September 28, 2011: From a dead car in the morning to elation after midnight

For as long as I live, the entire day of Wednesday, September 28, 2011 will forever live in my mind.

But to set this up, I have to go back a couple of weeks beforehand. So here it goes:

It was just over two weeks earlier. I had already stated an interest with the NFL team I cover home games with since 2003, the Jacksonville Jaguars, that my one road trip would be to Charlotte, N.C. to see the Jaguars face off with rookie Cam Newton and the Panthers and their new head coach, Ron Rivera. That was planned for Sunday, September 25.

The only thing I had not done yet was call Dan Edwards, the Jaguars' marvelous media coordinator, to get those passes. Figured I'd put that off a day.

Well any thought of those plans happening would get shot out of the air by one simple phone call. My sister called me and hit me with this news:

"Mom's coming down to Florida to visit cousin Marcia and she's expecting to fly back from Orlando with you."

"When is all this taking place?" I ask.

"She's going to be there until the 28th. You are going to take her with you that Sunday home."

Well that was that for that. No trip to Charlotte. The way things went with the Jaguars that 2011 season, it wasn't worth the trip in the end anyway.

So instead of Western Carolina, I'm now making new plans for a trip to South Florida for September 24-26. I had already asked my boss, Andy, off for that day since I didn't want to have to rush home from Charlotte and get right to work at 7 p.m. on that Monday. So I was cleared.

My next job was to call my friend outside of Fort Lauderdale, Doloria, who had spent some time with me in December 2010 in Palatka. Told her I was heading her way and asked if she wanted to hang with me. She was glad to see me again since we hadn't seen each other for nine months. All that Saturday morning and afternoon, I traveled to South Florida. It was about 4 p.m. when I got to Doloria's place in Davie. Her son, who was 22, was there and I was happy to meet him for the first time.

We took off not far after that and checked in at a hotel in Jupiter, not far from my cousin Robin's place. We went out to dinner and I called Marcia to ask her if we could come over. It was late by now and we agreed we'd all meet at Marcia's the next day.

That Sunday, I get to hang with Doloria near the pool of the hotel, even though it was a slightly overcast day. By 6:30 that night, she and I were on our way to Marcia's. I've made the trip to my cousin's house enough times to know where it is, even as darkness was becoming more obvious with the daylight savings time coming.

We arrived at Marcia's where my mom was along with Robin. I gave my mom a big hug and then introduced her to my friend. I had not told them she was African-American, but I didn't think it would matter anyway. I just wanted to see a response.

I never got one because they treated her like she was one of their own. We got to hang out all night and catch up on things. We had a good time with dinner and dessert. Doloria and I took off for the hotel at just after 11:30 that night.

The next morning, the 26th of September, I had to take Doloria back to her place, which was a 45-minute ride one way. When I was done with that, I had to meet Marcia at her place to pick up my mom to take back with me to Northern Florida. She had packed most of her stuff with my mom and I picked her up to go at about 2 p.m. We were on our way to a restaurant in Stuart to meet my ex-girlfriend, Beth, who was living in West Palm Beach with her husband.

We get in, catch up on old times, and I can see John was a little uncomfortable with his wife's ex-boyfriend and his mother there. I think he was trying hard to impress, but he didn't have to. Hey, he got my ex in the end. He had nothing to prove, really.

We spent about 90 minutes in the restaurant and left around 3:40 p.m. when my phone goes off.

Marcia's calling me, telling me my mom forgot her watch.

"Meet me right off I-95 by the Sunoco station," she said.

So I did. About 15 minutes later, she arrives with the watch and once again, we say our goodbyes.

Now I'm heading north up I-95 and I have two options: My mom and I could go see my late girlfriend's mom and brother, who still live up in Brevard County and she'd get to see her 3-year-old son, Nio, who she was pregnant with when I first met her in 2007. I got no answer on the phone from her brother at all, and I wasn't up to springing surprises on the family one bit.

That idea went out the window. My next option was calling my step-grandmother Gladys, who lives in Clearwater. I get her on the phone and tell her I have mom with me. She was delighted to see her and I put her on my phone with her. It was around 4:45 p.m. and the exit for Vero Beach was coming up -- State-Road 60. You go east, you get into Vero Beach and to the ocean. You turn left, you get the Vero Beach Outlets and just about nothing for 75 miles other than the Florida's Turnpike exit for Yeehaw Junction.

I figured I'd get to her place by about 8 p.m., but well over 100 miles seemed to take forever, especially after getting out of that nothingness of an area known as Central Florida and hitting every single traffic light on the way to Tampa. We had to make two bathroom breaks along the way.

By the time I reached Tampa, it was 8:40 p.m. and I still had the Campbell Causeway to drive on to get to Clearwater. By the time I reached her development where she lived, it was 9:10 p.m. Thankfully, she was still up and about and watching the first game of a three-game, season-ending baseball series between the Yankees and the Rays at Tropicana Field.

She was delighted to see us get there. She would catch up on times with my step-grandmother since she hadn't seen her since 2007 when her stepbrother Lewis got married. He came over for a while, and after that, his wife Eileen came over. We ended up leaving sometime before midnight, but I'm glad we got everyone together for a few hours that evening.

Now I wasn't going to tell my mom I had some issues with my automobile, a 1998 Toyota Corrolla, which had just got over 200,000 miles six months earlier. After pushing that car as far as I could, I wanted to take the back way to Palatka, even if it took an extra hour to get there. We traveled up U.S.-19 into Crystal River, then veered off onto SR-44. It was a turn after that onto SR-491 through Beverly Hills until connecting onto SR-200. Once I got back into Ocala nearly two hours later, we hopped on I-75 to Exit 358, where I knew my normal way around there to SR-326, then onto US-301, and onto SR-20 where finally sometime around 3:30 in the morning, we arrived back at my apartment in Palatka.

I had her sleeping on the sofa in the living room and I was in my bedroom. That morning and afternoon, we went out to a pair of places in town, the last was my place of employment, the Palatka Daily News. Unlike seven years earlier when my mom and dad came to town to visit, it was during the day and she got to meet Andy, my boss, Larry, my editor and my publisher and personal savoir, Rusty. She got to see I worked with very good people while I was there. We stopped over at Publix where we picked up the dinner for the night -- I made us grilled salmon with green beans and corn.

Then I showed her the television clicker and told her I would be home sometime around 12:30 in the morning. It was an easy night for a Tuesday and I left to come home at around 12:45 a.m. But as I pulled into my parking lot at my complex with my tail going in first, I started to hear a noise in my car.

I didn't think anything of it at that moment and just came in to see mom was up. She had done little unpacking since she was only going to be with me for a day. We had to be out the door by 9:15 for a 2 p.m. flight out of Orlando.

It is 8:15 in the morning, Wednesday, September 28, 2011. My task at hand was to get mom to the airport after we first picked up her phone that she forgot her charger for on the trip down to Florida at the nearby Radio Shack. Those folks were nice enough to allow her to keep the phone overnight. If my sister or dad needed us, they could get her on my phone since I had left it with her.

Getting things packed wasn't that difficult a task. I made coffee that morning and around 9:10, we were to get on our way for the 2 1/2-hour trek to Orlando International Airport. Got everything settled, turned the ignition on.

Nothing! All I heard was the rattling sound of something in my car that sounded like a belt was out of place. I opened up the hood of my car ... and it was. The belt to my fuel pump was snapped. I didn't have many options other than a rental car at that particular moment.

The only place in town I had business with and knew would get the job done for me was Enterprise. But I had to wait. It wasn't until about 9:45 when we could be picked up, make a side trip to get mom's fully charged cell phone at Radio Shack, then be on our way to Enterprise to pick up the rental. It seemed as if it would take forever to get the business of the rental over with. But they were only going as fast as they could as they figured out which car I was going to take for the day.

We got to the rental desk at about 10:15. We didn't leave until 10:50, which now put me behind a serious 8-ball, trying to get my mom down to Orlando as fast as I could. One obstacle that was in the way was gas -- they don't give you more than just over a quarter of a tank to begin with, so you are on your own to fill the tank up. It was 12:30 in the afternoon and I had just arrived at the gas station off of I-4 in Deltona to get some gas in. I put in about $5 since that would take care of the rest of the trip to the airport.

By the time she finished going to the bathroom and I had picked up something to drink for us, we were out of the station by 12:40. It was still another 10 miles to the exit for the Greeneway toll road and another 35 minutes to the airport.

To this day, I still don't know how cops didn't catch me going 85 mph in a 70 zone. Once we got to the airport, I was able to get her to where she needed to check in. I told her to call me to make sure all was fine as I found a place to park after she got in.

Five minutes later, the phone rings.

"It's OK," she says. "The flight's been delayed an hour."

There was a sigh of relief. I met her outside the gate she was supposed to go through. We hugged, kissed, told each other we loved them and I left her to go through security and wait for her flight back to New Jersey.

I had done what I was asked to do -- get her to the airport and on her way home. I jumped back into my car and decided to take a leisurely trip back to Palatka. Heck, I had the car for the day and it wasn't as if there was a huge day of work ahead of us. Wednesdays are rarely ever busy because of how religious it is for activity that night where I was living.

After getting gas at the closest Mobil in Orlando, I took SR-436 onto I-4 and back off onto US-17 to take it all the way back up to Palatka. By the time I arrived somewhere between 5:30 and 6 p.m., I had contacted a guy named Troy, who happened to see what was going on under the hood earlier that morning when I first had my issue. He was willing to come look at it and evaluate if he could fix it or not. He looked at it after I got back and figured it shouldn't be a problem. Told him I'd see him in the morning.

I had picked up something to eat from Publix that night and headed to work sometime after 7 p.m. Mom had already let me know she got back safely, so all was good.

My job on the night was normal -- make sure our Scoreboard page was set up properly to put our weekly football picks grid on the page and to pick up the two local events that were taking place.

But my mind was somewhere else. It was the final night of the Major League Baseball season. What was a tradition to end the season on a Sunday, now it was ending on a Wednesday night, away from the frenzy of Sunday NFL play. The Rays, my favorite American League team, had done an amazing job of cutting the deficit from nine games behind the Boston Red Sox in the search for the American League wild card to tie them after taking the first two games of their series with the rival New York Yankees.

Early in the night, I had already gotten my two events on the evening: Palatka High's volleyball team had beaten Interlachen in four sets, and the Palatka High boys golf team took second in a three-team competition with Nease and St. Augustine at Ponte Vedra's Valley Golf Course.

That gave me plenty of time to finish up my end of the scoreboard page as we waited on the outcome of this Rays-Yankees game. And it didn't look good in the second inning when Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira sent a ball in orbit for a grand slam, giving the Yankees a 5-0 lead. He added another home run in the fourth and when Andruw Jones went yard in the fifth, the Yankees had a 7-0 lead.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the fifth inning and needed a win and a Rays loss to get the AL wild card.

Those scores would stay like that for a number of innings. I had already started thinking about a Red Sox-Rangers first-round series. It was about 11 o'clock, and normally at that hour, you start getting into the final stretch where the deadline is 12:30 a.m.

While that was all taking place in the American League, the National League picture had become clearer with the Philadelphia Phillies taking out the Atlanta Braves in 13 innings, 4-3, over an hour after the St. Louis Cardinals had shut out the woebegone Houston Astros, 8-0, to steal the National League wild card away from the frustrated Braves. My boss, a diehard Braves fan, was not too pleased by that outcome.

Now the game was in the bottom of the eighth. The Rays, who I grew to love as my AL team once I started covering games in that ballpark in 2007 and enjoyed conversations with their outgoing and knowledgeable manager Joe Maddon, still the best manager or coach I've ever interviewed in all these years, were down to their last six outs. It wasn't looking good still.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi had started Dellin Batances and had used six relievers by the time they got to Boone Logan. Johnny Damon singled and Ben Zobrist doubled him to third. Casey Kotchman was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Out goes Logan and in came Luis Ayala. He walks Sam Fuld to bring in Damon. It's 7-1. Sean Rodriguez is hit by a pitch, scoring Zobrist. It's 7-2.

And I'm wondering all the while, "Why the hell does Girardi not have Mariano Rivera up to pitch? The Rays still need this game to make the playoffs!"

But no Rivera. Ayala is still pitching. After a strikeout, B.J. Upton lofted a sacrifice fly to make it 7-3. There's two outs and runners on base for All-Star third baseman Evan Longoria. On the first pitch, I could hear the crack of the bat, look at the ball flying on TV over the fence and realize, "Oh my goodness ... it's 7-6!! Just like that!!"

At the same time this is going on, I turn back to ESPN to see the bottom of the ninth in the Red Sox-Orioles game. Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon is on the mound to close out the game and the Red Sox playoff berth. Adam Jones and Mark Reynolds strike out, leaving the Orioles down to one out left.

That brings up Chris Davis, the team's third baseman and a midseason acquisition from the Texas Rangers. Davis laces a double to right field.

There's something. Then No. 9 hitter Nolan Reimold takes one deep to right-center field that bounces over the fence for a ground-rule double to tie it up at 4-all. At the least now, there's extra innings after the blown save.

But it wasn't ending there -- leadoff hitter Robert Andino singled to left field just out of the reach of Carl Crawford. Reimold was waved home to the plate. Crawford -- who had signed a deal to leave Tampa Bay to play for the Red Sox -- fired to the plate, but he was not in time to cut down Reimold.

The Orioles had done it! They had done it for themselves and for the Rays. Now it was up to Tampa Bay to take care of business.

But down 7-6 in the bottom of the ninth, it wasn't feeling good. Still, where the hell is Mariano Rivera?!? He should be out there finishing this!!!

Cory Wade was the newest pitcher to come into the game for the Yankees to close out the game. He got Zobrist to pop out and Kotchman to ground out. There was one more obstacle in the way -- Dan Johnson. Three years earlier, he had come up in a pinch-hitting role against Boston and hit a September home run against Papelbon to help lead the Rays to the win and ultimately clinch their first American League East title.

Now he was being called on in a pinch-hitting duty to do something again. The count got to 2-2. Then Wade grooved one inside the strike zone. Johnson crushed it. It was only a matter of whether it would stay fair or not.

It did. Home run! Tie game!! Oh, my goodness, this really is happening!

An hour really goes by and nothing happens. It's now just after midnight -- 30 minutes before deadline -- and the game is in the bottom of the 12th inning. The Yankees were on their 11th pitcher of the game, Scott Proctor. He struck out Upton swinging, bringing up Longoria. He worked the count to 2-2. Somehow, I knew something was going to happen, whether it'd be a double, maybe a home run. I felt like it was "time" for something amazing to happen.

Sure enough, on the next pitch, it did.

When Longoria's bat met ball, I thought it was a line foul at first. But the way the ball was travelling,  a low line drive, I figured at best it would be a one-hopper off the wall. However, visiting that ball park a number of times, I always noticed that short cutout in the wall between left field and the left field foul pole. Never thought in a million years it'd come into play.

But when that ball disappeared over the fence on the right side of the foul pole, I ... literally ... lost ... it!

I'll never forget Dwayne Staats' call of that shot: "Two-two and a line shot down the left field liiiiiine ... THAT BALL IS GONE! AND THE RAYS WIN IT! A LINE DRIVE HOME RUN BY EVAN LONGORIA AND THE RAYS STORM THE FIELD!!"

"YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!! PLAYOFFS, BABY!!!"

They could have heard me in Crescent City and I didn't care. The Rays had pulled off the absolutely impossible and helped finish off one of the greatest collapses in Major League history. The Red Sox had a 99.4 percent chance of making the playoffs as of the beginning of the month. Now they were going to sit home and watch the playoffs as the Rays got the wild card.

All my Facebook friends who thought the Red Sox were a lock to make the playoffs went suddenly silent. For a long time, too.

It was a very good night to say the least. The Rays had ended what was an absolutely horrible start to my day. It made it worth getting through in the end. And something I won't ever forget in my life.

The next day after that, I took the car back to Enterprise, they drove me home, I met Troy, who drove me to one of our local auto supply stores to get a belt for $46. But he didn't have the tool to get the belt in. Thankfully, one of our Daily News carriers, Don, knew a lot about cars. He and his son would eventually come over on Saturday morning, October 1, to get that belt on because they had the tool that poor Troy didn't. And for my gratitude they got the problem fixed, I took both Don and his son to our local eatery, Angel's, for lunch because they asked that.

And Troy would be happy -- even though he was frustrated for not getting the car fixed, I was a man of my word and bought him an 18-pack of beer ... just like he asked. He did everything he could up until fixing it.

Unfortunately, my mom wouldn't do so well after I got her on the plane in New Jersey. She had a stroke in November 2011 and it was also figured out she had ongoing dementia, which would ultimately claim her life in February 2014.

For as long as I live, I will never forget that Wednesday when baseball ended its season without any football interference. To this day, many call it the greatest day of baseball ever.

I'd agree with that. After what I went through in the morning when I had one job to do and barely did it, it was well worth the ending.

How simple turned into anything but on one hour of sleep

Most nights at the Palatka Daily News are hectic. There's always something to do and rarely is a deadline reached before 11:30 at night. And even when you do get done early, there's a chore or two that has to be done after deadline. In my case, that chore is posting stories and pages to our Web site, something I've done for nearly a decade.

And quite honestly, it's a hindrance for usually, that leaves me out of the loop to accomplish anything the next morning. Sleep has been my never-ending battle. I could be done and home by 12:45 in the morning and I'd be too wound up to fall asleep for a few hours. I mean, c'mon ... how many people get home from their 9-5 job and go to sleep by 6? If you do, then you're just an unusual bird.

If I get home, it's normally between 1-2 in the morning and I'm not asleep until 5 and wake up somewhere between 10 a.m. and noon. And like I mentioned above, that causes issues if there's a morning event to be covered or a picture to be taken. Usually, I'm out and either my boss has to do it since he's up that early or we ask someone to get the results for us or email the picture themselves and I'll call later for them.

But during the summer when there's very little on the ol' local schedule, I have to bite the bullet on occasion. And that was the case on Saturday, July 20, 2013.

The normal Friday night routine taking place at work, my boss, Andy, and I got the paper done and out in plenty of time and from there, we went over next week, especially the fact he was taking that next week off for vacation. He gave me his camera to use for the event I was going to be at on Saturday morning. Not only was I going to shoot the Melrose 15-and-under Babe Ruth All-Star team's North Florida game earlier in the morning against Jacksonville Argyle, but if I was dissatisfied with the pictures, I could take pics of the game if Melrose won -- and that'd be a rematch with Tallahassee for the first championship in the double-elimination event. Earlier in the week, Tallahassee needed two late runs to beat Melrose, 2-1, forcing Melrose to fly through the losers' bracket winning game after game after game to get to this point again.

So he left and I was left at work to do my normal business with posting stories and pages on the Internet for our online readers to get access for, and then I headed out sometime around 2 in the morning to go home and get sleep.

At 3 in the morning, my goal was to get three hours of sleep, take a shower and head out the door by 7 to travel west for 76 miles on State Road-100 to get to Lake City where the tournament was held at a park I'd never been to before.

Couldn't fall asleep. Here we go.

Four o'clock. Nothing. Four-thirty. Still nothing.

Finally at 5 a.m., I put my head down and figured whatever happened happened.

I was up by 6. One hour of sleep. That was it. I wasn't jeopardizing my day. Beside, this could be a quick trip for me -- the kids from Melrose could lose that game with Argyle and before noon, I'd be on the road again heading back to Palatka and back to bed the rest of the day.

So I took my shower, packed the camera and my scorebook into the car and headed west on SR-100 for the looooooong trip through Keystone Heights, Starke, Lake Butler and every small, hole-in-the-wall town you can imagine in between until I finally reached the Southside Sports Complex. It's a huge complex with numerous baseball and softball fields. It was just a matter of finding the Melrose kids and the field they were playing on.

Once I recognized the white-topped Melrose team players, I was on my way to the field, going upstairs to copy down lineups for both teams which I normally do and then just head downstairs to take accounts of the game. For this game, I stayed close to the fence on the first-base side of home plate, capturing the events on both film and scorebook.

Argyle's Knights jumped out to a 4-1 lead and held it until the bottom of the sixth. Then Melrose made its comeback when, with the bases loaded, Jase Foshee beat out an infield hit, then a costly error by Argyle first baseman Brady Shuey plated two runs to tie the game at 4-4 going into the seventh.

Melrose executed a flyball double play and a popout got the team out of the seventh, setting up the bottom of the seventh. Austin Bass led off by being hit from a pitch from reliever Alex Newton, now in his fourth inning of relief. Darius Oliver singled him to second, so a rally was going on.

The rally looked squelched, though, when center fielder Will Pillsbury made a nice diving catch on a flyball by Tyler Thompson and Pillsbury doubled off Bass at second. But Hunter Davis singled Oliver to second and on an 0-2 pitch, No. 9 hitter Kele Blankenship lined a single to left field that sent Oliver home and Melrose to the 5-4 come-from-behind victory.

I got a couple of celebration shots (including the one above) and figured, I was good to go the rest of the day on pictures. I went back to my car and safely placed the camera in the trunk so no one would see it. It meant, though, I was going to have to stick around for a championship game, but one more game wasn't going to hurt me.

At least, that's what I said at 11:30 on this extremely warm morning. Oh, how I was going to be very, very wrong in the end as the temperatures soared into the low 90s.

Argyle, heads hung low, left the field as its summer came to an end, and onto the field came Tallahassee, which would occupy the first base dugout where I was sitting. Let's say their fans (consisting of moms, some dads, siblings, friends) were "warming up" their vocal chords. I would've gone upstairs in the press box, but I actually thought the sunshine wasn't such a bad thing (and for the record, I did have suntan on, so it wasn't going to be a day I'd regret).

In terms of league size, Tallahassee was three times bigger than Melrose, maybe four. The team from the state capital could draw from a large base since Tallahassee doesn't have a Little League and it's all Babe Ruth-based. Melrose is as far back in the woods in north-central Florida as you can get. Melrose has to draw from various communities -- Interlachen, Interlachen's surrounding small town communities, Keystone Heights and Starke. Interestingly, the town of Melrose is unique in it literally lies in four counties: Putnam, Clay, Alachua and Bradford. I couldn't imagine what it was like to build a government way, way, way back when.

Tallahassee was the favorite to win this game, but Melrose was not to be sold short. They had some guys on the team that could hit the ball a country mile, especially in the middle of the order in No. 3 hitter and left-hander Brett Sellers, also the team's best pitcher, and catcher Adam Kozlowski. Kyle McCole and Foshee were the table-setters at the top of the lineup and Oliver and Bass were nice contact hitters who kept the lineup line moving.

And if Melrose could get through this day with a victory, there was a good chance it may have a good arsenal of pitchers ready for Tallahassee the next morning. The drama just needed to unfold.

So at 11:51 on this Saturday morning, Tallahassee starter Russell Rauh threw a ball to McCole and the game was under way. On the next pitch, McCole singled to center field. Foshee popped out to catcher Bo Seccombe, bringing up Sellers. Sellers worked the count to 3-2 and then fouled the next pitch off to the backstop. He didn't miss that pitch by much.

He wasn't going to miss the next one at all.

Sellers launched a rocket that center fielder Carl Carlson slowed down from in mid-run. It landed about 20 feet over the center field fence and Melrose had a 2-0 lead.

Melrose manager Dale Yarbrough, a quiet man who let his assistant coach Patrick White do all the talking to me for the games leading up to this day, handed the ball to Foshee to get the job done and at least push the tournament into a Sunday winner-take-all matchup. He gave up a one-out single to Trevor McElroy and one out later, Seccombe hit a ground-rule double to put runners on second and third. But he got first baseman Anthony Milton to fly out to end the threat.

But the bottom of the second wasn't going to go so well. Seton Bentz led off with a double just inside the left-field line and the next batter, Merrick Zweydorff, doubled to right to bring him in. But Foshee got Rauh to foul out to him, then a comebacker off the bat of Chris Jerry caught Zweydorff off guard and he would be run at and tagged out by Foshee for the second out.

Looked like Foshee was going to get out of trouble all by himself. But he was only fooling himself as Carlson, the team's leadoff hitter, lofted a flyball to right field that Kozlowski, starting in right field, had difficulty finding. By the time he did locate it, the ball bounced off his glove and away from him for what would be a two-base error. And with Jerry running with two outs, he scored to tie the game at 2-2.

It was a foreshadowing of things to come.

McElroy grounded out and Melrose left the field disappointed, but still in a 2-2 tie.

In the top of the third, Foshee reached on a fielding error by second baseman Zweydorff with one out. Sellers was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Kozlowski struck out. But Oliver beat out an infield hit that did not kick into foul ground, staying fair and loading the bases for Bass. On Rauh's first pitch, Bass singled to left field. Foshee easily scored, but left fielder Seton Bentz launched a one-hopper that Seccombe grabbed and tagged out Sellers to end the inning, keeping Melrose ahead by just one run.

There was still a long way to go, but Foshee had seemed to right the ship. Then came the fourth. Zweydorff started the inning by reaching on an infield single. Rauh walked and Jerry sacrifice bunted the runners up a base. Carlson did the rest of the work by delivering a single to center field to bring in both runners and give Tallahassee a 4-3 lead.

And anytime any of the Tallahassee hitters did anything good, the mostly African-American contingent of women who sat around me started getting all Tag Team 1993 -- "Whoomp, there it is! Whoomp, there it is! Whoomp, there it is!" This would go on for a few more innings in regulation play. And, of course, anytime a Melrose player would do something, that would be answered on occasion by their fans going, "Whoomp, there it is! Whoomp, there it is!"

Was MTV Jams on shortly after the game or going on as we were playing? I wasn't prepared on this day to turn the clock back 20 years.

Anyhow, Foshee left Carlson stranded with a strikeout and popout to end the fourth.

Down 4-3 now going to the top of the fifth inning, Jerry came in to relieve Rauh, part of Tallahassee's plan to not go with any one pitcher a long amount of time just in case there was a second championship game and arms were needed on Sunday. But after Jerry got Sellers to groundout, Kozlowski launched a moonshot on a 2-1 delivery that Carlson went back for, but just missed reaching over the fence to take away what would be a home run.

Melrose showed resiliency to tie the game up and cue the fans chanting, "Whoomp, there it is! Whoomp, there it is!" right back at the Tallahassee fans, leaving some fans with a smile.

It was on. Yarbrough took Foshee out and put the big boy in ... yup, Sellers was asked to protect the tie until Melrose could scratch a run out and win it. But with two outs, Sellers got into trouble in the fifth when Bentz walked, stole second and moved to third on an infield single by Zweydorff, who would take second on fielder's indifference. But Sellers settled down to get reserve Glenn Davis out on strikes off a foul tip into the catcher's glove of Kozlowski, now behind the plate.

Thompson led off the top of the sixth against Jerry with a single and pinch-runner Hagan Masciale advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Hunter Davis. But Blankenship, the hero from the first game, flied out and McCole struck out to end the sixth.

Melrose had a good opportunity to go ahead in the seventh, putting runners on first and second with two out. But Bass hit a shot to third baseman Max McKinley, who snagged it and stepped on the base to end the inning.

It was now 1:55 in the afternoon, but for the past 25 minutes, dark clouds were beginning to make the sky ominous. And just as Tallahassee players grabbed bats to face Sellers in the bottom of the seventh, the skies opened up and thunder and lightning soon followed. I headed immediately up to the press box to wait things out there. The rain came down hard on the field ... and 50 minutes later, the field was left in a muddy quagmire.

The Lake City Babe Ruth personnel there were determined to get this game over and done with. Frankly, I wanted them to get the darn thing done -- I didn't want this game to finish here, go back to Palatka, come back the very next morning and play what would be half an inning. That wasn't on my mind of scenarios I wanted being played out. And with funds being tight, I wasn't wanting to entertain taking out a hotel room overnight. So if they could get this game rolling again, I'd be OK with the outcome, regardless of who won. I'd figure that part out much, much later.

So I asked an official from Lake City when he felt the game would start up again. He said most likely between 5 and 6 o'clock. That was fair. They needed the time to get the field done. So I headed up to US-90, the main road that slices through Lake City and found Gator's Dockside, a popular Florida restaurant chain. I sat down, ordered their nachos supreme and watched a little baseball on their television as I took my time eating.

After eating, I called back to the same official I talked to at 3:45 and he told me things were going slower than anyone thought. The game was more than likely going to kick back up closer to 5 p.m. From the comforts of my car, I turned on the motor, cranked the air conditioning as high as I could and closed my eyes in a lounged seat position. Problem is you can't get the full effect in a full parking lot where cars come and go. I stayed in that position for maybe a half an hour and by 4:40 p.m., I was on my way back to the complex.

As I arrived, they were still working feverishly to get the field done, so I went up in the air-conditioned press box where there was a couch behind the seats overlooking the field. Knowing my attempts at sleep were a failure in the car, I tried again on the couch as everyone was roaming about down on the field trying to get the field prettied up again to continue this game.

Meanwhile, just as I had found a comfort level to get some shut-eye, I can hear the back of the couch going, "Thump! Thump! Thump!" every few seconds. A couple of kids were using the couch as a backstop to throw a rubber ball back and forth. It was annoying, but I had no energy to tell them to stop. I was determined to keep my eyes closed on the couch, flip-flops next to the couch, for as long as I could until Lake City officials came back upstairs and prepared to pick up the game.

And then by 6:15 p.m. -- long past how I was going to spend at the complex in my head -- the game picked up again. By now, the lights were turned on over the field. And yet, this could all end in the bottom of the seventh. With two outs, Sellers, still allowed to pitch, walked Bentz, then committed a balk to move the runner into scoring position. I wasn't sure what the call was, but I had a feeling it had to do with delivery while Bentz was threatening to steal a base. Bentz would eventually steal third, putting the winning moment in the hands of Zweydorff, who was 3-for-3. Zweydorff fought off a 3-2 pitch to stay alive. But on the next pitch, he hit a ball squarely at McCole, who got the runner by a step to keep the game tied at 4-4 and into extra innings.

I was just hoping for a quick ending by now as 6:30 o'clock was approaching. And by now, up in the press box, I was so comfortable watching the game overhead that I didn't even think about returning back to field level.

With two outs in the top of the eighth inning against Zweydorff, who had now taken on the reliever duties, Blankenship singled. McCole walked, and this brought up Foshee, muzzled most of the game. On an 0-1 pitch, Foshee deposited a single to left field, but White knew his runners well enough to send them or slow them up. Blankenship, he felt, was not going to get home safely, so he held him up at third to load the bases.

After all, Sellers was coming to the plate. This young man was a game-changer both on the mound and at the plate. One swing could change the outcome. But Sellers got fooled on a 2-0 pitch and hit a harmless grounder that new second baseman Davis ate up and threw to first to end the threat.

Sellers had his way with Tallahassee's lineup in the eighth. In the ninth, he had to work out of a one-out, first-and-second jam. Tallahassee manager Brian Kelley put the hit-and-run on to end matters with the count at 2-2. Bentz fouled off three straight 2-2 pitches, but struck out on this next pitch and Kozlowski threw a strike to Bass at third to nail pinch-runner Jordan Ulee to end the inning.

The 10th and 11th innings provided no fireworks, so we moved to the 12th. McElroy, who had come in for Zweydorff in the 11th, stranded a runner on first, sending the game to the bottom of the 12th. Unfortunately for Melrose, Sellers was out of innings to pitch. He had eight going into the weekend and now every last one of them was eaten up because neither team could score a run. Sellers threw 130 pitches, allowed five hits in those eight shutout innings, walked two hitters, hit another and struck out eight.

He had done his job. Now it was up to others to pitch in. And slowly, reality was beginning to set in -- if this game was going to continue on at this rate, who would be available to pitch for Melrose on Sunday morning if they won? It seemed all the better pitchers Yarbrough and assistants White and Dan Duffy sent to the mound were exhausting all their innings in this one day between the Argyle and Tallahassee games.

The next option was McCole, another good pitcher with not quite the same overpowering stuff that Sellers had, but still good enough to keep batters off balance. He gave up a leadoff hit to Milton, but would get a flyout, a forceout and a groundout to end the 12th.

All I kept thinking in my head was, "End it now!" McCole had three innings left for his week of pitching.

McCole looked like he was going to make something happen in the top of the 13th when he walked to lead off. Foshee sacrificed him up to second, putting him in scoring positon for the big boys in the lineup. Sellers once again hammered a single to center field, but on one hop, Carlson got the ball and fired to the plate where White held McCole up at third. McElroy got a big out when he fanned Kozlowski for the second out.

It left things up to Oliver. The count got to 1-1 when McElroy threw a one-hopper past Seccombe. McCole made the quick decision to test out the battery and see if they would react to the wild pitch. Seccombe got to the ball and McElroy hustled to the plate. The retrieved ball, the runner and the pitcher all met at the same time. McCole slid in. McElroy slapped the tag on.

The umpire yelled, "Out!" But on a day in which he was spot on with his ball and strike calls, he missed it ... he missed it badly, too. From my overhead view of the play, McCole slid in to the plate under the tag. It was in my plain view. He missed it.

And that meant McCole had to go out there for the 13th. By now, I'm pretty sure he wasn't happy. And I'm very sure I wasn't happy.

"End this thing already! Someone!!! I don't care who now! Just someone ... end it!!"

McCole got a quick 1-2-3 bottom of the 13th and onward we went to the 14th.

After Bass had reached on a one-out error, he got stranded after a popout and a comebacker, bringing us to the bottom of the 14th ... and McCole's last inning he could throw. He got the first two outs of the inning, but Milton singled and Bentz walked, putting the winning run on second with two out. And up stepped Zweydorff again. He was 3-for-6 by now, and had the chance to be a hero and send Tallahassee to the North Florida title. But anxiously, he went after the first pitch and popped out to new second baseman Connor Osteen to end the inning.

The misery was continuing. It was now 8:30 p.m. and the 15th inning didn't go well for Melrose against McElroy, throwing his fifth inning of relief. Blankenship grounded out, McCole fouled out and Foshee flied out.

Onto the bottom of the 15th and yet another new pitcher. This time -- and out of desperation for arms -- it was Blankenship who got the call. He was, by far, just a "break glass in emergency" kind of pitcher. And now, he was being relied on to get his team to the unenjoyable 16th inning.

It didn't start well, though, as he walked Rauh, who was entered back into the game for this at-bat, on five pitches to start. Jerry put down a sacrifice bunt to move Rauh to second. The winning run was there, just two bases away again.

On the first pitch, though, Carlson popped out to Foshee, now playing shortstop. That brought up McElroy, the opposing pitcher, who was 2-for-7 at the point with three strikeouts. After a first-pitch ball, Blankenship put one just about letter-high to the left-handed hitting McElroy. He took it for a ride to right field.

Probably tired of the game by now, Kelley sent Rauh around third to come home, even as the ball came up true to right fielder McCole, who had been sent there after his three-inning stint, on a hop. McCole got the ball and fired a one-hopper to the plate where Kozlowski would grab the ball and make the tag on Rauh, who was somewhere between third base and the plate, nowhere near home plate!

The hop to Kozlowski was true. McCole could not have put the throw in a better place for Kozlowski to catch it.

And sadly, that was the problem ... Kozlowski completely whiffed on the catch! Missed it completely! Had the perfect bounce and blew it!

He would have had to have caught the ball and run maybe three or four steps back to the plate because he was a bit away from the plate ready to take the throw. But even with those three or four steps, he would have had Rauh out at the plate in plenty of time. That's how far away Rauh was from the plate.

It was heartbreaking. By the time the ball bounced behind Kozlowski and to the fence over by the Melrose dugout, Rauh was running toward the plate with no backup behind him because Blankenship was in the wrong spot. And as Rauh reached the plate, Kozlowski whipped his catcher's glove to the ground as hard as he could.

It was over in the most stunning and awful ways at 8:50 p.m., nearly nine hours after it started. The teams had combined to play 15 up-and-down, dramatic innings, throw 446 pitches combined with 25  hits and both teams each leaving 16 runners on base.

When handing out the trophies at the end of the game, host District 12 commissioner Joe DeColuccio said it was the most innings a state tournament final had ever been played and it was the most exciting game he had ever witnessed.

Kelly would tell me afterward it was the most amazing game he had ever been a part of. Meanwhile, Yarbrough, White and Duffy were still collecting their thoughts. White said the most prophetic words to me when I asked him had his team won, what they would have done about pitching the next day.

"We didn't know what we were going to do," he said. Then looking at me, he asked, "Could you have pitched?" I would have loved to have helped, but I think I ran out of eligibility 32 years earlier. My 46-year-old body just wouldn't have held up like I would hope it would.

White, though, expressed the honor it was to be part of a game with a team that draws from two other teams within the league, while Tallahassee draws from numerous high schools and has 13 teams within the league at that 15-and-under level. Sounds lopsided, but lopsided never measures heart. Those Melrose kids showed heart ... it just didn't have enough energy left to carry on to another day.

It was now 9 o'clock, probably nine hours longer than I anticipated staying at that Lake City complex. I didn't have to come back the next day now that Tallahassee had claimed the 5-4 victory. I must admit that whatever adrenaline I had left in me got me back home on SR-100 to Palatka. By the time I reached my quiet and empty apartment, I plopped down on my sofa and turned on my laptop to see what I missed on this particular day.

This was about 11:05 p.m. by now. The next thing I remember was waking up about 1 in the morning. I dragged myself to bed and slept until 1 the next afternoon. It was the 21st of July.

I could take my time doing anything I wanted. I didn't have work until Monday.

And amazingly, I could still remember everything that had taken place the day before.

It was a Saturday I won't soon ever forget for everything that took place on that field. I just wouldn't advise anyone to try doing any of what I did on one hour of sleep.

The last Lakewood OCT softball win

By 1991, the Ocean County Softball Tournament was being run by Lakewood head coach Dave McKelvey. McKelvey was the first person I met who ran this tournament that truly and undeniably cared about not just running a smooth event, but running one in which the players were the showcase and that everyone would play on the same field.

And he was so excited about this concept when he first came to me with it in 1989 that he wanted me to come on board as the "official statistician" for the event. You see, he was going to hand out not just a first-place and second-place team trophy and tournament Most Valuable Player, but he was also going to hand out new awards such as Top Hitter, Top Fielder and Top Pitcher, though the Top Pitcher honor was going to the pitcher who won the championship.

So for the third year running with me as the official "statistician," Dave and I ran things with the tournament. The tournament began on Saturday, May 11, and for the first time, another site was being used to run the first two rounds. Point Pleasant Boro High School softball coach John Natoli had wanted in, especially coming off an 18-6 season in 1990 and a Class C Division title. He thought it'd be a great showcase for his field to host the first two rounds. McKelvey agreed and it actually took some pressure off of him to run the whole tournament on his field because adult leagues were being played on that field, and though he had a major part of the adult league, he really didn't want to screw up that league's schedule.

On this particular Saturday, a very unusually cool and damp day near the ocean and canal, the tournament kicked off with four games. Twelve teams entered the tournament as Point Pleasant Beach, Manchester and Brick Memorial opted not to enter that year. And the Top 4 seeds of this particular year's event – No. 1 Toms River North, No. 2 seed Brick, No. 3 Toms River South and No. 4 Lacey – drew byes and didn't have to be at Point Boro for this day. On top of that, both No. 9 seed Toms River East and No. 8 Southern Regional had agreed to play the Monday after because coaches Dick Manzo of Southern and Joe Armino of Toms River East had a prior commitment that they wouldn't be able to get out of.

So on this particular afternoon and evening, there'd be three games. The first game was scheduled for noon between Pinelands, the No. 11 seed and coached by field hockey mentor Pam Boyd, against venerable No. 6 seed Central Regional, having an off-season for the program, but still competitive under coach Norm Selby. The Golden Eagles easily wiped out Pinelands in 4 1/2 innings, 14-3, to advance to the quarterfinals.

But because the game went by so quickly, Natoli and I had plenty of time between that game and the one at 5 p.m. between seventh-seeded Jackson Memorial and No. 10 seed Lakewood. With all that time and it's 1:30 in the afternoon, I remember packing up my stuff, heading back to Toms River, eating lunch my mom put in front of me (some sandwich, I can't even begin to tell you what it was) and by 3:15 p.m., I was on my way back to Point Pleasant Boro's field, which I got to just around 3:45 p.m. (I thank goodness it wasn't Memorial Day weekend yet!)

Jackson Memorial arrived early to take grounders and do any hitting practice. The field wasn't beaten up too badly after the first game, but the dampness may have begun to start affecting the way the ball was being held by anyone as the cloudy, yucky, grey skies were beginning to darken. Efficient as he would always be for the 20 years he ran the program, Jackson coach Al Aires told me where I could find his lineup card and assistant coach Gloria Calabro pointed to the spot to grab it.

By just after 4 p.m., Lakewood arrived. McKelvey was ready, but he had one little concern on this late afternoon – he was without his shortstop, arguably his best player on the team. Not only was senior Addie Dix a terrific softball player for Lakewood's Piners, she was also an even better bowler who in 1989 won the NJSIAA girls state championship in the sport at Carolier Lanes in North Brunswick as a sophomore. And on this particular Saturday, she was participating in a bowling tournament somewhere up in northern New Jersey.

Without Dix in his lineup to begin with because he knew up front she was going to be a little late, McKelvey had to maneuver players around. His standout center fielder, Jen Cranley, had to start at second base. His normal second baseman, Maryann Nalerio, had to move to shortstop. And Stacey Montgomery would have to patrol Cranley's territory of center field until Dix got there. Without question, McKelvey was antsy. So, too, was his longtime assistant coach, Bob Sattan.

Everything pointed toward a Jaguar rout. Everything. With Dix in the starting lineup, the Piners got creamed in two games this particular season, being no-hit in one game, 15-0, and getting hammered, 20-6, just three days prior! Three days! 

I had all but moved Jackson into the quarterfinal round, especially the fact the Jaguars were making a forward progress toward being one of the Shore's best teams by the end of the 1990s. For now, they were a team in training led by a strong top of the lineup featuring second baseman Michelle Schenck, first baseman Michelle Nikolayew, third baseman Kerri Sherman and center fielder and main power hitter Brenda Letts. Their main pitcher was senior Andrea Fitzgerald, who got the start in this one.

Even if Dix gets to the game, how bad is the deficit going to be? We were going to find out as the Piners took their swings in the top of the first inning, the lights switched on by now.

Alicia Intramasso, the Piners' first baseman and No. 3 hitter, singled and advanced to second on an error by right fielder Rose Esposito. An error on a Vassone Barrett groundball by Schenck put runners on first and third. But Fitzgerald induced catcher Jessica Forse into ... naturally ... a forceout to end the inning.

So it didn't turn out well, the top of the first. How would the bottom of the first go for the Piners in the field.

Well, turns out not so well.

Montgomery swallowed up Schenck's flyball. But on a 1-0 delivery from pitcher Jen Zerbe, Nikolayew hammered a shot to left field. It found the gap on this big field and kept rolling and rolling and rolling. By the time the ball got back to the infield, Nikolayew had smacked an inside-the-park home run, her first career OCT four-bagger. Just like that, 1-0.

I can see McKelvey encouraging his Piners to settle down and just get the last two outs of the inning. They weren't going to be easy, though. Sherman delivered a double. A wild pitch moved her up to third and Letts smashed a single to center to make it 2-0. Fitzgerald reached on a single and a bunt single by Kathy Murphy loaded the bases.

This makeshift Piners lineup was starting to feel like it was deja vu all over again versus these better Jaguars. Zerbe settled down to strike Esposito for the second out. But Jaguars catcher Michelle Anton singled to right. Two runners came home and it was 4-0.

Up stepped No. 9 hitter Lisa McCloud. On a 1-1 pitch, Zerbe uncorked a wild pitch to the backstop. Now keep in mind that the Point Boro backstop is not very big from plate to fence. But somehow, Murphy, who was on third, didn't quite get the message. Forse hunted the ball down and fired to Zerbe at the plate to nail Murphy and end the inning.

Somehow, that painful mistake by Murphy took the Piners off the hook and the Jaguars walked away with a 4-0 lead after the first. Still, down 4-0 isn't all that warm and fuzzy to anyone, especially these undermanned Piners, who must have been looking in the parking lot behind them on the third-base side of the field every few minutes hoping that their shortstop and leader would be joining them.

Though right fielder Missy Zielinski reached on a walk, two popouts, and a forceout ended the inning without anything happening.

But as the half-inning came to an end, out of a car in the parking lot popped an African-American girl with glasses on and donning a Piner uniform. I knew who it was from a distance.

Addie Dix had finally arrived. And as soon as she got her cleats on and found her way to the Piner bench, McKelvey was coming out to tell the umpire that he had some changes. Back to center field went Cranley. Back to second base went Nalerio. And replacing Montgomery in the lineup in the ninth slot, but now at her normal shortstop position, was Dix, taking groundballs before the bottom of the second and having to just "go with it" from there.

And wouldn't you know it – the very first batter up, McCloud, hit a grounder right at Dix, who fielded it and threw a groundball that skipped past Intromasso and out of play since there was no fence beyond the first-base bench. McCloud took second. A wild pitch would move McCloud to third.

Welcome to the game, Addie!

Zerbe got Schenck to pop out to Intromasso for the first out. But that brought up Nikolayew and after that first at-bat, Zerbe wanted nothing to do with the Jaguars' most talented player. She put her on base. It was obvious that the Jaguars were going to try a double steal and Nikolayew took off for second, right on cue. But Forse fired the ball that Zerbe cut off and for a split second, this caught McCloud off guard. She stepped toward heading home, and a perfect throw to third baseman Kim Estelle by the pitcher nailed her for the second out.

Between the Murphy and Estelle gaffes, the Piners were staying in this one. Sherman walked, but Letts flied out to Zielinski to end the inning.

The third inning began uneventful as Cranley grounded out to first baseman Nikolayew.

But Nalerio delivered a single to get aboard. Intromasso hit a groundball that shortstop Jeana Hansen muffed and runners were on first and second. Barrett was hit by a pitch and the bases were suddenly loaded with one out. Forse hit a grounder that ate up Hansen for yet another error, allowing Nalerio to score. Zielinski hit into a forceout at second, allowing Intromasso to score, making it 4-2. Estelle was hit by a pitch to load the bases again, but Zerbe hit a forceout that Schenck made the play on.

The Piners had cut into the lead and were feeling much better about things down 4-2. They had their best player back and now they were starting to answer the bell. Zerbe was also gaining important confidence a starting pitcher normally needs. She got flyouts to Barrett and Cranley and a strikeout swinging by Esposito for the second time to keep it at 4-2 going to the fourth.

Dix was to get her first at-bat of the game and she lined a single on a 1-0 pitch from Fitzgerald into left field to get things going. When Murphy flubbed getting the ball for an error, Dix moved up to second.

The spark had been lit and the top of the lineup was now next with Cranely. Dix would move to third on a wild pitch and Cranley would eventually walk on a 3-1 pitch. Cranley would steal second, but Hansen would try to pick Dix off third. The ball got away and out of play, allowing Dix to score and Cranley to move up to third, making it 4-3. Nalerio lofted a sacrifice fly to Letts in center, deep enough to score the senior Cranley to tie it up at 4-4.

It was a new game and suddenly, the Lakewood Piners had all sorts of confidence going for them. In the fourth, Zerbe got a popout and a groundout before Schenck walked, bringing up Nikolayew again. She hit the first offering from Zerbe on the screws, but right at Dix, who flipped to Nalerio at second to end the inning.

The Jaguar bench was next to me and I can suddenly see the concern. This wasn't supposed to happen at all. They had scored 35 runs in two games against the Piners, yet after four innings, they had four. Maybe they were hoping for a late surge. But looking on Aires' face told me he sensed something wasn't right with his team on this dreary day.

In the fifth inning, the Piners began to get to Fitzgerald as if they were chopping down a tree. An error by Nikolayew off a Force grounder got the inning started. A Zielinski forceout at second put her on base with one out. A groundball by Estelle had the Jaguars trying to get Zielinski at second for a force, but they were late in the attempt. Zerbe lined out to Nikolayew for the second out, but now it was Dix at the plate. She walked on four pitches to load the bases for Cranley.

The most unheralded talent on this Piner team, Cranley worked out a walk to force home Zielinski, making it 5-4 in favor of the Piners. That brought up Nalero. On a 1-2 delivery, she hammered a shot to right-center field for a single. Estelle scored easily and McKelvey sent Dix home behind her to make it 7-4. Intromasso followed with a single to center to bring home Cranley from second.

What once was a 4-0 deficit now was an 8-4 lead going to the bottom of the fifth after Barnett lined out to Hansen.

The Jaguars found a little bit of what they did in the first inning. With one out, Letts singled, followed by another single by Fitzgerald and a sacrifice bunt by Murphy gone awry when Zerbe threw the ball away for an error, allowing Letts to score and moving the other runners up into scoring position.

Already a strikeout victim twice, Aires had Esposito, a very good bunter, put down a squeeze bunt that scored Fitzgerald and moved Murphy to third. Anton took a 1-0 offering from Zerbe for a ride, but Cranley could cover a lot of area out in center field and she tracked the ball down to end the threat and keep it an 8-6 game.

McKelvey was still concerned. Though Zielinski reached on another Jaguars error and moved to second on a wild pitch, she was left stranded there by two flyball outs that ended the inning. The Jaguars were bringing up McCloud, then Schenck and Nikolayew. Zerbe had to hold the fort down and up 8-6, it was tenuous on how much this lead was going to hold.

Zerbe, though, handled it well at the start. She struck out McCloud and got Schenck to ground out to Estelle. She walked Nikolayew, though, and a wild pitch put her on second base with two outs.

This brought up Sherman. On a 3-2 pitch, she lined a single to left. Barrett got the ball and fired the ball back to the infield. Nikolayew scored easily, and they had Sherman dead to rights out trying to get to second. However, Zerbe's throw sailed by Nalerio and into right-center field.

This was a disaster. I can feel it.

Sherman got up from her slide and headed to third and now Aires was waving her home to tie the game. But on the play, Cranley was alert to rush over to collect the ball as soon as it took off out of Zerbe's hand. She set herself up and fired a one-hop strike to the plate. Just as Forse was getting the ball from Cranley, Sherman was pile-driving into Forse at the plate in a bang-bang collision.

Sprawled out, Forse showed the home-plate umpire the ball and called Sherman out. The collision was simply unavoidable. Forse had most of the plate and was in Sherman's way.

Nonetheless, Cranley and Forse had saved the day for the Piners, keeping it an 8-7 game going to the seventh.

Unhappy with how she threw a good amount of the day, Aires replaced Fitzgerald with Jen Burke in the circle to start the seventh. Fitzgerald went out to left field, Murphy went in to play first and Nikolayew, who was to be the full-time shortstop in the 1992 season, moved over to short.

And just like the fourth inning, it would be No. 9 hitter Dix starting the seventh inning. She roped a single to left field to begin it. Dix stole second and Cranley walked. Up stepped Nalero. She singled to left field, her third hit of the game, to bring in Dix from second, making it 9-7 and giving the Piners a little breathing room.

It didn't stop there, though. An Intromasso fielder's choice loaded the bases and an error by Nikolayew off a Barrett grounder scored Cranley, making it 10-7. Forse walked to force home Nalerio. One out later, pinch-hitter Venus Hunter, a big-sized freshman, smashed a single to left to score Intromasso. And an error by Sherman plated Barrett.

By the time the inning ended, Lakewood had plated five runs on three hits, helped by two errors and sent 11 batters to the plate.

The competitive phase of this Ocean County Tournament game was all but over. Though Aires kept trying to get the girls up, you could see they were too shell-shocked by what happened to them on this afternoon. Zerbe got Letts to fly out to Cranley, gave up a single to Fitzgerald, then got another flyout to Cranley off Murphy's bat. She struck out Esposito for the third time, this time looking, to finish out a 13-7 triumph that no one saw.

Not me. Not anyone smart enough to know the county softball scene. Not Jackson people. Maybe not even some Lakewood doubters.

But there they were, the Piners celebrating the win, moving on to the quarterfinals for the first time since beating Brick Memorial in a 1988 first-round game.

McKelvey, a soft-spoken man for the most part who eventually handed over the reins of the OCT to myself and new Point Boro coach Ric Malta the next year, told me after the victory, "After the first inning, I thought, 'Oh, here we go again.' But they hung in tough."

You could have heard a pin drop after the game on the Jackson Memorial side. Not only did the Jaguars lose, they lost to a team they practically owned all season long. And a sullen-looking Aires walked toward me as he headed on the bus back to the school as afternoon became evening. The 10 errors his team made on this day drained him in all facets.

"Just not our day," he told me. "Lakewood deserves credit for hitting the ball, but simply not our day. We'll learn from this."

Starting in 1992, Jackson Memorial would be a semifinalist in the OCT every year through 2000, making the finals in 1993, '95, '96, '98 and '99 and winning it all in '96 and '99.

This game was simply a lesson in humility. The Jaguars had overall better talent on paper than the Piners, but they don't play games on paper.

The next game after the Lakewood-Jackson game was the host Panthers against No. 12 seed Monsignor Donovan and the Panthers treated the Griffins like they stole something, whipping them, 15-0.

A week later back on the Point Boro field on an even drearier afternoon and night, Lakewood could do nothing against Brick fireballer Viki Kara, who struck out 10 and held the Piners to three hits in a 10-3 triumph. Cranley could get nothing going, finishing 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and Dix, back in the No. 2 slot in the lineup, had a hit and a run in three trips to the plate. Nalerio, who had three hits in the win over Jackson, was 0-for-4 with an RBI.

Little did anyone know that would be the last time Lakewood High would play in an OCT quarterfinal-round game, at least not for the next 25 years. Softball had pretty much been wiped off the map of competitive sports at LHS after Dix and Cranley had graduated. Every year, no matter if it was McKelvey, who coached the program three more years before retiring, or anyone else who took over after, it was a struggle since there was absolutely, positively no feeder program to ever make Lakewood better at softball.

So that's a major reason why that game in 1991 was historic, both for good and bad reasons.

The scorebook I used that day has yellowed a bit over the years ... and it was done in pencil. I don't do games in pencil anymore! That's how long ago this game was.

It was a small and wonderful moment in time for the Lakewood Piners softball players and coaches.

Maybe their last for over a generation.

The team with the target takes the SCT title

The Toms River High School East girls soccer team was in another orbit by the first week of June 1985.

The Raiders were fresh off proving they were Ocean County's best club after holding back equally talented Monsignor Donovan in a Shore Conference Tournament semifinal by a 3-2 score that wasn't as close as that score indicated.

The Raiders were 16-1-1, the tie coming in the fifth game of the season against Toms River South, 1-1, the loss coming in early May to Toms River North, 2-1, the winning goal in that one a rocket launcher by Barbara Hedrick for what would be her only goal of the season that Raiders coach Ed Polhemus believed should have been stopped.

So on the phone that night after he reported his loss, Polhemus had made this one promise:

"Nancy Hearne is going to go back into goal," he said. "We're not going to let this happen again."

I've never told that story before in over 30 years since that fateful night. What I heard on the phone was a very low-keyed, soft-spoken man who obviously was stung by a North team that was good that year (10-6), but couldn't be better than his Raiders.

There was quite a lot of pressure on the Raiders that spring, my first as a sports reporting correspondent at the Observer. The Raiders were Ocean County's best team in 1984, winning the last county championship game on a sweltering, warm night at North against Donovan, 3-0, spoiling Donovan's attempt at an unbeaten season.

More importantly, most of the players on Polhemus' squad were returning for the 1985 season, including young ladies I grew up around in my life as I graduated from East just the year before, around-the-corner neighbor Denice McKenna, her buddy Karen Carlisle and Hearne, who was the All-County goalie on the Observer team in 1984. But as the season began, Polhemus believed his team would be much better if they moved Hearne onto the field to play defense. This really cool girl I knew in high school was a soccer talent, regardless of where Polhemus put her on the field.

Hearne was surrounded by defenders who were equally talented in what they did -- midfielder McKenna, stopper Sue Lauterborn, fullback Barbara Applegate and tall sweeper Leda Fenton, a smooth-working junior who by the end of the year became the most dominant defensive player in the county.

Their job was to make a younger, first-year goalkeeper feel comfortable and let her grow in the position. And it was working because East's defense had surrendered just six goals in 10 games in building a 9-0-1 record.

But then came the night of the North game. Two goals slipped past the goalie that should've been stopped.

End of experiment. Hearne back in the goal. Michele Adamkowski, who had a role in the defense most of the season, got moved into the main defender position to work with Applegate, who was on the other side defender spot. Polhemus had trusted his defense enough that he could make this move, but in the process, he alienated a young lady who never played soccer for him again.

The Raiders bounced back from the loss to North with wins over Shore Regional and Southern Regional, then stopped South in the rematch, 3-1, before pulling out a 2-1, double-overtime victory over Brick Memorial.

They had their hiccup and moved along. The Raiders were given the top seed for the inaugural Shore Conference Tournament in the third week of May. At 13-1-1, they looked tough to stop and right as the favorite. But unlike most coaches who downplay being the target everyone is shooting for, Polhemus was a far different cat than that.

He actually brought it on! "The only team that can beat us is ourselves," he would tell me once that season.

The man wasn't lacking for confidence. Ed Polhemus was way different than anyone else coaching the sport. When I'd throw that line out to other girls soccer coaches, I'd get a variety of responses, from rolled eyes to head shakes to pregnant pauses, followed by, "OK, if he says so."

So with targets on their backs and fronts, East went out in its opening game of the tournament at home at its then-home of Shelter Cove Park and put on a methodical display of precision soccer in a 2-0 victory over No. 16 seed  Point Pleasant Beach. About the only thing the Raiders didn't do was put the ball in the back of the net, but two goals worked on this day.

The next game would be Tuesday, May 28, at Shelter Cove Park again versus No. 9 seed Jackson Memorial, led by two talented All-County seniors in midfielders Sue Leahy and April Williams. Their coach was Mike Costa, who couldn't have cared less about Polhemus' quiet bluster -- he actually liked Polhemus, though his Jaguars were maybe the most physical of any in the Class A South opponents that East played in. The score this time was, like the last game, 2-0, but the Raiders had to work a little harder for this one as Hearne made a couple of key saves in the game to keep the Jaguars off the scoreboard.

With half the mission done, the next stop was the semifinal matchup with Donovan and its talented senior class that included leading scorer Stephanie Harmon, midfielder Barbara Callaghan, defender Barbara Indiero and goalie Maureen McShea. East built a 3-0 lead into the fourth quarter until a couple of mistakes led to two penalty kicks that freshman Liz Rehak converted into goals. Still, Donovan could not get the equalizer and East got off its field with a 3-2 victory.

So knocking off the fifth-seeded Griffins after knocking down No. 9 Jackson Memorial should have been a step closer to coronation as Shore queens, especially when the other side of the 16-team bracket saw upsets happen to No. 2 seed Wall and No. 3 seed Middletown North. In the end, the opponent for East's finale would be ... coach Gene Tutzauer's No. 11 seed Freehold Township Patriots, which upset its way to the finale.

Tutzauer was not only as down to earth a coach as you will ever meet, but he was throwing a deaf ear at Polhemus, who still was boasting about not only his own team's place in the Shore, but in the state, too, stating that if everyone played at the same time, he'd be an NJSIAA Group IV champion.

Tutzauer had three players that helped run the engine to this point in the tournament. Two of them were up front in forwards Irene Harth and Joyce Flood. The other was the "game-changer," another senior standout in Ami Scheinberg, her presence coming to the forefront throughout the tournament. Like Polhemus, Tutzauer had a quiet confidence going in, relishing the fact no one gave his team a chance against mighty, mighty East.

I knew this would be a great matchup, regardless of the seeds. And so that night, I had the choice of covering either this game or the Toms River South-Lakewood Ocean County Softball Tournament title game. Actually, my boss made the decision easier by sending me to the SCT soccer final because by this point, I could be trusted to turn a story around quickly. And I knew my target after the game to do all this was at the local Pizza Hut on Route 35 in Wall Township, not far from where I was going for the first time in my career as a journalist -- Wall Township High School, the designated site for the championship.

And so I was in "comfortable" garb for a 65-degree night on Tuesday, June 4, 1985. I arrived without much of a problem (the directions to the school were made easy by the wonderful dispatcher for the Wall Township police department). I can still see the outfit I wore in my head: A sleeveless, 1980s style white shirt with a button-up collar that Rick Springfield would be  proud of and a pair of blue OP-made rippled shorts, wearing socks and basketball sneakers.

Yes, I was comfortable. The area around Wall High's soccer/football field is extremely tight and allows little walking room between the field and the fence, so if anything, I was going to have to walk around benches and players, not that they cared at that point, for the entire game.

I asked Polhemus and assistant coach Rob Czarniewski how they were doing. Polhemus shrugged his shoulders and had an answer that resembled something out of, "It's up to them now."

These Raiders weren't just about defense. Yes, their defense was great, but they did score goals, led by Carlisle's 12 goals. After that, a whole bunch of Raiders followed in scoring: Linda Anderson was the next highest-scoring goal scorer with seven, followed by sophomore Stacy Komisar at five goals, Fenton and Bonnie Krall with four goals and four others -- Adamkowski, Lauterborn, McKenna and Applegate -- with three.

In other words, pick your poison on who was going to bury you for that game. Polhemus had so many options to go to and none of them were afraid to contribute. Defense, though, was the No. 1 priority with Polhemus, so that may be why the leading scorer on the team had 12 goals.

Viewing Freehold Township on the other side, I could see Tutzauer with arms folded watching his girls and watching him watch Scheinberg go through a regimen of hard shots that she was getting her hands on. From viewing that, I had a premonition she was set for anything East threw her way.

Mere moments into the game in front of a nice-sized crowd, East collected a corner kick. So not far from where Anderson was standing, I watched her take the kick into the box, a well-placed boot I might add. Out of nowhere came 5-foot-10 Fenton from her sweeper role to put a head on the ball ... lightning fast all this was happening, too.

Scheinberg didn't have a chance. But she was bailed out -- the ball hit the bottom of the crossbar and bounced back to the goalkeeper before anyone else could get a foot on the ball. I saw Fenton with strong defensive ability, but not with that kind of offensive threat in her.

It was just three minutes into the game and East was already going at it. And East didn't stop. Fifteen minutes of this was becoming too much for Scheinberg and her teammates. And at 15:22, the Raiders finally got to the goalie. Anderson fired another corner kick toward the edge of the box where McKenna got it and flicked a shot onto the goal. Both Komisar and Krall got to the ball near each other and got it past Scheinberg from a short distance with the help of a Patriots defender's body deflecting it, not making it easier for the Freehold goalie. Komisar was credited with the goal and the Raiders had the 1-0 lead.

Freehold Township put some pressure on East's defense as the second quarter of the game arrived. But each time the Patriots had something, East's defense would have an answer. And when East's defense sent the ball down the other end, it was the quick sophomore pair of Komisar and Krall who would pick the ball up and give East's defense a rest.

And when it looked as if East might put the game away, there was Scheinberg shining in her final game as Patriots goalie to knock away potential game-breaking goals. With 6:22 to go before halftime, Scheinberg was tested again, this time by Carolyn Anderson, another of East's pesky, fast forwards. She beat the defender on her and found herself one-on-one with Scheinberg. Scheinberg came out to get the ball before Anderson could make a kick and the two collided.

Anderson came out of it OK, but Scheinberg didn't. She laid on that Wall field for a good three minutes, the stadium getting silent watching carefully Wall's trainer and Tutzauer tended to the goalkeeper. Finally, she stood up and walked off the field, a bit dazed. After a minute or so, though, she would come back into the game for the backup keeper.

The game got to halftime and while Scheinberg seemed to be better, East went into its huddle looking confident, feeling like it was "business as usual." Polhemus knew to expect a tough game from this gutty bunch, so to him, it was just popping in a few more goals.

But after halftime, Freehold Township came out rejuvenated and began getting the better of the play from an East team that looked like it still hadn't come out of the halftime ceremonies that saw both Red Bank Catholic (Monmouth County) and Lacey (Ocean County) receive their Sportsmanship of the Year honors from the Jersey Shore Soccer Officials Association.

And just outside of East's box, Harth let loose with a rocket launcher from 22 yards -- a shot that still was taking off with mighty force toward the bottom of the crossbar. This was the goal that was about to tie the game and turn this first-ever SCT final around, only two minutes into the second half.

However, that may have happened with East's former goalie. Nancy Hearne was in goal and she put every ounce of her 5-7 body into reaching as high as she could and knocking the game-tying goal over the crossbar with her right hand and out of danger.

This was the play of the game. This is why Ed Polhemus felt the need that a change in goal with a more established netminder was important. Period. By the end of the night, the outgoing, brown-eyed young lady finished with 10 saves, that stop of Harth easily the biggest save of the night.

Freehold Township didn't give in, though. The Patriots' offense continued to put pressure on the Raider defense, mainly due to the fast front it had. But once again, East's defense was up to the task, protecting Hearne and the goal like it was Fort Knox.

Said Tutzauer after the game to me, "When I saw the goal scored, I knew East's defense was coming. They're one of the best we've seen all year. We had opportunities, but they did the job on us."

The Patriots put one more effort into cracking East's defense with minutes to go as a ball got sent into the box, but Fenton kicked it out of trouble. Another attempt and Applegate, having to deal with Harth most of the game, got the ball out of trouble.

Wash, rinse, repeat. That was East's defense on this evening.

Scheinberg was at her absolute best with 15 saves, proving she was Monmouth County's best goalie. Her effort would have helped lead to a Freehold Township title that night.

But not against East's ferocious defense and "tenacious sharks" as Polhemus would call his offense. The final whistle sounded and East had the first-ever Shore Conference Tournament championship, 1-0, capping a second straight 17-1-1 season, proving they were the Shore's best.

Still sounding assured and confident and not raising his voice a whole lot, Polhemus would say after the game, "I'm happy with my team's performance. All season long, I've been stressing team play and I'm happy about that. They were all tenacious sharks."

Fenton was all smiles. So was Adamkowski. Most of East's team was. I was happiest for McKenna, Carlisle and Hearne, the three girls I knew from my friendship with the McKenna family and with Denice. Everyone should walk away a champion in their final game, but unless you win that last game, most notably a championship, that is never going to happen in life.

The night got cooler as the game went on and my bare shoulders and legs were starting to feel it. So after it was over, I walked off the field, into the parking lot and pulled away in my 1973 Chevy Chevelle and back onto Route 35 and toward the Pizza Hut. As I ate my dinner of spaghetti and meatballs that night, I began to write my story in the notebook I carried for the game. It was a characteristic of mine to jot a story down from start to finish when I was on the road and I either couldn't get back to the office in time to write the story or just say silently, "I am sooooo not going back to the office." To this day, I still have that notebook and the five pages inside of it that entailed the story.

Long before we had the Radio Shack Tandys that would make writing and sending stories so much easier, I had to call collect off something that seems foreign today -- a pay phone. Once they knew it was from me and accepted, I told my boss East won, then he handed me over to Chris, our main sports writer who was a speed demon at taking dictation, something I learned to do with relative ease within due time.

I read Chris my story verbatim and whatever he did in editing was minor. The process took about 20 minutes to do, then he asked the boss if there was anything else that was needed for which he said there wasn't. I finished what I was doing and left the Pizza Hut at around 11:15 p.m.

The ride back to Toms River on Route 35, then Route 70 and Hooper Avenue took about 25 minutes and I was home. Now knowing my neighbors, the McKennas, very, very, very well, I figured once I parked the car on the street like I normally did, I could walk through the passageway between my home and their home, past their basketball court in their backyard and to the house and sure as night is dark there'd be some kind of party going on there. The McKenna house was a hub for that.

The professional side of this 18-year-old didn't want to do it, but hey, I was off work. I didn't care at that point. As I went further into that backyard, I could hear the noise like a party was going on. And there it was -- a party! I saw Flo, the McKenna matriarch and head of the household there, smiling face and inviting me in. I walked around the house and saw plenty of East soccer girls celebrating the title. I won't go further into the details, other than it was a very good time for all who came to visit.

As I walked around, I got near the front door and there was Stacy Komisar and Bonnie Krall, who lived across the street from the McKennas. I congratulated Komisar on the goal and the first thing she said to me, "I didn't score. She scored it." She was pointing to Krall, the baby of four sisters in her family. Then she explained that she was closer to the ball and had gotten to it first. Maybe I was obscured of the view, but everyone on the East side seemed to be convinced it was Komisar's goal off the McKenna assist.

For the record, though, these last 30 or so years, Stacy Komisar is credited with scoring the first-ever SCT girls soccer championship game goal ... even if she says Bonnie Krall did it.

After about a half hour, I headed back through the woods and finally into my house where mom wondered where I went to.

"East won. McKennas holding a party. I stopped in."

That was pretty much it.

East had a lot of representatives on the All-County team that year, but the one who should have been on that team was Nancy Hearne. But she wasn't the best defensive player when on the field. Players like Sue Lauterborn and, of course, Denice McKenna and Leda Fenton, were better and honored. And as for the whole goalie thing for All-County, I went with Lacey's up-and-coming star Juliann Schlossareck, who had played the whole season in net and was part of an unbeaten Lacey team until the Lions were knocked out by Donovan in the SCT quarterfinals.

Nancy Hearne was the kind of player you wanted on your soccer team, no matter where you put her. I'm sure she could have thrived as a forward. Problem is she wasn't outstanding in any of the field positions and the one place she was outstanding she didn't even play half the season there.

Everytime I saw her after the team came out, I felt bad. I really did. This beautiful yound lady no more than 10 months younger than me deserved praise and I couldn't give it to her. I saw Nancy Hearne last at Freehold Mall in 1987 while I was doing a chore. Hope she's doing OK.

Those East Raiders of 1985 were a fun team that had a huge target on its back and front thanks to the coach who was so self-assured he had the best team in the Shore.

They came through with flying colors -- flying sky high.

The moment of (SJ IV) truth for Kathy Snyder

When you lose championship games three previous times, you're always searching for an answer as to why those things happened and how can things be better if we get back to that point again.

The first thing Kathy Snyder did was not agree to play the NJSIAA South Jersey Group IV girls basketball championship game against Toms River North in a much closer venue for both North and her Southern Regional High School Rams. That, she said, was a mistake the year before when she agreed to the game much closer in Toms River at High School East.

"By playing the game in Toms River, we got every fan to come and pad the spectator numbers for Toms River North," she started. "So this time, we'll play the game in Rancocas Valley and keep it there."

Rancocas Valley was in the small town of Mount Holly out in western New Jersey, somewhere between Camden and Trenton. It's nowhere near the Jersey Shore, but it was a familiar court to Kathy Snyder -- she had lost on this court two years earlier against Washington Township High School. That loss didn't bother her that much -- Washington Township rallied from a 25-17 halftime deficit and won the game. The Minutemen were a better team and found a way to break Snyder's suffocating defensive pressure and time-consuming possessions.

This time around, Snyder's Southern Rams were better than coach Ray Cervino's Toms River North Mariners. But it was the Mariners who were defending the SJ IV championship from a year earlier when they, like Washington Township the year before them, overcame a 15-9 halftime deficit to quadruple their point output in the second half and get fans from basketball crazy Toms River fired up en route to a 45-30 victory, giving Cervino his first South Jersey title in 16 years as a head coach.

This time around, the Rams were the favored team to win the SJ IV title ... but they needed North's help to make it such a scenario after North stunned top-seeded Shawnee, 64-60, in the SJ IV semifinal round. So for the second straight year, the SJ IV championship was an all-Ocean County affair between the two best teams in the sport.

Southern and North was such a rivalry that one would call "perfect." I know, I know ... you've heard that one before, but think about this: How many so-called "rivalries" are played as fiercely on the court or on the field by two competitive teams, but at the end of the day, they could put those differences between the lines aside and be respectful and friendly with one another?

That was North-Southern girls basketball. Only the boys soccer rivalry between Crescent City and Pierson Taylor, two schools 15 miles apart in distance, have that similar and better a rivalry in all my years in the business.

The two head coaches -- Snyder and Cervino -- weren't just successful basketball coaches, but were also very good friends off of it. Cervino told me once how much he respected Snyder by getting beaten often by Snyder in the beginning of their rivalry. You see, he and his Mariners lost their first 13 games to Snyder-coached Southern teams before finally getting the best of her with a season sweep of the Rams in the 1988-89 season. Then the Mariners did it again in the 1989-90 season behind the play of Cervino's daughter, point guard Nicole Cervino, and center Heidi Vandenburg.

From the 1990-91 season on, North held an 8-6 lead in the series between Shore Conference Class A South rivals, which included a pair of memorable South Jersey Group IV matchups. Beside the '96 SJ IV title game, there was an even more memorable SJ IV quarterfinal round game at Southern where the Rams trailed 39-36 with mere seconds left in the game when freshman center Candice McCallum stepped out behind the 3-point line, fired a shot while being knocked to the floor by North center Dana Simonelli and swishing the shot. Off the foul, McCallum hit the free throw with four seconds to go and Southern won the dramatic matchup, 40-39, with Snyder jumping on the court not even a second after the clock expired and hugging her freshman star in the making.

This was one of the most intense rivalries I've ever covered in scholastic sports.

During the 1996-97 season, the teams split a pair of Class A South games with North catching Southern flat-footed and on an off night in a 47-42 victory. That was on December 23. On January 24, 1997, the tables had turned dramatically as Southern flattened North, 47-21, using its trademark suffocating defense on leading scorer Melissa Fazio, holding her to four points.

Southern's world lived and breathed around both its defense and 6-foot-2 center McCallum, a four-year varsity star in the middle averaging 20.5 points and just over 10 rebounds a game and who was going to be taking her talents to Georgia Tech after graduating. For as ferocious a competitor as she was on the court, Candice McCallum was a sweet-smiling pussycat off of it, a delight to talk to. For her, you wanted to see Southern at long last win this championship that had eluded them.

But it wasn't McCallum this title eluded longer than it did Kathy Snyder. A three-sport star at Shore Regional and 1973 graduate of the school when she was Kathy Leslie, Snyder had built a reputation as a hard-nosed coach who demanded the most out of her girls, but knew which buttons to push with each and every one of her players, whether it was the star player like a McCallum or a Michelle Jones or a Jill Spaschak or a Charity Smead or a Mary Tantillo or a Kathy Harlfinger or the seventh or eight player coming off the bench.

Good coaches make teams better. Great coaches make them champions.

And that was the one thing missing from Snyder's resume ... that defining state sectional championship. Class A South titles are nice. The 1984 Shore Conference Tournament championship was the most memorable game in her coaching career when a Spaschak jumper at the buzzer gave Southern a 42-40 win over Neptune at Brick Memorial High School.

But it was a month later that Snyder and the Rams suffered the worst heartache in her coaching career. The Rams were 27-1 and destined to win the state Group IV championship. They made it to the SJ IV championship game with Washington Township, had things in command at the start of the third quarter until whistles began to blow more against the coach's players. Star guard Spaschak fouled out shockingly in the third quarter. The lead began to slip away. Questionable non-calls were happening against Washington Township. The Minutemen seemed to find their way to the free-throw line quite a bit. And while all this was going on, the announcers from Clear Cable-8 who were calling the game, Ken Turp and Nick Werkman, began to chastise the referees, some of the audio is cut out of the rebroadcast of the game.

It was maybe one of the biggest rook jobs in the history of high school sports, especially involving Ocean County teams. Southern lost that game in overtime, and it was found out not too long after the game that one of the game officials was a roommate with the Washington Township coach. This is where the rule was changed on officiating assignments where any association with the coach or the school disallowed an official to do that team's games. Snyder, understandably, never wanted to talk about that particular night.

And it took 11 years for Snyder and her Rams to get back to the SJ IV title game, though Washington Township didn't need any help to come back and win that game in 1995.

These Rams were buoyed up front by McCallum and 6-2 senior forward Heather Gardner, who, too, had seen her share of Southern Regional successes and setbacks. Junior forward Tiffany McCallum, Candice's cousin, and junior guards Erin Gillece and Jessica Naughton rounded out Southern's starting lineup.

For North, Fazio, a 5-9 fiery redhead with a lot of talent as the No. 3 swing player, was, like Candice McCallum, the leading basketball scorer, boys or girls, in her school's history. She had carried North on her back a good amount of the season, averaging 21 points a contest. Her supporting cast was pretty good, too, in senior forward Kim Palmer at 8.4 points a game, junior point guard Lauren Skripko, averaging 8.9 points a game and center Joanne Ihrig, averaging 6.6 points a matchup.

Still, one night before this big showdown in western New Jersrey, what did I catch Snyder doing? Yeah ... watching North games on VCR, including the loss to them earlier in the season. She did not want to miss an unturned stone.

She said to me, "I need to be totally prepared. It makes me comfortable to see a team on tape. It may drive other people crazy around me, but what would drive me crazy was if I wasn't prepared. I'm watching the tapes and looking at things I haven't seen before."

That's how much this championship would mean to Snyder. Even the slightest hiccup could cause a North run that would force her team out of its comfort zone and play a different style than what it was used to playing.

And so on the night of March 11, 1997, as I arrived at Rancocas Valley High, a school tucked away within Mount Holly's suburban setting, and as I walked in to the gym, long-form notepad in tow as always, I saw Kathy Snyder sitting there, calm as could be. I knew from the comments she made to me the night before she was prepared for her 39th battle with Cervino and his Mariners. Then again, when you've won 302 career games at that point, you must have been doing something correct over the years.

Cervino, on the other hand, was a ball of energy compared to Snyder as he kept looking to his ladies on the court, then talking with assistant coach Steve Hill, then just pacing. Maybe he knew something I didn't know that night.

As the game started in a packed gym -- not bad for two schools having to travel over 55 miles to get to its destination -- the teams were feeling each other out. Southern held a 10-6 lead in the first quarter, which indicated to me that they weren't looking to slow this game down by any means unlike in previous Southern-North matchups. There was no apprehension here -- Snyder and Southern told North and Cervino to "bring it on" in not so many words.

That's when the Rams "brought it." And, as always, it started with the defense -- a 10-second violation when North's backcourt couldn't get the ball over the midcourt line. Off the turnover, Candice McCallum got the ball inside and was fouled. She hit two free throws to make it 12-6.

On the next possession, Gillece stole the ball, drove to the hoop for the layup and scored and was fouled. She completed the three-point play, making it 15-6. Once again, North had trouble bringing the ball into the front court and Naughton came up with a steal this time. Naughton waited for her teammates to get back over to their side of the court, hit Tiffany McCallum with a pass behind the 3-point arc, and McCallum drained her trey attempt to make it 18-6. She may have pulled the trigger a bit early, according to Snyder, but as the coach would tell me later, "The way everything was going down, I thought just let her go and it went in."

Cervino, already standing up watching this horrific showing, got Skripko to call a timeout. North fans were in absolute shock. Southern fans were in elation. Snyder greeted her players with hand-claps, something I got used to witnessing in all my years of covering the sport, as to tell her girls they did a remarkable job. The very boisterous Snyder was exuberant in what her players were doing and telling them to keep it up (it didn't hurt I was sitting not far from Southern's side of the court).

And whatever Cervino was trying to draw up didn't work -- North threw the ball away for yet another turnover. On the next possession, Tiffany McCallum found Naughton, who returned the earlier favor by nailing a 3-pointer to make it 21-6, capping off an 11-0 run. North got a late basket in the first quarter, but it was 21-8 after the opening eight minutes.

This was scary. Very scary. Why? Because in the previous 13 games in this rivalry when North began to thrive, Southern Regional averaged 35.1 points per game. After one quarter, they were already close to that average. That didn't bode well for the Mariners one bit, so by that alone, I knew they were in trouble. Southern, 22-3 going into this game, again didn't get here by accident.

And again, whatever Cervino said didn't work. Two baskets by Southern made it 25-8, then to make things worse, backup center-forward Lauren Anderson -- better known for her prowess on a softball field as a star pitcher -- was called for charging.

Now that frustrated Cervino, who ended up getting a technical foul for his words and actions. A well-liked coach in my years of covering the sport, he would tell me later that this was to motivate his players who weren't very motivated at all.

Of all things, that technical foul sparked something under North as the Mariners went on an 11-4 run to cut the lead to 30-19 before halftime as suddenly, it was North slowing the game down.

But the Mariners had a tall order left in front of them. Two 6-footers were dominating things inside and no one from North wanted to take shots other than Fazio, who was struggling mightily with Gardner all over her. One thing Cervino was good at for all the years I covered girls basketball was how he could make adjustments at halftime.

One problem, though: Snyder and the Rams had been in front of SJ IV title games her three previous times. I saw two of those in person. In 1995, they were ahead 25-17 in this same gym against Washington Township and saw the energized Minutemen storm back to win. Same thing at East's gym the year before against North, Southern holding a delicate, hard-to-watch 15-9 lead, purposely slowing down a better North team until North made the adjustments to come back and win that matchup, 45-30, and ultimately reach the NJSIAA Group IV title game.

Snyder knew it was coming. And her premonition was right -- North looked like the team that dominated Southern for most of the middle part of the 1990s, moving the ball around until finding the open girl for the basket and not turning the ball over, handing it over to Southern just once in the third quarter. The 30-19 lead got cut into and when Palmer, who along with Joanne Ihrig had four points each in the third quarter, hit a short jumper with 1:11 to go, Southern's lead had been cut to 36-33.

Suddenly, North was in whispering range of Southern. It was uncertain, but did Southern just exhaust itself after nearly three quarters? Surely, Snyder was going to call a timeout, right?

Well, she allowed her players to have leeway again, like she did the entire game. They were a veteran bunch, so in Snyder's mind, the idea was to allow them to have a say in the matter instead of her pushing the buttons. Southern worked the ball around until Tiffany McCallum got the ball and drove to the layup for a bucket that pushed the lead back to five points with 49 seconds left in the third quarter.

That's how it would end: With North making a charge, but Southern making the final statement of the period and up 38-33. Now if they could hold on for the final eight minutes, the long pursuit of an SJ IV championship was finally reached.

From my vantage point, I could see Cervino pumping up his young ladies as best as they could, but Tiffany McCallum's layup took a little of the wind out of their sails. Yet, a five-point deficit wasn't out of reach at all.

On the first possession, North moved the ball around until Barb Ihrig found a hole in the Rams' interior defense, getting a pass from Skripko and scoring, cutting the lead to three points again.

However, for North, that would be about the only thing it did right in the entire quarter.

Southern proceeded to go on a 12-0 run, shutting down North for the next 5 minutes and 46 seconds. Southern's two big girls -- Candice McCallum and Gardner -- were dominant against North's interior players and scored four points each in the run. Tiffany McCallum had two points as did Naughton. No matter how many timeouts Cervino called, the ship was sinking. Unlike the nearly flawless third quarter that saw the Mariners get back into the game, they were the complete opposite, committing nine turnovers in the final eight minutes. In the end, Gardner's defense held Fazio to just eight points on 4-of-16 shooting as Joanne Ihrig led the way with 10 points for North.

"We made mistakes, but I think they were fatigue mistakes," he told me after the game. "Fatigue is always a great leveler."

When Naughton delivered two free throws with 56 seconds left in the game, it gave Southern a 56-37 lead, the biggest of the game. And it gave Snyder, now brandishing a smile that had rarely existed in these games for years, a chance to start substituting her players. Each player came off the court with a high-five or a hug from their mentor. There were many hugs going around that gym on the Southern side of the court.

As the last second ticked off Southern's 58-40 victory, the two rival coaches reached the mid-point of the sidelines and embraced.

"What I told Kathy was if I was going to lose, I was going to lose to a class coach and program," Cervino said afterward. "I knew how hard they wanted it and personally, it was nice to see an all-Ocean final."

Snyder was getting hugs all the way around -- from her players to parents to athletic director and biggest fan of her, Kim DeGraw-Cole, and then her biggest fan of everyone in the building that night, her husband, Ken, Toms River East's longtime football coach. If only we had a photographer shooting the game for us -- but unfortunately being over 50 miles away didn't allow us for any of our photographers to travel to take pictures that evening.

This night belonged to the Kathy Harlfingers, Jill Spaschaks, Judy Keefers, Jodie Davises and Kiersten Sciallos and others who got to this point and came up short. More importantly, it belonged to the coach, who at 24 years old took over this program and molded it in her tough-nosed, defensive-minded form and made it the watermark for other coaches and programs to attain.

Twenty-four was now 41, but Snyder was every bit the youthful 24-year-old at that moment. Never had I seen Kathy Snyder smile as much as she did that night.

"The monkey's finally off my back," she told me. "It's a really good feeling. I'm excited about this because this is what these kids wanted."

For Candice McCallum, who got to this point two previous times only to come up empty-handed, it was a night she won't ever forget. She finished with a game-high 16 points and pulled down 11 rebounds, also coming up with a steal and a block.

"This was the last thing we needed to accomplish," she said to me, blue eyes beaming, smile electric enough to light the area between Mount Holly and Manahawkin. "It seems all pretty complete now."

Winning the elusive and always-competitive South Jersey Group IV has always defined programs. You get through the Shawnees, Lenapes, Cherokees, Washington Townships and other well-known South Jersey-area programs to win a South Jersey Group IV girls basketball championship for the biggest schools, you've done something.

But the journey was not ending here. There was an NJSIAA Group IV semifinal awaiting the Rams and Snyder at Ewing Township High School in Trenton against Central Jersey Group IV champion Piscataway, whose main player was 6-1 center and University of Connecticut signee Ashja Jones. Unfortunately for Snyder and her players, Piscataway had been humiliated in this game a year earlier by North, so this team wasn't having any of that this time around.

In the end on March 13, Southern lost to Piscataway, 61-38, as Jones scored 21 points and had the better of McCallum, also handing out nine assists as the Rams doubled on her, and pulling down eight rebounds to go along with four steals. Sisters Lisa Guarneri (15 points, 11 rebounds, six steals, one block) and Jessica Guarneri (14 points) had huge games.

McCallum would finish her career at Southern with 1,923 points, good enough for second place at that point behind the great Christie Pearce of Point Pleasant Boro and her 2,190 points.

Snyder would go on to continue to have this amazing ride as both girls basketball and field hockey coach at Southern and would reach two more SJ IV basketball championship games long after I left the Observer in 2008-09 and 2009-10. And no matter who came through those doors at Southern and were coached by her, she was still going to ride them hard like she had for over a generation, calling girls out by their last names, making others wonder if they ever truly had a first name during their high school years.

She continued to touch lives in a positive manner even if it meant yelling at those young ladies to do better, just like she had been told by the legendary Nancy Williams when she was a star athlete at Shore Regional High School in field hockey, girls basketball and track and field. There was never a "no excuse" mode when it came to Snyder, even for herself as she fought breast cancer during the 2006-07 school season. It was business as usual for her as a coach.

Sadly, the journey ended on the morning of January 24, 2014, when Snyder, now 58, died in her sleep, leaving behind Ken, their three children and grandchildren. Those weren't ripples of her passing the day she died -- those were seismic shifts in the scholastic sports ground. And days later at a memorial honoring her life, hundreds of those young ladies who played for Snyder for the 35 years she was there coaching them came out to pay their respects, tell stories, funny and serious, about her and say glowing things of their coach even as they probably heard her voice ringing in their ears for years.

Kathy Snyder was an inspiration to those young ladies who have grown up to become mothers ... even grandmothers. It may have sounded like tough love if something didn't go right, but over 500 wins in a basketball career and another 300 in field hockey attest to her greatness.

To this day, she will be on my personal Mount Rushmore of great female high school coaches alongside Toms River North's Becky Miller, Toms River East/Donovan Catholic's Debbie Schwartz and Crescent City Junior-Senior High's Holly Pickens. In her honor, the court at the school she put on the map as a coach and leader is named after her.

I was blessed that night to witness what happened when everything came together in a positive manner for Kathy Snyder and her Southern Regional girls basketball players in that Rancocas Valley High gym.

To me, she will always be the epitome of "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again," because that night, her players took her persona and rode it to a state sectional championship.

A long overdue one, too.