, Joe Maddon. Then there's dozens and dozens of high school and college athletes I've talked to who have made this job that much more fun. I'd be here all day naming names, so I won't.

The new technology looks like a lot of fun. Someday, I may get to play with that when we're allowed to do so. I don't know what lies ahead for my future in this business. I hope I'm still needed for another 10, 15, 20, maybe 25 more years.

Maybe one day I will write a book. I keep threatening to do so, but then I remember the patience needed to write one -- I easily stop myself. And I'm not very good at making up stuff. It has to be real with real names and real scenarios or bust for me. Maybe I'll write a script on something that happened somewhere in my career -- then I stop myself again because if I mention a name, someone might get upset that I did and sue me.

I can't win.

For now, I'll just continue to do what I do -- write columns and tell stories. It's what I do best.

Mark Blementhal would agree.

How a guy named Carl Lind made a night of softball fun

Every now and then, this job I do allows me to enjoy what I go out and cover.

Most of the time, it's understandably business as usual. It has to be. We rarely ever put ourselves within the storyline. And it's just as well. We aren't that important in the whole scheme of things.

One of those rare instances where I could allow my hair to be let down -- and I had a lot of it at that point, I may add -- was on Saturday, July 6, 1991. Earlier that week, I was asked by a man named Carl Lind if I could come do the public address system and announce names and play music in between innings for the fourth annual War At The Shore.

Saturday nights are usually tough nights because there's a lot going on, but I was OK on this particular Saturday night because the two District 18 Little League Tournament of Champion final games that would normally be held on the first Saturday of July had been moved to the Fourth of July this particular year and the only Little League All-Star games being played were all afternoon games that I knew I could swoop up and throw into a story before I left to go to the game.

And it was also hard to turn Mr. Lind down. If you watch The Simpsons and recognize Ned Flanders, Homer's next-door neighbor, then you had Carl Lind. The man was not only super nice as a person, he was also super positive as a human being. And he loved high school softball. Over the years, if there was an important game going on in Ocean County, chances are he was going to be there.

He helped to start the "War At The Shore" in 1988 with the softball game featuring the best in Monmouth and Ocean County going against one another.

That is, the best sheriff department officers. While they would have their annual battle, there was nothing as a credible opening act. For this particular year, though, Lind had been able to craft friendships among the players at the Shore and then bring together coaches to lead the teams for this particular game, which was being held at a field I had driven past dozens of times before but had never actually covered an event on in my life -- the Lavallette Boro Field, which stuck out like a sore thumb in the middle of Route 35. It's a cavernous field, so it would take a monster shot to hit a ball over the fence there. Near impossible, actually.

The game was also important for Lind in another way: It was to raise money for the New Jersey Organization of Cystic Fibrosis. That was a big deal. Though you would never know it because of his positive nature that he shared with all of us and with his own children, Lind was suffering from the disease. And he was living life to the fullest knowing tomorrow could be his last day.

For this game on this particular night, Lind brought together one of the greatest groups of softball players ever to grace the Lavallette Boro field. There was well over a dozen young ladies who answered the call to play the game and they were all standouts in their own right. Brick High School, which won the Ocean County Tournament for the first and only time, was represented by third baseman Kim Coco, first baseman Lori Liegl and star pitcher Viki Kara, who was taking her talents to Brookdale Community College to pitch. Lacey High was represented by standout shortstop and All-County player Kelly Hanaway. Lakewood had a pair of dynamite players representing it in shortstop Addie Dix and Jen Cranley.

And most of the rest of the Ocean County talent came from the Toms River high schools. South was represented by 65-game winner and sensational left-hander Jodi Solana and first baseman Tonya Coppola. North was bringing a number of people to this game, including the battery of catcher Kim Niedzwicki and pitcher Heather Richards. And East, which suffered through the throes of a horrendous 5-19 season, had its representative in catcher Kelly Arnold. Though the Raiders weren't very good in their one and only season under interim head coach Joe Arminio, who was taking the reins while head coach Debbie Schwartz was on maternity leave after the birth of her first child, Alex, born that March, Arnold had a monster season, so much so that she earned first-team All-State honors even though the rest of the team wasn't so good.

I'm still not liked by some Asbury Park Press personnel because I upstaged their softball writer's All-Shore first-team selection for catcher that year, Wall's Kristin Durber, who just happened to be there at this game with the rest of the high school players and got the nod as the starting catcher for Kara while Arnold started the game at shortstop.

The head coach of the high school team was John Natoli, who had finished up a two-year stint as Point Pleasant Boro High School's mentor. Before Natoli came in, the program was a laughingstock, losing every game it played in the 1986 season. They languished after that, but when he came in for the 1990 season, he helped to turn things around as Boro won 18 games, captured the Class C division title and he was named the Observer's Coach of the Year for his work. The team won 14 games this particular spring, but the season did not end so well for a much different reason.

Natoli was notified he was being riffed by the Point Pleasant Board of Education in late May. There was no money and the school board wasn't letting its tenured people go. So Natoli, who was only 28 at the time, was being told that he was being sent away. And though his Panthers and the parents spoke up at a Boro meeting in defending him, they couldn't stop the board and thus a man who had actually been a positive influence to the youngsters he was in charge of was being dismissed.

I never said they were brain surgeons at Point Pleasant Boro. So as the head coach on this particular night, he was performing one last Ocean County duty.

Meanwhile, Ocean County College softball coach and all-around super guy Dick Strada was named the coach of the college team of players who performed at either his OCC team, rival Brookdale (Monmouth County's junior college) or Georgian Court College. Like most any other thing he coached, whether it was OCC softball or ice hockey (when they had a team) or Toms River East ice hockey, he took it in laissez-faire, "it's just a game" stride.

Usually, the college talent is better than the high school talent in these kind of all-star games. Not this one. The Ocean County talent alone was better than what was assembled on Strada's side.

So after putting together what I needed to get done that afternoon with the Little League All-Star games, I went home early. An hour later, I turned around with my boom box, collection of cassette singles at the time (yes, it was 1991 ... we did cassette singles!!) and a scorebook and headed over to Lavallette. The game wasn't until 7 p.m., but I always wanted to be there at least 90 minutes before the first pitch. On this day with little else to do, I got to the Lavallette Boro field by 5 p.m.

I sat around and had to wait 10 to 15 minutes before someone associated with the field could open the small building behind home plate for which I would plug my boombox in and get set up for the game. By the time that individual came by, some of the players from the high school team had already started filing in. It was very quiet even for a beautiful and busy Saturday summer day on the Shore. Once plugged in, I started playing all the big hits of that particular day in a countdown leading up to the first pitch. Can still remember the first song I played when I was plugged in and ready to go -- the hottest song in America at the time, Bryan Adams' "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)," which was three weeks away from becoming the No. 1 song in America. And then other songs followed, including Lisa Fischer's "How Can I Ease The Pain," R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion," Luther Vandross' "Power Of Love/Love Power" and EMF's believably loud "Unbelievable," leading up to the No. 1 song on this particular day and before I could play the song, announcing, "And here's the No. 1 song in America this week ... " I can hear Tonya Coppola saying, "Rush Rush," ... which it was by Paula Abdul.

The little things you remember. After that, I just turned to some random classic rock station in the area to play the music as the crowds began to file in for the opener. Most of the high school players were there as was Natoli and his assistant coach on the night, Joe Solana, Jodi's father and one of the true positive forces in the area in the sport, were getting the young ladies together. A number of the young ladies knew each other not just from playing against each other on the high school level, but also playing for the Jersey Waves team that Solana and Bob Richards, Heather's dad, coached.

The college side, though, was lacking in players. There may have been four players there by 6:30 p.m. Strada, who strolled onto the field about 10 minutes earlier, told me when I asked where the rest of the supporting crew was that he thought they'd be there shortly before the game started.

"They're going to need warmup, aren't they?"

"Naaah. They're pros. They'll handle it."

I think it was also his way of saying to me, "They could've been on this field three hours before the game and they'd still have a tough time against the high school team."


Yeah, these high school players were very, very good.

Mere minutes before the opening pitch, Strada's eighth and ninth players needed to start the game arrived. I think he got one more player after that for a reserve and that was it. The high school team was about 15 players strong and it was up to Natoli and Joe Solana to juggle players coming in and out of the nine-inning game.

Being the consummate pro that I was the last couple of years of doing the PA for the Ocean County softball tournament and also doing the PA for the Shore Conference Tournament field hockey championship that fall at Ocean Township High School when Wall beat Central Regional, I knew how this whole thing worked by now – announce the reserves and starting lineups of each team, introduce the head coaches and then the umpires for the game (who for behind the plate was the funny and enjoyable Steve Hill, Toms River North's head baseball coach), play the national anthem and let the recently graduated high school players go out on the field. The game started at about 7:15 p.m., but I didn't care. I don't think anyone did.

The place was packed, a lot of them there for this game, some who came for the nightcap between the two sheriff's office teams.

Kara, who went 22-4 in Brick's greatest season ever, was getting the ball first with Durber catching her. She came out onto the field to the same song I played during Brick's run to the OCT title, MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This." And her stuff was untouchable. She set down all nine batters she faced, striking out four of them.

As for the game, it was never really close. The high school team held a 7-0 lead on the college all-stars by the seventh. They were hitting whoever Strada was putting out in the circle. And the team had a difficult time getting to Kara and her replacement on the mound, Richards, who was at that point heading to the University of Delaware to continue with softball. With her regular catcher at North behind the plate, Richards did not allow any of her nine batters to reach base and she struck out three.

With the game in hand by now, it was time to have a little fun behind the mike. The high school team was making some more changes that kept me on my toes as to who was moving where and who was coming into the game. Arnold, who would go 2-for-3 at the plate with a pair of RBI, was coming back in to get behind the plate and Dix, who was being patient so far, was finally coming in to play shortstop. Jodi Solana, who was Ocean County's winningest pitcher when she graduated in 1991, was the closing act in the circle. She was going to throw the final three innings to Arnold, who had not caught a pitcher that threw any harder than her all year. So it seemingly took forever to announce the switches and replacements as the top of the seventh began. Then I look out in right field and see Cranley out there. Cranley was coach Dave McKelvey's center fielder at Lakewood High, but I barely recognized her from a distance in a different position. Still, I knew she was there.

The announcements sounded like this as the inning began with Solana throwing to her first batter: "Now pitching for the high school team, Jodi Solana. Coming back in to now catch is Kelly Arnold. Moving in to play shortstop is Addie Dix. And out there deep in right field, barely visible is Jen Cranley. Say hi to everyone, Jen!"

Such a sweet and fun-loving young lady that she was, Cranley heard me and waved to everyone from her position. Unlike her two other standout hurlers, though, Solana was having some difficulty with the college team lineup. She allowed a hit and that batter got the green light to try and steal from Strada ... even down a substantial amount of runs

As if Arnold knew it, she came up from her catcher's crouch and fired a strike to second base where Dix was waiting. She got the ball perfectly in position and slapped the tag on the runner for the easy out. All game long, I had busted on Arnold and announced her in the pre-game as "the first-team All-State catcher from Toms River East." I knew Kelly Arnold could take it because she knew how to dish it out, too. So as she made the throw, I can still remember the words I said as the out was applied.

"Ladies and gentlemen, that's proof to why she's a first-team All-State catcher."

At that point, she turned back at me with this somewhat angry look on her face with the "Stop it already!" impression on it. I felt bad for Kristin Durber that night. She was a nice catcher for Wall's Shore Conference Tournament championship team that year, but talent-wise, she couldn't compare to Kelly Arnold at all.

As a matter of fact, Arnold won the Most Valuable Player honors for the evening as the high school team walked off the field with a 9-2 victory. Arnold, who was heading to play for the Blues of Brookdale the next year (she eventually transferred to play for Strada at OCC and catch Richards, who came home as well after her freshman year), admitted part of her angry look was the fact that since her high school season ended, she had very little time behind the plate since. But she handled it well.

The win was bittersweet for Natoli, who left Point Boro with a .711 winning percentage in his two seasons in charge (32-13). But he was off to his next challenge. He was hired at Manalapan High School and became the school's next softball coach there.

The players on that high school team enjoyed their time together for one last hurrah, even if most of them were on the Ocean Waves. Richards called it "a dream" to have the players behind her play and that "all I did was go out there and pitched."

 And Strada ... he handled the whole night in true Dick Strada fashion.

"It was a game played for fun," he said. "Instead of lamenting about the misses, there were several joyous moments."

Instead of leaving, I still had to pack up my stuff and put it back in to my 1977 Dodge Aspen. And for about a half hour after the nine-inning game was over, I was still there talking to players and parents who I came to know over the last few years and whose high school careers were now officially ending. It was really over for all the young ladies I got to know. And as I was ready to leave the complex, it was apparent I took the "better music" with me. Whoever took over the microphone after me was stuck with very few choices to play in between innings of the sheriff officers' game.

The Bill Medley-Jennifer Warnes Dirty Dancing song "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life" came over the speakers and Joe Solana, who I had finished talking to, suddenly broke from chat into a comical slow dance ... with himself, as if he had a partner there to dance with. We all started to crack up. Sadly, that would be the last time I saw Joe Solana. He tragically passed away over a year later just as his next daughter, Stacy, had entered South as a freshman. He was and still is very much missed in the softball community.

I still had to get back across the bridge and to the Observer building. It was nearly 10 p.m. Thankfully, there was no traffic that evening and the ride back was a smooth one. I got into the building and our assistant sports editor Dave, who was in charge that week, had this miffed look on his face and wondered where the heck I was.

"It was a fun night," I told him. "Sorry to be late, but I'll have the story for you very soon."

And I did. I had a lot of things to write, but kept in a compact and neat 15- to 16-inch story, which I gave him before 11 that night.


There was more than 350 people who attended the game that evening at the Lavallette Boro Field. And they raised quite a bit of money for cystic fibrosis. Lind never gave me an exact number, but he was always appreciative of those who came that night.

"What we're trying to do is take softball off the back burner and make it the focus. There is a lot of talent in Ocean County and it was evident here today," he said after the game.

It was. Carl Lind saw high school softball in Ocean County as something more than what it was at the time. It was a growing thing. He had hopes of making this college-versus-high school game an annual event, but he could not see that to fruition. This would be the only time they would have this particular game.

I would see Mr. Lind over the next eight years at various high school games, still positive toward the sport and in attitude in general. I wish the young ladies who walk onto an Ocean County softball diamond now had met Carl Lind. They, too, would have come away with the same positive spirit as he had.

Carl Lind sadly passed away in April 2003. He was just 43 years old and left behind a wife and three children. He lost his own battle to the disease he was fighting to eradicate and make those who suffered from it live in a better world. I, like most others who remember his contributions, miss the man very much.

His heart was in the right place. And he knew how he could raise money for his cause – by having an all-star softball game involving young ladies who either graduated high school recently or were playing college ball at that point battle it out.

Mission accomplished. And it was fun for everyone involved.

And I mean everyone.

 

The headache that was Central-North in the '98 OCT

Let me kick off this blog by saying that for the most part, I'm a pretty media-friendly kinda guy. I believe in inclusion and others wanting their opportunity to peer in to something I'm at. There are not a lot of events that I can think of over the years in which the less media, the better.

However, there are some days in which less was best. And as a co-director of the Ocean County Softball Tournament from 1992-99, I was into making sure everything went as scheduled. I didn't believe in hitches considering it was yours truly who put together the tournament schedule year after year. The smoother the ride, the better the tournament was going to be.

And that brings us to the events of Saturday, May 30, 1998. It was the semifinal round of the tournament and thus far, the tournament had somewhat gone as scheduled. Top-seeded Toms River North had gotten there. So did No. 2 seed Jackson Memorial and No. 3 Point Pleasant Boro, which had disposed of No. 6 seed Toms River East on East's own field. The next time East would not make it to the semifinal round would be in 2014. And defending champion Central Regional had won as the visiting team over No. 4 seed Southern Regional in its quarterfinal matchup.

So we were left with seeds one, two, three and five going into this beautiful Saturday afternoon at Toms River High School East, the host site of the '98 tournament. And as always was my rule of scheduling the tournament each and every year, if you were the No. 1 seed, you got the prime-time, nighttime game on what we called Quarterfinal Saturday. So on the previous Saturday night, May 16, North closed the all-day affair with a 6-2 victory over No. 8 seed Pinelands Regional in a game that made history as hard-throwing right-hander Lauren Anderson struck out 19 Wildcats, a new OCT record. (This would be a record Anderson would hold for herself for 15 years until Toms River East's Jordan Weed did the unthinkable by striking out every single batter she faced in a seven-inning perfect game against Manchester.)

And Anderson, North's burly junior right-hander, was enjoying a season for the record books. By now, she had already obliterated the Ocean County strikeout mark of 265 set in 1996 by Southern Regional's Dana O'Hearn and was going after the state record. And she was doing it, more impressively, with two pitches really -- a catch-me-if-you-can fastball that very few girls could touch and a riseball that had the velocity of the fastball, but just more frustrating.

North coach Becky Miller had a jewel on the mound. Regardless of how this season would turn out, Anderson was a first-team All-State pitcher. And her catcher was a rock behind the plate -- the steady, left-handed hitting Teresa Andreani. She, too, was in the middle of an All-State first-team season behind the dish, hitting well over .500. North also had some good role players as well, starting with junior center fielder Kristin Fazio and continuing with a bunch of seniors -- third baseman Lisa Miller, first baseman Adrienne Russell, right fielder Barb Ihrig, shortstop Diana Cordero, designated hitter Megan Clarey and left fielder Robyn Rusin.

On this afternoon, North was to start first in its quest for a second straight OCT championship. And the team it would have to accomplish this against was the fifth-seeded Golden Eagles of Central Regional, the defending champion and the team that ruined everything the year before for Anderson and the Mariners in the championship, the greatest OCT final ever. It was in that 1997 final on the same East field that Central led 1-0 going to the top of the seventh, only to have Andreani stroke a triple and come home two outs later on a two-strike pitch single to pinch-hitter Kim McTamney to tie it, then have a chance to win it with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the seventh only to have Andreani turn in a freaky but memorable double play to send it to extra innings. The game was decided in the bottom of the ninth inning when Central's first-team All-State star center fielder, Cheryl Zellman, hit what is still to this day called "the shot heard 'round Ocean County," her memorable inside-the-park home run over center fielder Toni Lynn Trombino's head off Anderson to win it, 2-1.

And going into this game, you didn't have to ask Anderson, Andreani or anyone who was on that East field the year before how much motivation they had. They had business to attend to.

Central, meanwhile, was revamped. Of the four returnees on that team, only senior shortstop Toni Penniman had any pop in her bat. Other than Penniman, everyone up the middle was new -- catcher Meredith Parliman, center fielder Becky Barrett, who was the starting left fielder the year before, second baseman Amanda Smith and pitcher Laura Mikulicka, a freshman thrown into the fire by fourth-year coach Joe Winkelried, who by now had seen his Central teams win two OCT championships and a memorable NJSIAA Group III title, the first state title in county softball history, in 1996.

Central had what North wanted -- a title. North may have had that title in the OCT final the year before had the Mariners not picked a terrible time to stop hitting. Anderson threw a no-hitter against Shawnee in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group IV final that year ... and lost! Then a depleted North (because of a senior prom that happened to fall on that particular Friday the team played) fell to Allentown, 1-0, in the Shore Conference Tournament semifinals.

On top of all that, Toms River East won the Class A South title in 1997.

North had come away with zippety-do-dah in '97. So 1998 was practically the year of retribution. North had already come away with the Class A South title handily, losing just once to Jackson Memorial that season. And once again, North picked an inopportune time not to hit and lost to in the SJ IV tournament.

But the Mariners had found their way to the SCT title game by this point and had a rematch with Middletown South at Wall High School three days away. It was a chance for North to avenge the only other loss it suffered that season, a 2-0 setback to South's Eagles on the opening day of the season at South.

First, though, was Central. It didn't matter that the names on the Golden Eagle lineup were in many ways different than the ones that beat the Mariners the year before, North wanted its extra pounds of flesh from the OCT title game loss the year before.

And so I checked in with my co-director of the tournament, East coach Debbie Schwartz, the day before the game. She tells me all is ready to go.

Then she throws this curveball at me.

"NBC in New York is coming down to film the game."

Ohhhhhh?! Really? This was the first I'm hearing about this. I guess somehow, somewhere, news trickled up to New York City to WNBC that not only was North really good, but so was the pitcher.

"Oh, OK," I answered Debbie back.

So I had to do some inventory on this in my brain -- I had not only WNBC coming in to track North/Anderson on this day, but I also had to deal with my friends at Adelphia Clear Cable and work with two camera people there as well as the talents who would call the game, Tripp Rogers, George Jeck and Ed Sarluca. For one moment, there was a happiness that we had this kind of coverage for an OCT title-game rematch between North and Central.

But that lasted only a moment. Fear started creeping into my mind. East's field is a very different field from most fields you will ever come across. It's a ravine where you can look down from the parking lot and school at the field below. There are bleachers far away from the plate and there's a fence to separate the dugouts from behind the backstop. But go further down the field and while the right field side is protected, left field is not. Anyone can accidentally walk onto the field, though, I had no fear that would happen at any time during the tournament.

The two Adelphia cable camera people were situated on each dugout during the games. They were only going to be here for this one game since Jackson Memorial and Point Boro were not in the cable viewing area. And I had dealt with Tripp for two years with this tournament. So I knew to deal with he and anyone else from our area's cable company.

But WNBC was another matter. Word had spread that the network cameras were going to be there to get film of the game, interview Anderson and get out of there afterward. They, obviously, were staying for the whole game and I had no clue as to where they were going to set up their cameras. I'm worried about them blocking the view of anyone who wanted to see the game.

I started thinking this was all a set-up and that Central had no chance to win this game today. If the Golden Eagles pulled off the upset of Anderson and the 21-3 Mariners, I sensed the day was going to be an absolute waste of time for the New Yorkers because they weren't there to talk to Winkelried and Central Regional afterward.

Nope. This day was all about North and Anderson and WNBC and the headache I was about to attain from this cluster.

I arrived at East's field at about 3:45 p.m. The first semifinal was at 5 p.m., the second one going off at 7:30. All was quiet. North had shown up and soon after, Central arrived. It was routine basic things to go through for me, the public address guy for the event as well. Been there, done that. I got a barometer of the day. The low-key Winkelried and assistant coach Lynn Fisher were going about their business on one end as I collected their starting lineup. Walked over to the other side of the field where longtime North coach Miller and assistant Mary Ellen Tutzauer were and they had their lineup ready.

By 4:35 p.m., the crowd around the field had begun to swell. Big crowds were something I had dealt with before. That was no big deal. Tripp, George, Ed and the camera crew had arrived to set up at a table not more than 20 feet from where I was situated for the game. I always knew never to bother them since they seemed to have things under control. Then soon after all that, the WNBC people arrived. I remember them asking the dimensions of the field and I handed it off to Debbie since this was her field and she could give them better insight.

It was 4:45 p.m. and the two umpires for the game had arrived. Dick Beer, a veteran whose strike zone was notoriously wide and as big as some zip codes, was behind the plate, while Bob White, another veteran, was doing the bases.

Oh, was this going to work to Anderson's advantage! One year earlier in the OCT quarterfinal, she had Beer behind the plate against Manchester and more than took advantage of the wide strike zone in a 10-0, one-hit shutout in which she struck out 10 in five innings. And just four days earlier, Beer was behind the plate when Anderson set the county record for strikeouts in a game when she whiffed 30 Lacey Lions in a 1-0, 15-inning SCT quarterfinal-round game in which Lacey and pitcher Jen McGovern gave everything it had until it couldn't anymore.

To say Beer's strike zone was generous to Lauren Anderson was like having no cops on a 70-mph freeway -- she could get away with missing by more than a few inches on the corners and she'd more than likely get the call.

When I saw Dick Beer walking onto that East field, only one thought came to my mind -- this is going to be a nightmare for Central Regional and somewhere during this game, Winkelried is going to explode over a questionable call. But I think he knew what was going to happen and anything he would have argued would have been a moot point.

By 4:50, we were ready for the introductions and the playing of our national anthem. It was nearly 5 p.m. and I see North take the field. I put on North's song that they would come out to in the top of the first inning.

The next thing I know, I'm being approached by Debbie.

"We can't use the balls," she says.

"What?!" I answered vehemently.

Then Beer walks over.

"We can't use these balls," he said.

"Why?!" I questioned.

"They need to be the light green-yellow ones. These are no good," he said.

Basically, what Dick Beer did was enforce a rule that wasn't enforced yet and wasn't going to be enforced until 1999. As a co-director, I was given these balls by former tournament director and Lakewood High coach Dave McKelvey. Had been given the balls for years. They were the snow-white kind with the blue stitching. We played with them and no one -- I mean no one! -- ever complained about it, even as teams were switching over to those fluorescent, fancy new balls.

I mean, c'mon -- a white ball and a green-yellow, in my opinion, isn't going to make a difference no matter how hard it's thrown or comes at you! They're both, at last check, very light colors.

To this day, I still believe he had no right to throw this at me, especially when that rule to switch to the green-yellow ball wasn't supposed to be wide-spread until the 1999 season. All that '98 season, I had never heard that umpires could force a team to throw with the green-yellow ball and now suddenly, we're being held up by this guy standing on his own principle.

And I can see me turning various shades of anger red as I'm arguing with him over this stupid-ass rule that made him lord, king, God, conqueror. But magically appearing less than a minute later were two softballs of the green-and-yellow variety. Being the dignified diplomat, Debbie had gone over to where she was parked and pulled out the softballs just so we can get play started.

Still can not believe to this day we held a game up for almost two minutes over such an asinine issue as the color of a softball. You have to be kidding me?!

But forward we went. Meghan Barrett beat out a bunt single on the Mariners in the first, but otherwise, Anderson struck out Becky Barrett and Penniman to end the first inning.

Meanwhile, Mikulicka was holding North down in check in spite of hits by Andreani in the first, Russell in the second and Fazio in the third.

Both the freshman and the junior flame-thrower were going strong through three innings. Anderson had five strikeouts in the first three innings. After Anderson had picked up her sixth strikeout in a 1-2-3 fourth, the Mariners came up again in the bottom of the inning.

Andreani began the inning by hitting a flyball to left field. At first, it looked like Meghan Barrett had a beat on the ball, but suddenly, she realized this was going to be trouble and when she reached out to get it, she dropped it. Surprisingly, there was Andreani only on first after the error, figuring she'd have gotten to at least second. Anderson then singled to left to put runners on first and second and Kira Cegerenko ran for her. Then Russell walked on four pitches to load the bases for Ihrig.

Ihrig worked the count to 3-2. Then the next pitch was outside and suddenly North had a 1-0 lead.

Now a 1-0 lead is something you can bounce back from, especially against a hard-thrower like Anderson.

Cordero was next up and she hit a comebacker at Mikulicka, who knew to throw home to force out Cegerenko. But then what happened next really cost Central.

On a throw back on a pitch to Clarey, Mikulicka mishandled the ball. With the ball still live, Russell scampered home with the second run.

A costly mistake. Now it was 2-0 and the hole became even bigger to dig out of. Mikulicka eventually won an 11-pitch battle with Clarey with a flyout, then got Rusin on a comebacker.

But the damage was done. And seemingly, the strike zone began to get a bit bigger. Though veteran third baseman Tricia Friedman singled up the middle in the fifth, Anderson struck out three in the fifth to bring her total to nine.

Mikulicka kept North in check in the fifth, Anderson struck out two more Central hitters in a 1-2-3 sixth, and as I always did in the middle of the sixth inning, I would play a song that was the No. 1 hit on that day in a year. For this sixth inning, it was Lesley Gore's "It's My Party," which was the No. 1 hit 35 years ago on this particular day.

Well, it wasn't feeling like Winkelried's party and he really didn't feel like crying if he wanted. But because the speakers from the PA were wedged in and out of the dugout and pointed toward the inside of the dugout, and whatever crowd assembled on the first-base side and was coming in loud and clear, this gut-wrenching yell was all I could hear.

"Turn thaaaat doooown!"

Yeah, I must have been adding on to a headache he was already battling in facing Anderson with a strike zone half the size of Texas and in front of these New York-based cameras and on a local cable broadcast that would show the game later in the week. I did turn it down ... it was the least I could do for him after all this.

Russell and Ihrig singled to start the sixth inning, but Smith turned a beautiful double play, tagging out pinch-runner Gia Cascio, then throwing to first baseman Dawn Wilson to get Cordero. And Clarey grounded out to third baseman Friedman to end the inning.

On this day, Laura Mikulicka may have beaten a lot of teams. She allowed two runs -- both unearned -- on six hits, walking the two hitters in the fourth, while striking out three. She did her job in spite of the costly walks and that fielding flub that led to a run.

But against Lauren Anderson in 1998, you needed perfection. That's about the best way I could describe it.

Penniman started the seventh with a single, the third hit of the day for the Golden Eagles. That, it would turn out, would be the last Central hurrah. In the next 13 pitches, Anderson would strike out Wilson, Parliman and Friedman ... no coincidence, either, all looking! A Texas-sized strike zone never looked this beautiful to anyone.

In the end, it really didn't matter. North had its win, Central met them for the final "nice game" handshake with those same WNBC cameras that seemed to be a nuisance to some following Anderson down the handshake line. It wouldn't be until the next day that I saw the feature on Anderson on WNBC and they spent maybe 45 seconds to a minute on her. Maybe there was a longer feature on her that I missed the night before, but even to this day, I'm like, "What the f*ck?! You spent all afternoon there probably shooting a ton of tape and then using so little of it for the feature?! Why did you bother!?"

Made me glad I wasn't in that media form. Needless to say, the crowd dispersed for the Central-North game and the Adelphia crew packed up and headed out as Jackson Memorial and Point Boro took the field to warm up and then get their second semifinal off the ground. Though the Panthers had a very good team and solid pitcher in Kristin Handwerk, they were no match to Jackson's Jaguars. Four errors in the field didn't help the cause and behind a 3-for-4, four-RBI effort by leadoff hitter Roseann Rocca and a 2-for-4, two-RBI effort by cleanup hiter Erin Leonard, Jackson Memorial crushed Point Boro, 10-0, in six innings.

It would not be until mere moments before the Jackson-Boro game did I have a chance to interview coach Miller afterward. That game felt like a long day to begin with. And because of the early exit of Boro against Jackson Memorial, I was out of East just before 10 p.m.

Three days after that win in front of not only local Adelphia but in front of those New York-based NBC cameras, the Mariners finished their season in style by beating up on a hapless Middletown South team that made eight errors in an 8-1 victory, then took out feisty Jackson in the OCT final the next day, 4-1. Anderson, like the Mariners, finished the season 24-3, a legitimate 0.41 earned-run average (North advertised the ERA as 0.15, but I had rightful doubts) and struck out a county-record 367 hitters that season. As expected, she and Andreani were first-team All-State players at their positions.

North would make it back with Anderson to the '99 OCT quarterfinals, where once again, she and the Mariners beat Central, this time on Central's field since the whole concept of Quarterfinal Saturday had dissolved into the wind for one reason or another. North lost at Toms River South against cross-town rival East, 2-0, in the OCT semifinals. Though Anderson had a very, very good '99 season, the cast had changed for her senior season and they simply did not have the diversity, the characters or the mojo the '98 team had. Central, meanwhile, would reach the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III final in '99, then win the SJ III title in 2000 while also claiming its eighth and last OCT crown in the title game against Pinelands Regional.

And I never saw Dick Beer umpire another game after that day. Never saw another WNBC camera at a high school softball game either as I left for Key West after the '99 season.

But, oh, do I remember the headaches I attained from both on that late May day in '98.

Wanting to so believe Donovan was much better

When I walked onto the Shelter Cove Park soccer field on Thursday, May 30, 1985, I so wanted to believe that Monsignor Donovan had a shot of beating big, bad Toms River East in the semifinal round of the Shore Conference girls soccer tournament.

The year before, Donovan's Griffins were unbeaten going into the Ocean County Tournament title game, but on a stifling and brutally warm night, their conditioning did not match that of East's Raiders and thus the perfect season ended in a 2-0 loss.

So one year later, I wanted to believe in my head that Donovan's Griffins, the No. 5 seed of the Shore Conference Tournament, the only tournament to play in after this tournament had pretty much ended the OCT and the MCT (Monmouth County Tournament), had a legitimate chance of taking down the No. 1 seed Raiders in this game. The teams had waited a year to play one another and both had very good seasons leading up to this game. East was 15-1-1 and downright talented. Donovan was 17-1 and, well, also very talented.

This game was also two days after I had covered Donovan's abbreviated 1-0 SCT quarterfinal-round win over unbeaten Lacey in Lacey, a game that was stopped in the third quarter when lightning flashed around the field and then the rain began to pound down on it.

In this battle of the Griffins and the Raiders, the Griffins were the good guys, the team dressed in white. They had some very nice senior players and good leadership. They had Barbara Indiero and Terri Bottone on defense. They had Barbara Callaghan in the midfield. They had Maureen McShea in goal. And they had Stephanie Harmon, one of my all-time favorite players, up front.

More importantly, they had one of the truly genuine nice guys coaching the team in Bill Slocum, who had taken over the program in 1982. This particular team was his first group of four-year players under him. If there was anything I needed from him regardless of the hour, he'd get it for me. He was great with a quote and he was just a good guy to talk to. It was my first year of covering high school soccer, so I needed some allies to help me and oh, did I get some good ones between Slocum, Toms River South's Jim Maguire, North's Jean Konyhas, Point Pleasant Boro's Bob Kulessa, Jackson Memorial's Mike Costa and Lacey's Paul Groben.

Donovan was not only about its talented senior class. It had a dynamite underclassmen group, too, led in the sophomore class by sweeper Colleen Hanhart and in the freshman class by three stars in the making, midfielder Liz Rehak and forwards Jilene DeFilippis and Kim Brickner, who was beginning to carve out a nice career for herself at Donovan.

I really wanted to believe Donovan was the better team on this sunny afternoon at Shelter Cove. But to get to the final, the Griffins were going to have to take out the best team in the tournament, let alone the best team in the county.

East's Raiders were tough. Nails tough, actually. You could knock this team down, but just be known that when you did, you'd be knocked down numerous times afterward with no guarantee you'd come off the field in good shape. These Raiders were talented. Their senior contingent was led by one of its best athletes ever, Denice McKenna, my neighbor for most of my childhood. I watched her grow up playing sports and I knew how talented she was. She was going to head to Rutgers to play soccer there. Another senior was a close friend of McKenna's, Karen Carlisle, a forward who had a strong nose for the ball. And then there was the girl with one of the best smiles I've ever covered in sports, senior goalkeeper Nancy Hearne, the unheralded rock in the back of the Raider defense.

The Raiders had two sophomores who were key components up front in Stacey Komisar and Bonnie Krall, who lived in the same neighborhood as myself and Denice. And Chris Carlisle, Karen's sister, was a freshman with a whole bunch of potential. The defense was mostly junior- and sophomore-based led by stopper Sue Lauterborn and sweeper Leda Fenton, both juniors. Fullback Barbara Applegate, a sophomore, was also a key component in the back.

The orchestra leader in all this was the program's lone coach from the start, Ed Polhemus. Now keep in mind that this man was my gym teacher for my four years at Hooper Avenue Elementary School in the mid-to-late 1970s. He can throw a whole bunch of catchphrases and cliches at you and you thought nothing of it. He'd take his whistle that he carried with him and whip the necklace part of it very hard into gym mats not far from where you were sitting and you'd think nothing of it.

That was Mr. P. But as a journalist, I had to deal with him on a regular basis. Most of the time, he was pretty forthright with stuff. And most of the time, he was pretty assured nobody on this planet had a soccer team that was good enough to beat his group of young ladies. Given the opportunity, he may have been correct. However, this was 1985 ... and back then, girls soccer was played in the spring while most of the state played it in the fall. (Fact: The sport began at the Jersey Shore in the spring of 1976, then it became a varsity sport everywhere else in the fall of '76, so in reality, the rest of the state got it wrong! But that's just my opinion.)

That whole season, Polhemus kept giving plaudits toward his team and whatever I was writing up about the other teams in the county – Lacey and Donovan in particular – he was using that as "motivation" to tell me (and probably his team) that they weren't being appreciated much.

OK, whatever. I knew how good his team was. I think anyone who covered the sport knew how good his team was. Anyone who had a good knowledge of Shore area soccer knew how good his team was. I always felt ... even in my first full year of covering high school sports ... that it's best at times to share the wealth.

Then again, maybe I'm just a good liberal-minded person. Polhemus, though, didn't see it that way. And though he wouldn't admit it, I can see he may have been a tad bit perturbed at me. So after vanquishing the first two opponents in the 16-team SCT as the top seed, you would have had a hard time convincing me that Polhemus had little motivation of getting his girls up for Callaghan, McShea, Harmon, Hanhart, Brickner and the rest of Donovan's Griffins.

Unfairly – and admittedly a generation and a half later – East was painted as the "bad" team, the team with the black hats. I knew how motivated they were, but that was between all the white lines. I knew a number of the young ladies on that East team and they were far from being "bad guys." It was a terrible dilemma, I admit. And again, I was so believing this was going to be Donovan's day. Not because I felt maybe Donovan was the better team. It was more because I wanted to see what Ed Polhemus was like humbled. After all, this man should have trademarked the phrase "The only team that can beat us is ourselves." That's how confident he was with this 1985 group of Raiders.

Personally, I wanted to see Harmon have a big day against the Raider defense. Why? Because I had just written a story the day before about her agreeing to become a Rutgers Scarlet Knight player. We talked chapter and verse and by the end of that 1985 season, I knew everything about Stephanie Harmon. She will always be one of my all-time favorite people as well as players. We had a good friendship after she graduated. When I had my graduation party from Monmouth College on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend in 1988, I invited her as one of my guests to my house. Stephanie and I will always recognize one another.

And to me, there was no question about this particular game – the winner was going to continue on to the final and beat the Monmouth County representative and make history by taking the first SCT championship. That's how talented both East and Donovan were.

The team captains shook hands after discussing rules with the officials before the game and we were ready for some soccer.

And in the first quarter (they played 20-minute quarters back then), Donovan's team came out of the gates like a house on fire. They tested East's defense. Brickner got a shot on goal, as did Harmon. They either flew past the net or Hearne made the save on the shot. For the first five minutes, Donovan was playing this game in East's end of the field.

Then the five minutes went up. And it was East's time to take over.

For the rest of the first half.

East's offense got its act together and was starting to click on passes and testing the Donovan defense. But nothing was penetrating McShea. And the game remained scoreless going into the final five minutes of the first quarter.

Then my neighbor delivered the Kick Heard Throughout East Dover.

McKenna was able to gobble up a pass from Komisar. She dribbled in toward the Griffin box and from 20 yards out, delivered a booming high kick that McShea, no short person whatsoever at 5-foot-9, could not get a hand on. It soared past her underneath the crossbar and East had broken the ice before the quarter ended at the 16:07 mark. Then again, I'm not sure Hope Solo or Brianna Scurry would have stopped the shot. This was a laser that had the right power and the right height behind it.

Donovan's defense and McShea looked stunned. Afterward, Slocum would say, "The first goal was a beautiful shot. When they scored that goal, the momentum of the whole game changed."

The Raiders continued that momentum and took it into the second quarter. It was there that the Sisters Carlisle took over. The younger Carlisle had weaved her way into the Donovan box and passed off to her sister. It was not a one-timer-type shot, but boy did it have some gas behind it. She nailed the shot to the right of McShea and it was 2-0 with 12:16 left before halftime.

And just like that, whatever ego the Griffins had was suddenly wounded. Worse, they could not get anything going offensively in the first half because East's defense was playing soccer to a level that I believe the U.S. women's national team could relate to. It was that good. While Brickner would be elusive and maybe a little bit of a surprise to the Raiders, they had Harmon and DeFilippis in check the entire first half.

The big part of that was the play of a defender I didn't mention before. Her name was Michele Adamkowski. She was a fullback on the other side of the field from Applegate and a very good one in her junior season. She was given the assignment to hound Harmon like nobody's business. For most of this game, Adamkowski was Mary's little lamb because everywhere Harmon went, Adamkowski was sure to go.

I think I even nicknamed Adamkowski "Mary's little lamb." She was one of the best marking defenders I've ever covered in girls soccer.

On this day, I was at this Shelter Cove Park field to cover Stephanie Harmon's triumphant afternoon and how she helped propel Donovan to the SCT championship game.

Turns out, Michele Adamkowski did a better job of covering her than I did.

Unless Slocum and his players had a better plan, this was not going to end well.

And sure as anything, East came out of the blocks the same way they ended the second quarter – on the proverbial roll. Whatever Applegate and Adamkowski couldn't do as defending backs, Lauterborn was there to help mark and if the ball came toward Fenton, you could be assured the 5-foot-10 sweeper was knocking it away toward midfield. East's defense was looking smooth and there was no signs in this third quarter that Donovan was changing that.

Then came the surprise – the third goal. It came with 12:44 left in the third period. Linda Anderson, another veteran midfielder, moved the ball into Donovan territory, then gave off to Fenton, who was allowed to move up the field. Maybe Donovan's defense was stunned to see the sweeper that far in toward the goal, but it worked. Fenton nailed a shot from a few short yards away past McShea and it was 3-0.

That's how I knew East was really really having a good day – when the sweeper scores! Leda Fenton wasn't a goal scorer, but yet, she picked this moment to put this game away. Or that's how it seemed.

Midway through the third quarter, the constant badgering and coverage by Adamkowski was starting to get to Harmon, who had put home 20 goals that spring. She had been quietly stating her case to the officials about the harassment she was taking. Finally, she had enough of it. And it was not that far from where I was standing on Donovan's side of the field watching this artistic defensive display.

I could clearly hear the one official tell Harmon, "You asked for it, you got it," and then pulling out a yellow card, which meant she was having to come out of the game for the moment.

Donovan's attack was frustrated. Their best player was on the bench cooling off from a yellow card and with one quarter left, the only thing that was left was the final score. East was already up 3-0 and I saw no way of Donovan getting back into this one. If Donovan had scored three goals in a quarter during the season, it most likely wasn't against a team of East's caliber.

But something began to happen as the fourth quarter began. The faster, younger Donovan players were finally finding holes in the East defense and starting to exploit them. Just 2:13 into the final quarter, Brickner made a move and ultimately got tripped up by Applegate in the box.

That meant a penalty kick. Slocum called on Rehak to deliver the kick. She powered her kick past Hearne's right side and the shutout was gone. Donovan had its first goal in two years against East. Now the Griffins had to continue what they started. Brickner and DeFilippis were filling in nicely, trying to make life tough on the East defense. Hearne had to make a few saves in the fourth quarter to keep the Griffins at arms length. And they did a god job of milking the clock down because all of a sudden, East's offensive attack was non-existent. Donovan's defense had finally tightened up and from the midfield stripe to about the East 25 was where all the action was taking place in the fourth quarter.

Hanhart delivered a kick into the East box. That caused chaos and within that chaos, the whistle sounded.

East was detected for a handball. And because it was in the box, that meant another penalty kick. Rehak got summoned again by Slocum to deliver the kick. She went to the same spot as she had before with a kick to Hearne's right side into the net and was successful.

Now it was 3-2. And there was still three minutes left in this one. When the quarter started, East seemed to be in cruise control. Now the Raiders were one or two more runs toward their net from panic mode. Donovan continued to pounce, trying to find the tying goal. Each time, though, the Griffin forwards and midfielders got turned back.

Each kick away from the net by an East player only meant precious time kept ticking off the clock. Finally, Donovan had no more time left. And as the referees blew the final whistle on a scoreboard-less Shelter Cove Park field, East players jumped up and down in happiness and elation, players hugging one another.

They survived. They were the ones going to the SCT final.

Donovan's players slowly walked off the field in the same funeral procession-like manner I saw them walk off in their other loss that season to Point Pleasant Boro during East break. At the end of the game, Adamkowski, who I barely knew who she was before this game, would say this was her "best game defensively."

Hearne said, "This is the most dominant game we played this year. Michele played a super game against Stephanie. The whole defense did the job."

And that was it, really. If Adamkowski doesn't stop Harmon in her tracks on this afternoon, there's a chance East might not be going to the SCT final. Stopping Harmon was the whole key to stopping the Donovan attack and though Rehak had two penalty shot goals, they were goals that weren't scored on the field. In that regard, East was dominant defensively.

It didn't pass by Polhemus, either.

"Today, the sharks were hungry," said Polhemus, not passing up a chance to make a point with yet another cliche. "We allowed them only two penalty kicks and nothing from the field. I think the defense is the best the Shore area and I think Nancy Hearne is the best goalie in all of the Shore area."

East's defense, I hated to tell ol' Eddie, was the main reason for Nancy Hearne's success back there. They didn't allow a whole lot of shots that season and on this day, they didn't allow a whole lot of shots either.

And while East players were more than happy to chat afterward, Donovan's players walked off the field dejected, the seniors walking away from their final game with a 58-13-2 mark in four years under Slocum. Unfortunately, they didn't win a title of any kind in those four years.

"I'm disappointed for my seniors who are leaving," said Slocum, looking like he lost a puppy dog by this point. "I've grown very close to them and now it's over. They brought a lot of respect to the soccer program."

They had and gave Donovan soccer fans two wonderful soccer rides in '84 and '85. But each time, the Griffins lost to the better team in East, which had now vanquished Point Pleasant Beach, Jackson Memorial and Donovan en route to the championship game against surprising Freehold Township.

East would go on to win the SCT championship the next Tuesday night, June 4, by a 1-0 count at Wall High School, ending a great 17-1-1 season.

As I left the Shelter Cove Park field, I got a request from a Donovan student who had played Senior League Baseball at Toms River Little League for my dad and I. His name was Mike Gottschalk. We chatted about the game afterward and what he was up to. I had to drive all the way up Route 571 to take him back to his place, then turn around and drive toward the back way to the Observer building. As I was coming in, Brickner was leaving the building. Apparently, I had forgotten that I told Slocum if she could come in for a mug shot that week (we had All-County stuff going on within the next few weeks), it'd be great. I never expected her to show up right after a devastating 3-2 SCT semifinal loss, but it was nice that she took care of business afterward. And in spite of playing a tough game where she gave her all, I do admit she took a very nice mug shot for our photographer.

My first year as a high school girls soccer writer is one I will never forget, especially with some of the friendships I cultivated with players who were one and two years younger than I was. Being 18 at the time had its benefits, I do admit. Sadly, an injury kept McKenna from ever playing at Rutgers. And a falling out with coaches, she said, ended Harmon's chance of playing for Rutgers. Callaghan, Hearne, Adamkowski and Fenton would all wind up as teammates on the fledgling Monmouth College soccer team, so I'd run into my East girls quite a bit while I was a student there between 1986-88.

In the end, East had a dominant team. The Raiders were no doubt deserving of the acclaim they captured that season.

But admittedly, I still would have liked to see Donovan win that day at Shelter Cove Park.

I wanted to believe they were so much better.

They just weren't in the end.

The epic 3-hour tug of war

By the end of this Tuesday night, May 25, 1993, I had already contemplated a first-time Ocean County Tournament championship matchup between bitter rivals Central Regional and Lacey Township. That's how this night was going to end at Point Pleasant Boro High School, I thought.

As the co-director of the 13th annual OCT, I felt it was all but a foregone conclusion. Central Regional was flying high at 20-1 and couldn't possibly be stopped. And at 14-7, Lacey was catching fire at the right time -- and they also had gotten a break since second-seeded Southern Regional had been shown the proverbial door by Jackson Memorial, the seventh seed, in a stunning quarterfinal round upset just four days earlier.

Still, both Central's Golden Eagles and Lacey's Lions had to win their semifinal matchups. And the way I had set up the bracket, the Golden Eagles and fourth-seeded Toms River North were up first. When I set up the bracket, I had always put the No. 1 seed as the showcase prime-time game of what was "Quarterfinal Saturday," the day all four quarterfinal-round matchups were to take place on Boro's field. That had been three nights before, though, because of a conflict, Southern and Jackson Memorial had to move their game up a day to Friday. And in the "spotlight" game, Central had beaten feisty No. 8 seed Monsignor Donovan, 5-2.

So Central and North, which had beaten Toms River East in a dramatic, back-and-forth 10-9 game in the quarterfinal round, were set for their semifinal, which had a 5 p.m. start. The second semifinal between No. 7 Jackson Memorial and No. 3 Lacey was to take place starting at 7:30 p.m.

The Golden Eagles were the defending champion of the event, having beaten East the year before in the final, 5-0, on the same Boro field they were playing on this time around. And they were loaded -- pitcher Tara Menschner was in the middle of a great junior season, junior Erika Applegate had made the transition smoothly from third base to catcher, shortstop Dana Kennett was a seasoned veteran in her second year as a sophomore. Junior Denise Reiser was a steady center fielder and first baseman Amber Dafeldecker was the anchor as a senior, one of two seniors along with veteran third baseman Tara Gardner.

Central was coached by the venerable Norm Selby, who along with assistant coach Gloria Garibaldi had guided the Golden Eagles to five previous OCT titles, two NJSIAA South Jersey Group III championships and an overall Group III title-game appearance in 1986. The Golden Eagles, as I called them, were "Team IBM" because everyone was uniformed the same way, all the young ladies wearing hats, being proper and none standing out over anyone else.

That was "the Central way."

But North, which was the anti-Central, chanting out lines while they were at the plate and not having every player (if any) wearing hats on their heads, came into the game riding a modest seven-game winning streak. Another venerable coach, Becky Miller, the winningest softball coach in Ocean County history at the time, had mostly seniors and juniors rounding into form. The senior starters were all different: from the quiet and stoic Kim Scourzo at first base and Stefanie Rusin in left field to the outgoing Jaclyn Cherubini at second base.

But the star attractions of this team were the junior class ... just like Central Regional. Leadoff hitter and center fielder Kristin Smith got the Mariners rolling, then shortstop Lesley Gertner and third baseman Kelly Gorga made up for the steady left side of the infield. Anna Solosky was not a strikeout pitcher by any means, but she was accurate and the first part of being a successful pitcher in baseball or softball is being around the plate. And catcher Bonnie Shapiro went about her business catching Solosky and being a defensive stalwart in her second year as the team's starting backstop.

And so after the introductions and the national anthem was played, we got rolling at 5:05 p.m. Both teams, though, were going to be up against it in the early going since because Boro's field was looking to the west, fielders were looking directly into the sun, making for a dangerous first few innings. Yes, it was a bit of a challenge to say the least, but let's say no one got hurt.

At least not because of the sun's position. More later.

North immediately put the pressure on Central in the first. Smith and Cherubini beat out infield hits and Gertner walked to load the bases. No outs and North was looking good. Gorga came up and she didn't waste time -- she went after Menschner's first offering. It was a screaming liner up the middle, waist-high.

That was perfect for Menschner, who snagged it as quickly as a lizard's tongue to a fly, then threw to Gardner at third to double up a stunned Smith. Scourzo bounced a comebacker to Menschner and North's rally went by the board.

But that top of the first set the tone for what was about to be witnessed the rest of this game.

After Solosky set the Golden Eagles down in the bottom of the first, the Mariners came up again in the top of the second. Megan Russell, the lone sophomore in the North lineup, beat out the third infield hit North collected in less than two innings. Talk about finding a spot in the defense! That brought up Rusin. On a 1-2 pitch, she hit a ball that began sinking slowly toward the right field line. Right fielder Stacy Sperling, another Central junior, kept coming in and coming in and coming in. But she couldn't get to the ball. Somehow, the ball found a rock on the Boro outfield grass/dirt and skipped away from Sperling. Russell scored and Rusin didn't stop until Miller put the breaks on at third base to complete Rusin's triple.

Already down 1-0 and with no one out and a runner on third, this wasn't looking good for Menschner or her Golden Eagle mates. Somehow, she reached back to strike out Shapiro swinging. Then she caught Solosky looking at strike three. And Smith hit a comebacker to Menschner. Another potentially big inning was thwarted, but North had struck first for the 1-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Solosky, as she seemingly did all season long, went about her business. She gave up a hit to Menschner in the second, but she set down nine of the first 10 batters she faced.

And the Mariners were about to add to their lead in the fourth. Up first was the left-handed hitting Scourzo. The count was worked to 2-2. Then Menschner grooved one in Scourzo's wheelhouse.

Scourzo unloaded. The ball took off over Reiser's head and must have hit another rock in the Boro outfield. It skittered away and by the time Reiser had caught up to the ball, Scourzo was on third and heading for home with an inside-the-park home run on the spacious Panther field, making it 2-0.

We were now halfway through the game and the Mariners were halfway to upsetting Central and advancing to their second championship game in three years. But these Golden Eagles didn't get to 20-1 by accident. They were about to change the game in the bottom of the fourth in their full second go-round against Solosky.

Second baseman and junior Jill Hirshblond was to to begin it. She beat out an infield hit. This brought up Applegate, who was one long hit away from turning the game around.

And she delivered. On a 1-1 pitch, she drilled Solosky's offering to the right-center field gap, easily scoring Hirshblond, who had gotten to second on a wild pitch. Applegate kept running until she stopped at third with a triple. That brought up Dafeldecker, who hit a hard one-hopper at Solosky in the second inning for an out. She got the count to 1-1 before she got a hold of the next pitch.

It was a screamer that Solosky's knee had no chance at getting out of the way. Thankfully, it didn't crack the bone. Applegate scored easily and Dafeldecker had first base while Solosky was writhing on the mound in pain. For over three minutes, a hush fell on the Point Boro field. The Mariners really didn't have a backup plan on the mound. Solosky had thrown every inning of every game for North that season. It was reminiscent of the moment four years earlier on the Wilbur Thompson Field turf when Toms River East pitcher Kim Tompkins had been nailed with a deflected line drive to her face by Toms River South's Emily Dupignac in that OCT final.

On that night, Tompkins was able to get up and finish. And so, too, did Solosky. She received a nice ovation from both sides' fans and threw some warmup tosses. She was ready to go. Down the road a few days later when discussing this game, Garibaldi told me it wasn't the first time Dafeldecker had nailed someone with a line drive up the middle.

"You should see the bruises on my legs from her line drives," Garibaldi told me about pitching practice to her team, especially her hard-swinging first baseman.

The inning went on and Central was on the prowl. April Rose, the Central left fielder and two-year starter as a sophomore, singled to right to put runners on first and second. Menschner hit a grounder at Gorga, who stepped on third for the first out of the inning. This brought up Reiser. She hit a lazy flyball to Smith in center. But as she caught the ball, I can hear the North coaches and players who were on the bench to the right of me on the first base side of the field yelling to Smith to get the ball to second base. When she did and Cherubini caught the ball, there was no one there. Apparently, Rose had thought there was two outs instead of one.

In a battle of teams that were evenly matched, mistakes had to be held to practically nothing. And Rose's error in judgment ended a rally, though the game was tied at 2-2.

Both Menschner and Solosky settled down from there. Each had 1-2-3 fifth innings and Menschner retired Gertner, Gorga and Scourzo in the sixth. In the bottom of the sixth, Central was poised to take the lead. With one out, Applegate delivered a double and moved to third on a groundout by Dafeldecker. It brought up Rose, who fought Solosky in a nine-pitch at-bat. But Solosky would eventually win the battle by getting Rose to ground out to Gorga, keeping the game tied.

Menschner had retired seven batters in a row going into the seventh, but No. 6 hitter Russell beat out yet another infield single. Rusin put down a bunt in front of home plate, but Applegate could not get her hand firmly wrapped on the ball and her error put runners on first and second with no outs. That brought up Shapiro, who was 1-for-2 at this point. On a 3-2 pitch, she delivered a single to left field. When Rose could not handle the ball properly, Miller waved Russell home to give North a 3-2 lead as the runners moved up a base.

Once again, a Rose mistake had cost Central Regional. Hopefully, it would not cost the Golden Eagles the game at this point. Menschner still -- and once again -- had to wriggle out of no-outs, runners-in-scoring-position trouble. She struck out Solosky swinging, bringing up Smith. Smith hit a line drive right back at Menschner, who used cat-like reflexes again to snag it despite the sun still being in her way and bag Rusin at third for the double play to end the inning.

Three outs to go for North's upset win and a trip to the championship. At this point, North had done everything it could do to win the game and all Solosky had to do was protect the 3-2 lead.

But again, Central didn't get to 20-1 by accident. And Selby's bunch was primed heading into the bottom of the seventh. Menschner began the seventh with a base hit up the middle. Danielle Kennett, Dana's twin sister, ran for Menschner. On the second pitch of the at-bat with Reiser, Selby had Kennett steal. She beat Shapiro's throw to second, putting her in scoring position with no outs.

But Reiser popped out harmlessly to Cherubini. Going into this game, Reiser, who was normally Selby's leadoff hitter, had been suffering through the throes of a horrific slump. So at this point, she had been moved down to the seventh slot in the order. With Reiser's at-bat wasted, it brought up Gardner, a quiet, unassuming player just like older sister Jean, who played for Central and had graduated two years earlier. Gardner worked the count to 3-2, then got a pitch that got enough of the plate. She was able to lace it out to left field. By the time Rusin got to the ball, Selby was sending Danielle Kennett home. She made it in easily ahead of the throw to the plate as Gardner sped to second.

The game was deadlocked again and now Central had a chance to win the game. But Solosky caught No. 9 hitter Sperling looking on strikes for the second out, then Dana Kennett popped out harmlessly to Solosky.

It was free softball for two teams that played an entertaining game up to this point. But it wasn't a surprise since Central outlasted North, 2-0, exactly four weeks earlier in a tight one. A game like this was possible. Still, Central had a little better talent than North did position by position. Now a championship game berth was going to be decided inning to inning and as my watch read 6:55 p.m., I can see both Jackson Memorial and Lacey players warming up away from the field, waiting their turn to get on the field.

Little did they know they were going to have to wait awhile in this one. In the top of the eighth, Cherubini singled to lead off, but like Rose did earlier in the game, forgot the situation and was caught off first base on a popup by Gertner, which got turned into a double play. Solosky, meanwhile, retired Hirshblond, Applegate and Dafeldecker in order in the eighth. Menschner had done the same in the ninth, setting up for what was going to be an exciting bottom of the ninth inning.

Rose hit a grounder toward Gertner, but it took a bad hop on the shortstop and went into the outfield for a base hit to lead off the inning. After Menschner flied out to right fielder Russell, the struggling Reiser came up. She got enough of a 1-2 Solosky offering to poke the ball into left field for a base hit, stopping Rose at second. Two pitches later, Solosky uncorked her second wild pitch of the game, putting both runners in scoring position with one out. Gardner walked to load the bases, setting the stage for Sperling to win the game.

With the count at 1-2, Sperling poked a ball to the right side of the infield. It seemed to stay up there for minutes, but Cherubini reached as high as she could without jumping and snared the soft liner in her glove.

That was the difference between Central Regional settling matters and Sperling being the hero and the game continuing on. Three inches one way or the other or higher and Central was going to the title game. Now it was up to Dana Kennett, who like Reiser previously in the leadoff position was struggling. Instead of waiting Solosky out for her pitch, Kennett got anxious and hit a flyball that Smith gloved on the first pitch to her to end the threat.

In the top of the 10th, Shapiro started by poking a ball that landed just inside the left-field line. She didn't stop until she got to second with a double, setting North up. Solosky popped out to Dafeldecker for the first out. That brought up Smith. She put a bunt down to Menschner, who threw to second baseman Hirshblond covering first for the second out. This sent up Cherubini, who had stolen Sperling's moment of glory and now had a chance to become a hero herself.

It didn't happen. She took a strike and Applegate caught Shapiro napping at third base, picking her off to end the rally.

This game had a lot of everything. Solosky set Hirshblond, Applegate and Dafeldecker down in order again in the 10th.

In the top of the 11th, Cherubini blooped her third hit of the game into right field to lead off. This brought up Gertner and the next interesting moment of the game. She blooped a single to left-center field, a one-hopper off the glove of Rose. But Reiser was there to gather the ball and when she threw to Dana Kennett, imagine the shortstop's surprise when she saw Cherubini suddenly caught just off second base heading to third. Kennett slapped the tag on Cherubini trying to get back to second for the first out. Two flyouts ended the 11th. And when Solosky retired the side in order in the bottom of the inning to make it eight straight set down by the right-hander, it was on to the 12th.

It was up to me, the public address announcer for the tournament, to announce that this was the longest OCT game in history. It was almost 7:40 p.m. The second semifinal should have started by now. But to both teams' credit, they were patient. After all, they, too, were seeing history unfolding in front of them just like the fans who were there from the start for both Central and North.

First up was Russell. She hit a wicked shot toward Gardner at third, who could not handle the blistering liner. The ball went off her glove and wandered into foul territory. Russell raced to second on what was scored a double. Rusin walked and Shapiro beat out an infield hit, quietly her fourth hit of the game, to load the bases with no outs. That brought up No. 9 hitter Solosky. She got the count to 3-0 before Menschner put one over on her opposite number. Then Solosky took again. Ball four, outside. The reliably accurate Menschner suddenly could not find the plate after her third walk of the game and North had a 4-3 lead and once again ... no outs. By this point, I'm asking how many times Menschner can escape these mini-fires that keep getting set.

Worse, North's top of the lineup was coming back up. Somehow, Menschner had not used up all her lives in this one. She induced Smith, Cherubini and Gertner into not one, not two, but three straight popouts to Dana Kennett.

Seems like this time, the flag was finally pulled over to the North side of the field after a two-hour, 40-minute game of tug of war. Central had no more chances after the 12th. This was it.

And after Gardner grounded out to Gertner, Sperling beat out an infield hit. Kennett continued her horrible night at the plate with a groundout to Scourzo at first. But that allowed Sperling to move to second base with two outs. Now the role of savior was put on the shoulders of Hirshblond, Selby's niece. On a 1-1 pitch, Hirshblond reached out and poked the ball toward left-center field. It landed on the ground ... not in a glove. Sperling raced home. Hirshblond hurried to second.

Tied again at 4-4. Was this game ever going to end!?

It could if Applegate, who was 2-for-5 in the contest, could find the same kind of land in the outfield as Hirshblond did. One hit and the game was over. But on a 1-1 pitch, Applegate hit a slow roller to Gertner, who gathered the ball in and fired to Scourzo to beat Applegate by a step.

Central once again kept the game going. And I was starting to seriously wonder if we were going to have a second semifinal. It was 7:55 p.m. Again, Lacey and Jackson Memorial were waiting patiently to take the field for warmups and get a game going.

I'll be honest -- for one short moment as the game crossed into the 13th inning, I was starting to think myself that I and co-tournament director and Boro softball coach Ric Malta may have to tell both teams to go home and come back the next day. We were literally on an inning-by-inning watch in making that decision.

So onto the 13th we went. My Scoremaster scoreboook -- and by the way, it's the best in the business among scorebooks -- had run out of space by the 12th. I had to start with the 13th inning to the right of my totals add-up lines. I had room for the 13th and 14th inning. After that, I'd have to start on another page, which in all my years of keeping scorebooks I had never done before. And I didn't want to have to go to another page.

With one out, Scourzo drew a four-pitch walk from Menschner, who was still having some trouble with pitch location. Russell hit a grounder at Kennett for what should have been at least one out at second base. But Kennett, who had played stellar defense to mask the 0-for-6 game at the plate, finally cracked by fumbling the grounder for an error, Central's third of the game, to put runners on first and second with one out. Rusin hit a comebacker to Menschner, who automatically knew what to do with it once she fielded it, throwing a strike to Gardner at third to get Scourzo for the second out.

Once again, it looked as if Menschner was going to get out of trouble. And once again, I started having to contemplate that whole "Shall we even play the second semifinal?" question. But to the plate came Shapiro, who seemed to have Menschner's number all evening long. She got the count to 3-2. Then as if there was magic in Shapiro's bat, she looped a single to left field in front of Rose. With two outs, the runners were going when ball met bat, so Rose's throw to the plate was not in time to get Russell. The other runners moved up on the throw home.

North had the lead again, this time at 5-4. The inning was still going on and Solosky was up. Up to this point, the best Solosky could do at the plate on an 0-for-4 day with two strikeouts was work out that bases-loaded walk in the 12th inning to break the 3-3 tie. But unlike the previous five at-bats, Solosky wasn't taking a pitch. She poked the ball past Menschner and up the middle. On a night Menschner was snagging just about everything, she couldn't get that one. As the ball trickled into the outfield, Rusin and Shapiro were both scoring.

And though Smith hit a comebacker to Menschner to end the inning at long last, North had attained the biggest lead of the game. Solosky took a 7-4 lead into the bottom of the 13th inning and seemed relaxed.

You can also tell that Central, for as determined as it was, was deflated. And it showed in that last at-bat. Dafeldecker, Rose and Menschner all went after Solosky's first pitch to them! The results: a line drive to Scourzo, a flyout to Russell and a groundout to Gertner, respectively.

At 8:10 p.m., three hours and five minutes after the game had started, it was over. North had survived, 7-4, and was on its way to its third championship game ever. North players were elated, high-fiving and hugging one another. The Mariners were also exhausted after surviving that game. But Miller and assistant coach Jane Donald shared the moment with the team and were packing up heading back to North jubilant over the exciting victory. The way they were playing at that point, they didn't care who they got in the final -- they were a confident enough bunch that they were going to win the county final regardless.

Said Miller afterward, "I haven't coached in a game like that in recent history." She had been North's coach for 23 years by then. It'd be hard to match the drama and excitement that was the Central-North semifinal game. Anyone there that night would have agreed.

When looking back on that game 21 years later, what won it for North wasn't necessarily the clutch hitting. It was the fact that North had 55 chances in the field -- 39 putouts and 16 assists -- without making one single error. Yes, North won with its defense, something the Mariners were never great at, but yet on this evening, they put it together.

Meanwhile, Central quietly packed away its equipment and headed back to the bus after losing the epic battle, stunned by the end result. I can still see the teary-faced look of Menschner and Applegate after this one. They wanted this one. They wanted it badly. They knew they had a chance to make history and become the first back-to-back champion in OCT history.

That would not happen for any county team in the event until Toms River East pulled the trick in 2007-08. Days later, Selby agreed that this battle was one of the greatest games in county history, even if he had to bite the bullet of the fact his team was at the wrong end of that history. A hit here, an error there, a walk somewhere else and the course of history may have changed in that 1993 season.

But there was still business to attend to. Jackson Memorial and Lacey had to still take the field for the second semifinal. And after waiting for both teams to get off the field, then taking warmups and going through introductions, we got the second semifinal started just before 9 p.m. And I will never forget the leadership shown that night of home-plate umpire and legendary wrestling coach John DeMarco of moving the game along.

That second semifinal saw Jackson Memorial pull off yet another upset, beating Lacey, 9-5, in a game that ended just before 11 p.m. Jackson Memorial used a five-run third inning to pull off the upset, the highlight being a two-run, inside-the-park home run by another catcher who made a name for herself that night, Becky Dushanek.

But that upset win that put coach Al Aires' Jaguars into the final for the first time ever was hugely overshadowed by a game that I still to this day believe is one of the greatest games I've ever witnessed in my career. North had been rolling, but the win over Central was the impetus it needed to keep the good times going. A week later, North and Central would face one another again, this time for the Shore Conference Tournament championship at Harry Rash Field in Wall. It was a rarity to see two Ocean County teams ever play for this championship, but here they both were playing for all the Shore marbles.

And to prove the win the week before was not a fluke, North won the SCT crown with a 2-1 victory over the Golden Eagles, not quite as dramatic as the game seven days earlier, but just as well-played. And one day later, North finished out a 12-game winning streak to end the season by thumping Jackson Memorial, 13-2, in the OCT title game on the same Point Boro field in five innings as Gertner earned Most Valuable Player honors. Solosky captured the Most Valuable Pitcher award, Scourzo was named the OCT's top fielder, and Shapiro, who was 8-for-15 in the tourney, was the event's top hitter, propelled by that five-hit game that made her the second player in OCT history to accomplish that feat after Toms River East's Sherry Mesplay in a 10-8 quarterfinal-round loss to Brick Memorial in 1983.

By finishing 22-4, North had its best season in the sport since 1983 when Debbie DeBenedetto, Katie Birmingham, June Moran and Co. also won 22 games. That North team, too, won the OCT and SCT titles on back-to-back days.

Though Central ended the season 22-3, all it got from that season was the Shore Conference Class B South championship. It made Central hungry for the 1994 season, which resulted in a 27-2 record and an SCT title in Selby's final game as head coach.

Meanwhile, North, even with its strong junior class, never could duplicate that ending to the '93 season in 1994. With Shapiro not returning for her senior year, North just seemed like an incomplete team that year. The Mariners did well in winning the Class A South title that season, something they didn't do in the '93 season. But they lost to Central in its SCT rematch in the quarterfinal round and fell in the bottom of the seventh inning to East in the OCT semifinals.

That Tuesday night in 1993 will always stand out, though. North was deserving of winning that OCT game that night and going on to win the OCT the next week. The way the Mariners gutted out that game against Central matched the personalities of the Mariners that year. Most any other Mariner team, in my opinion, would have lost to Central Regional in extra innings.

That '93 North team was special.

It took a special game like that 13-inning, three-hour tug of war to define that team.