The comeback of all comebacks in a fog

The 1997 Ocean County Softball Tournament semifinals had come down to the top four seeds remaining, all converging at Toms River High School East on Saturday, May 31, 1997.

The first game featured the top seeds and host Toms River East Raiders against fourth-seeded Toms River North. East won the Class A South title and had earned the top seed for the tournament as voted on by the coaches. The Mariners had struggled a bit, but got better as the season went along and came in to this game at 19-4.

In this first game, a 5 p.m. start, it was never a contest. East hit North hard-throwing righty Lauren Anderson for eight hits, but they never got a clutch hit throughout the game, stranding 13 runners, while North hitters hit Nicole Brigandi around for 12 his and turned the Raiders away, 10-2. Anderson only had four strikeouts on this damp, grey-skied evening, but it was enough for North to advance to its first final since 1993 and third final in the 1990s.

The game dragged on for two hours and 22 minutes and, in actuality, was a snooze-fest. Now North had to wait to see who it was playing in the title game.

For the third straight year, it was Central Regional facing the defending champion of the tournament, Jackson Memorial. At the same seeding meeting where East was made a No. 1 seed, Central Regional, which had been scuffling during that part of the year, was given the second seed. And now at 21-5, the record was shining as brightly. These Golden Eagles were playing to the same level as the 1996 Golden Eagles that made history by becoming the first Ocean County team to win a state title, taking down Paramus, 1-0, for the NJSIAA Group III championship in storybook fashion.

And most of that team was back for the '97 season, led by three-year starter Kristy Tice, and All-State first-team centerfielder Cheryl Zellman, both seniors. Other seniors led the way -- first baseman Jill Homage, catcher Kelly Honecker and right fielder-pitcher Robin Pepper, who was the winning pitcher in that Cinderella story of the 1996 state championship at North against Paramus.

Shortstop Toni Penniman and left fielder Becky Barrett were among the junior leaders on this experience-laden team of third-year coach Joe Winkelried.

But coach Al Aires had a number of key returnees to his third-seeded Jackson Memorial Jaguars team, led by senior shortstop Kerri Gleason. The rest of the team was filled with underclassmen with plenty of experience in their own right -- junior second baseman Rosanne Rocca, junior third baseman Tracy Goldych and catcher Erin Leonard. They were there when the Jaguars won that OCT title over top-seeded Southern Regional the year before. They knew the ropes.

But Jackson Memorial had a wild card at first base who was going to deliver a terrific career eventually at shortstop named Toni Williams. She didn't play like a freshman.

Those dark, damp, humid conditions at East were about to add a new element as the first pitch was about to be thrown sometime after 8 p.m. when both teams had finished out warming up.

The fog. In the distance where the trees were well beyond the outfield, it was starting to get tougher to see anything there. Little did I know this was going to be the telling tale of what would become an absolute classic.

Sitting in the same public address spot on the first base side behind home plate, I read the lineups and got Central out onto the field to get it all started.

For Tice, this was a senior year to finally win a championship for herself. As a sophomore, she was the winning pitcher when Central beat Jackson for the crown, 11-4. But she got injured badly in that state championship game in the first inning when she fouled a riser off into her face and did awful damage to her teeth and face. Pepper stepped in to throw that two-hit shutout at Paramus.

Right on cue, Tice was strong out of the gate. She struck out Cheryl Fossati and got Rocca on a comebacker. However, things changed quickly. Gleason walked on four pitches. And Goldych rocketed a shot to the right-center field gap to bring home Gleason. Goldych ended up on third with a triple. Williams hit a grounder that Penniman could not come up with, and the error allowed Goldych to make it 2-0. Tice struck out Leonard, but the early damage was done and the Jaguars had control at the start.

Starting pitcher Fossati got the dangerous Zellman to fly out to left fielder Krissy Sherman, and though Homage walked, Barrett hot a rope at Rocca, who caught the ball and tagged out Homage to finish out the double play.

Tice got herself in trouble in the second when No. 9 hitter Jen Kubinski reached on yet another Penniman error, was sacrificed to second by Fossati and moved to third on a Rocca single. But Tice got Gleason to pop out to second baseman Dawn Wilson to end the threat.

Fossati handled matters in her half of the second with a popout, groundout and strikeout.

The third came and darkness had covered the East field by now. On four pitches, Tice walked Goldych, bringing up Williams. Tice got ahead 0-2, but made the mistake of putting a pitch with too much strike zone in it.

"Plink!"

The sound reverberated around the East complex as the ball hunted the gap on the fence-less East field. Zellman and Pepper seemed to be running after a thoroughbred the way the ball kept tracking in the right-center field gap. Goldych scored easily and by the time the ball reached the infield, Williams had circled the bases with a two-run home run to make it 4-0.

Not a good start for a Central team that was looking at the end of its season if it did not get its act together. Sherman popped out and Leonard flied out, but up stepped No. 8 hitter Katie Barry. She singled and promptly stole second on Honecker and Tice. On another 0-2 pitch Kubinski took advantage of a ball that had enough plate by stroking a single to right field to score Barry.

Jackson 5, Central 0. And when Fossati struck out Pepper and Wilson and got third baseman Tricia Friedman on a soft liner to Rocca, reality was quickly setting in that Jackson had control of this game and really wanted one more shot at Toms River North in the final.

Tice finally had an easy inning with a strikeout, lineout to her and flyout against the Nos. 2-4 in the Jaguars lineup in the fourth.

Central was running out of outs. There was 12 left for the Golden Eagles. And it took the simplest of plans to get things going on their side of the field. It was a bunt on the right side of the infield that had every Jaguars player on that side flustered as Zellman beat it out for a hit.

Within the first two pitches, Zellman stole second and took third on a wild pitch. Homage singled to center to score Zellman with the first Central run, but she got greedy and Kubinski threw a strike to Rocca at second to nail Homage for the firsts out.

The out was costly -- Barrett boomed a triple to right-center field that would have delivered an RBI. She would come home on a Penniman groundout to Rocca.

The Golden Eagles had chipped into the 5-0 lead. But they weren't done.

Tice settled in the next two innings, allowing just one hit. In the bottom of the fifth, Honecker walked, moved to second on a Pepper groundout to Williams and scored when not only did Rocca fumble Wilson's groundball, but threw it away, making it 5-3.

Chip. Chip. Chip. Chip. Chip.

Homage began the sixth inning with another clutch moment -- a triple to the right-center field gap. Barrett struck out against Fossati, but Penniman walked. This is when Winkelried rolled the dice and took a chance. He had Penniman take off for second. Homage started down for home, but Rocca's throw to the plate missed the target and got by Leonard, allowing Penniman to move to third and 70 feet from being the tying run.

When Tice hit a grounder to Williams, Williams took the out instead of trying to make a play at home. Penniman easily scored and that 5-0 lead was now gone and over with.

A 5-5 tie made this game a lot more palatable for softball fans.

If the first six innings offered the drama, the suspenseful seventh was going to tell us the who, what, when, where, why and how of the game. And as I looked out at Central warming up in the seventh, I noticed something that was becoming way too obvious -- the fog had finally found its way to the outer stretches of the outfield.

Could it play the role in the end?

Gleason started the seventh with a walk. Goldych made good contact on a 3-1 pitch and singled to left to send Gleason to second. That brought up Williams. Williams worked the count 3-2, then Tice offered her a pitch that looked like a beachball to the freshman -- she roped it over Zellman's head in center field.

Yes, Cheryl Zellman had a ball go over her head. But Gleason and Goldych scored and Williams stopped at third with a triple and the Jaguars regaining the 7-5 lead.

On a team with experience, the hero was going to be this freshman phenom named Toni Williams, who was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and four RBIs. But the inning was far from over.

Sherman bombed a double to right field to bring in Williams and it was 8-5 ... and still nobody out.

At this point, Winkelried made the walk out to the mound. I know he didn't want to do this, but the reality had set in -- Jaguars hitters were timing Tice's pitches perfectly. He painfully had to take the ball out of Tice's hands and bring in Pepper from right field. Pepper had more motion in her windup than Tice did and that fooled the Paramus hitters in that 1-0 victory at the state Group III title game the year before.

But things did not start so well for Pepper. She walked Leonard. Then she walked Barry to load the bases. For a moment, though, Pepper recovered to get Kubinski to pop out to Penniman, then strike out Fossati. But on a 3-2 pitch, she walked Rocca to force home Sherman.

Pepper would strike out Gleason, the 10th hitter of the inning. But the damage was done again -- four runs, three hits, no errors, four walks, three left on base. The inning could have been much, much worse.

Now the Jaguars and Fossati had three outs to get. But again, I'm watching the outfield and the fog has now rolled in to nearly the central part of the outfield. That's how long the inning to play! And it still was damp and yucky.

For Jackson, I was hoping the inning was not going to be long enough for where the fog may take effect somewhere.

Immediately, Fossati got in trouble by walking Wilson. From the side of the Jaguars' first base dugout, I could see Aires visibly upset. And when she threw a first-pitch ball to Wilson, Aires came out.

That was it for Fossati, who had her moments of trepidation in the circle, but was still in control of this game at 9-5 with three outs to get. What could possibly go wrong?

Fossati moved to left field, Sherman moved to right field and Barry came out of the game. And in came a freshman who had seen some time in the circle and would become the fulltime Jaguars starter the following year.

This was Dara DeVincenzo's time to shine. The daughter of Freehold Township softball coach John DeVincenzo, now she was asked to come up with the final three outs and secure the victory. That's not asking too much of a freshman, is it?

DeVincenzo got the count to 3-2, but walked Wilson to put runners on first and second with no outs. Friedman would loft a flyball to right fielder Sherman for the first out. Now, though, DeVincenzo had to face the teeth of the Central lineup.

Zellman was what we call the "trouble maker" of the Golden Eagles lineup. Her bunt eventually led to the first Central run and ultimately, a 5-5 tie a couple of innings later. She fell behind 0-2. Then she hit a groundball that she was going to beat on the right side of the field for an infield hit. But instead of swallowing the ball, Rocca made the mistake of throwing it past Williams and into dead-ball territory, scoring Pepper to make it 9-6, but both runners were now in scoring position.

What happened next was about to make things worse and intriguing. On the first pitch, Homage hit a grounder to Gleason at shortstop. The Jaguars were going to concede the run to get an out, but the moisture and dampness did something terrible and Gleason's throw went astray for another two-base error, scoring both Wilson and Zellman and moving Homage into scoring position.

Worse, it was 9-8 with Jackson holding on by its fingernails. After the walk to Wilson, DeVincenzo was throwing good pitches to Central hitters, but could only get one out in the deal.

Out came Homage and in came Meghan Barrett to run for her at second base as Winkelried was needing some extra speed for the occasion. Would it be Barrett's older sister, Becky, who would deliver the big hit to send her home? On a 2-2 pitch, the older Barrett grounded out to Gleason, this time taking the time to throw an accurate strike to Williams.

But Meghan Barrett was 70 feet away from tying this game ... again.

It came down to Penniman, who was 0-for-2 with a walk and an RBI. She had a good hack at DeVincenzo's first offering, but fouled it out of play. With the 0-1 count, I'm thinking, "Dara, just throw the ball at the corner of the strike zone and down or jam her. Whatever you do, don't give her anything good to hit!"

On the very next pitch, Penniman got a pitch she could handle and hit a flyball toward left field.

I'm watching Fossati out in left field thinking she can line this ball up. But there was the fog about to play havoc on her and Jackson's hopes of moving on. By the time Fossati had picked up the ball in that fog, she was starting to chase it down behind her. Meghan Barrett scored and Penniman did not stop until she slid into third base with a triple, popped back up and gave Winkelried an emphatic high-five.

Jackson 9, Central 9. How could this happen? Why did it happen? Well, you know the circumstances from reading those last few graphs on the bottom half of the seventh. As Central fans began to vociferously cheer and Jackson fans were trying to encourage their daughters and friends on that field, only one thought came to my mind.

Please don't go into extra innings. It's 10:27 p.m. and this game and day have gone on too long since I'm the one who had to beat a 12:30 a.m. deadline to write BOTH stories. Lucky me!

But all those worries went away with Tice. It was earlier in the seventh the senior was taken out of the circle by Winkelried and placed in right field while Pepper got to finish it up.

It was one pitch ... one pitch only. A high pitch that Tice thrived on. She laced her shot into left field to score Penniman and end the game in an improbably 10-9 victory. Just 20 minutes later, I was ready to write Central's obituary and the greatness the team generated in the '96 and '97 seasons, including that state championship.

Now it was Central mobbing Tice after her hit, happy she was the one who delivered the RBI smack. And while that was happening, I was watching Leonard leave to go back to the dugout in absolute shock. Jackson players walked to the dugout like it was a funeral procession. Aires and his brother, Marco, who helped him that season, did all they could to keep the players' spirits up.

But it was the end of the season for the Jaguars at 14-11. How do you even try to find a positive after seeing your season end like that -- the walks, the costly errors, the triple that got lost in the fog and the single that ripped their collective hears out? How?

I quickly grabbed Winkelried and talked to him about his win and he was grateful for the effort his team put into it by not just coming back once, but twice. I packed up all my PA gear, got into my car and sped back to the Observer office to type in two agates and then the details on the two games in one story.

Looking back, this was the greatest Ocean County Softball Tournament game ever. Just when Jackson had this game won and had the opportunity to become the first team in the history of the tournament to win back-to-back titles, Central Regional came back to win this thriller.

And five nights later on the same East field, Central and North played another classic. It ended with Zellman hitting a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth inning off Anderson in her final high school at-bat for the 2-1 victory.

Within those five days, the two greatest games in the tournament's history were played.

Jackson would make it back to the OCT final the next two years and lose to North in 1998 and beat East in 1999. Central Regional would lose in back-to-back years to Anderson's North Mariners, but in 2000, the Golden Eagles would win their last of eight OCT crowns, beating Pinelands in the final.

When I have to talk about this game between Central and Jackson in 1997, it's hard to really describe in in a few years. Jackson got a big lead, Central tied it. Jackson took a four-run lead into the bottom of the seventh, only to have Central score five times to win it.

Let's just say I was proud to witness it and report about every detail in the end.

Even the fog that had the final say.

The future was on display in the circle

Back in the day when the Ocean County Softball Tournament was a well-run machine and coaches handled the tournament directing duties, there was Quarterfinal Saturday.

Whether it was at Lakewood High School or Point Pleasant Boro High School or Toms River High School East, it was an all-day, all-night Saturday of softball at one particular site.

And in 1996, that site was East, the first full year the Raiders' field had lights on it. The lights were to be installed to play in the 1995 season, but it took a while -- like the whole freakin' season -- for the lights to finally be put up for the county tournament championship on May 20, 1995. And for the record, Central Regional defeated Jackson Memorial, 11-4, for the title.

The lights now fully in use for 1996, it made running the county tournament all that much better, and gave us back a true Quarterfinal Saturday with all four tournament games on the same day.

And so this Quarterfinal Saturday was held on Saturday, May 25, 1996. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon at East. The first two games in the late morning and afternoon were blowouts -- defending champion Central Regional went first and pummeled Lacey, 10-2. The other game saw Jackson Memorial handle its business against coach Amy Tice's Brick Green Dragons, 12-3.

One semifinal was set for the following weekend with Central and Jackson having a rematch.

Now we had the other half of the quarterfinals to play. Top-seeded Southern Regional was to face No. 9 seed Toms River South in the prime-time game starting at 8 p.m. But at 5 p.m., we had the showcase game between No. 5 seed Point Pleasant Boro and No. 4 seed Toms River North.

The one girl on Point Boro's team, coached by former tournament director Ric Malta, with any name recognition was shortstop and leadoff hitter Jodie Cheasty, who had been a member of the Panthers' NJSIAA Group II championship girls basketball team two months before, the first Ocean County team to win a girls basketball state championship.

North's Mariners had a mostly young team, though senior second baseman Dawn Albruzzese and senior center fielder Carrie Brown were the upper-class leaders. North's team was building toward a stronger future with sophomores Lisa Miller at third base and Teresa Andreani behind the plate and shortstop Kathy Acosta at shortstop leading the way.

But the game featured two promising freshmen stars in the circle on this day. For Point Boro, it was Kristin Handwerk. I had seen her pitch maybe once that year, and the only other thing I knew about her was that I knew her father, Tom, who was a longtime basketball coach at the Boro and previously at Lakewood.

The other pitcher would eventually become a legend -- Lauren Anderson. L.A. The "Big M."

Already, she had begun to build her reputation as a bad-ass, hard-throwing right-hander who used every inch of the plate made possible to her, but preferred wiping you away with her fastball. Riseball? She did not need one. No one in most of these teams' lineups was catching up to the No. 1.

And as the sun shined brightly over Toms River East behind the field for the 5 o'clock start, I settled into my public address spot behind the plate to watch what I thought had every right to be a pitcher's duel from start to finish.

The Panthers had first crack against Anderson. In 10 pitches, Anderson vanquished Cheasty, Jessica McMullen and Summer Marini on a flyout, groundout and strikeout. North had its first crack at Handwerk and she went 1-2-3 in 11 pitches as Albruzzese popped out, and Miller and Andreani flied out.

Then Anderson got it cranked up in the second against an offensively challenged Panthers team. She struck out Meghan Shank, Handwerk and Dawn Christie all swinging.

Meanwhile, Handwerk ran into trouble in her half of the second. With two outs, Acosta walked. Toni Lynn Trombino walked and both stole bases. But Handwerk worked her way out of the jam by getting Melissa Dague to pop out to Christie to keep it scoreless.

The third inning for Anderson was more of the same -- three-up, three-down as she got a lineout, flyout and strikeout. Nine up, nine down so far for the star-in-the-making Anderson.

The Mariners mustered up another threat in the third inning. With one out, Albruzzese beat out an infield hit. Miller put down a sacrifice bunt that Handwerk fielded and threw to first baseman Julie Bishop for the out, but on the play, Albruzzese hustled all the way to third. Yet another Mariner in scoring position. Was THIS the moment to break through.

Turns out it wasn't. Andreani flied out to right fielder Wendi Baenziger to end the threat.

It was now the fourth. The Panthers had one go-round with Anderson and had no hits and four strikeouts to show for it. And it wasn't starting any better when Cheasty grounded out weakly to Anderson.

But Malta had a different strategy for No. 2 hitter McMullen. She had her lay down a bunt on the right side of the infield. McMullen beat the play at first and the Panthers had a baserunner and hit at last.

This brought up Marini, the Panthers' durable catcher. Marini hit a 1-2 pitch on the left side of the infield, a slow roller that it seemed to take forever for Miller to get to. Miller did retrieve the ball, but she was late in getting Marini at first. While all this is going on, McMullen was not stopping, heading for third base. First baseman Alyson Barnett fired back across the diamond to Acosta covering third, only to miss her target.

Badly, no less. The ball rolled on East's open field into dead-ball territory, allowing McMullen to come home with the first run of the game, making it 1-0. Chaos in no more than eight seconds and the Panthers had a run after doing nothing for three innings. Shank walked after Marini was allowed to advance to third on that errant throw. Shank stole second, but Anderson got a strikeout and flyout to end the inning.

Now the Mariners had to battle back. Seemed easy for them throughout this '96 season as they had a 14-7 record going into the game. With one out, things got started for North when a throwing error by third baseman Shank allowed Brown to get to second. An infield hit, followed by a stolen base, by Acosta put runners on second and third. But Handwerk showed the large crowd at East why as a freshman she had ice water in her veins, striking out both Trombino and Dague to end another North threat.

After the errant throw that allowed the Panthers to score, Anderson allowed the Panthers practically nothing the rest of the afternoon and early evening. She would retire 11 of the last 12 batters she faced, five of which were strikeouts, giving her 10 for the day.

For Handwerk, though, things were not as easy. In the bottom of the fifth inning, she hit Albruzzese with a pitch. She was forced out on a Miller grounder, then Miller moved to third on a bloop single to right-center field by Andreani, who would take second one pitch later. But against her counterpart, Handwerk prevailed by getting Anderson on a groundout to Cheasty.

The real battles, though, were about to take place. Brown started the sixth inning by booming a double over left fielder Diana Shank's head. Acosta bunted successfully for a hit to put runners on first and third with no outs.

Could this be the moment that North finally -- FINALLY -- broke through against Handwerk, who had navigated rough waters throughout the game? Trombino came up. On the first pitch, she hit a flyball to right fielder Baenziger. She caught it and North coach Becky Miller sent Brown home. Baenziger threw a strike to Marini at the plate. As she caught the ball, she turned to make the tag and right on top of her was Brown.

Marini, who had successfully blocked the plate, got plastered by Brown. Somehow, though, Marini held on to the ball and home plate umpire Jerry Caldarise called Brown at the plate. I'm pretty sure over 25 years later, that would not be allowed (blocking the plate, that is), but in this moment, it meant the Panthers secured their one-run lead. However, with Acosta now on third after the bang-bang play at the plate, the Panthers still had to hold their ground. Handwerk dominated Dague in striking her out to end the sixth.

One more inning and the Panthers would advance to their first OCT semifinal since 1991.

The bottom of the seventh began with pinch-hitter Nicolette Schellato beating out an infield hit.

There was the spark North needed for one last rally. Albruzzese, though, grounded into a force play as Cheasty fielded the grounder and tossed to second baseman Christie for the out. Lisa Miller then hit a grounder to Christie, who could have thrown to second to force out Albruzzese, but opted to throw to Bishop for the second out.

That was downright dangerous. That put Albruzzese in scoring position with two outs and a dangerous hitter at the plate in Andreani, who two years later would earn first-team all-state honors as North's catcher on a memorable 24-3 team. This lefty-hitting catcher was a star in the making like her battery mate. For this game, Andreani was 1-for-3 with each ball going to right-center field.

Boro played her straight away with McMullen edged a tad over toward right fielder Baenziger. Handwerk was 1-1 in the count to Andreani when she threw a waist-high pitch that Andreani got a hold of.

Boro fans stood up. North fans stood up as the ball was heading for the right-center field gap. If the ball lands, Miller easily scores, and if it goes by the two outfielders, there's no question that Andreani gets at least a triple, maybe an inside-the-park home run to win it.

It looked like a sure hit. But out of nowhere came McMullen, who had only one play -- stretching out and diving to make the catch. She went for it ... and the ball found its way into her glove.

Boro fans jumped up and down in joy. North fans stood in disbelief. And Panthers players raced out to where McMullen was still on the ground with the ball in her glove, saving the Panthers' 1-0 victory.

I'm pretty sure McMullen never made another play quite like that in her life. But the senior had delivered in the biggest of moments and had sent the Mariners packing for the rest of the tournament.

On the field, our writer for that game, Nick Huba (because I took the day off), was interviewing both coaches Malta and Miller afterward. I had seen the Boro state title win in girls basketball and, at this point, it was just more Boro magic.

Ironically, it was a throwing error on a play at third base by a first baseman, this time Bishop, that let the go-ahead run score and lift top-seeded Southern Regional to a 2-1 win over Boro in the following weekend's semifinal matchup.

And by the way, the final game of the Quarterfinal Saturday after that thrilling Boro victory was a 10-1 no-hitter by Southern's Dana O'Hearn against South that saw her set a then-OCT record 15 strikeouts.

North would get to the OCT final the following year behind Anderson's brut pitching force and lose on a dramatic solo inside-the-park home run by Central Regional's Cheryl Zellman, 2-1, in nine innings. But in 1998, the year belonged to North as it won the OCT and Shore Conference Tournament titles with Anderson as a junior and Andreani as a senior.

Then in 1999, North and Boro hooked up again, this time in the SCT second round. And just like in 1996, Boro won the game behind senior Handwerk. Anderson was the hard-luck loser as she had to do a lot more for a team that could not hit its way out of a paper bag after those players in '97 and '98 had graduated.

But it's always wonderful to go back to when those players were so much younger, most notably Handwerk and Anderson as freshmen, facing each other in a tournament game like that one.

I knew the future was pretty secure the rest of the 1990s.

The most bizarre event I've ever covered

There are practically hundreds of events I've covered in all facets of sports over my 37-plus years as a journalist. There are those events that are memorable for many a reason, some for a great occurrence, others for record-breaking moments, and some because of the magnitude of what was happening.

But there are the rare events I've covered where Rod Serling needed to be called in to narrate because they were that strange and that preposterous in what happened.

One of those moments may be the most bizarre event I ever covered in all these years. It was Monday night, April 18, 2011. It was the opening round of the District 4-4A softball tournament between third-seeded and host Palatka and sixth-seeded St. Augustine.

Palatka's Panthers were expected to win the game. They came into the game with a 14-11 record in what could be considered an up-and-down season. One of the biggest adjustments these Panthers had to make was new coach Leslie Lewis. I always felt like Lewis inherited two strikes against her when she took the job because she was taking it from a very demanding, but popular coach in Rick Breed. Breed had been with the program for 14 years, first as the longtime assistant to Curt Smith, then taking the program over in 2008. Unfortunately for Breed, he was a government worker and whatever his agency 

wanted to do with his job, he had to do it no matter the hour, so he couldn't keep the job at that time.

Breed could be feisty. He could be sarcastic. He could be a grizzly bear, but there was one thing about his players that made him who he was -- he was behind them 100%, And his players loved him, gruff exterior at times and all.

So being a new coach was a bad place to be if you were Lewis. This team had some talent, too, starting with senior third baseman Lizz Smith and junior pitcher Jessica Gornto. There was also junior designated player Dawn Averett and senior center fielder Kori Osteen.

Gornto was the rock in the center of the diamond in the circle. And she thrived as the "go-to" pitcher. In 2009 as a freshman, she was the pitcher of Palatka's last district championship team, and faced down a terrific Dunnellon lineup in the regional semifinals before the Dunnellon High bats got going and put the Panthers away, 8-0. Trust me, it was a closer game than the final score indicated.

So after I did my normal routine at work, which was get the scoreboard page set up and get some other things out of the way, it was back up St. Johns Avenue to Mellon Road and into the sports parking lot where the track, tennis courts and softball field were all in the same area. It's normally hard to get a  halfway decent parking spot when a lot is going on, but at this point, it was just the softball team playing, so getting a parking spot wasn't too bad.

I get to the field and upstairs to the press box overlooking the softball field. Now, my mind is a little rusty here as to who was in the press box with me this particular night, but I already was tipped off that some of the Panther players came to the field on this evening not in the bestest of shape. Seems earlier in the afternoon, they ate something during lunch together that did not sit well in their stomachs. So a number of players came in with stomach issues.

Oh, boy. Here we go. Now was this going to give a St. Augustine team that was 8-15 going into this game any ideas of an upset?

Umm, no. Not at all. There was a reason why the Panthers beat the rival Yellow Jackets during the season and beat them handily, too. Even with stomach issues, these Panthers were still head and shoulders above the Jackets.

Honestly, I didn't expect anything out of the ordinary on this night whatsoever. This should be a "take care of business" kind of game and get ready for the next game in the semifinal round.

But this night was going to be a wee bit different.

Right from the very first batter, as a matter of fact, this game was going to be a little different. Hannah Hudson came up against Gornto to start. And on the first pitch, she's trying to slap-hit her way on ... except she made the mistake of stepping out of the batter's box when she hit the ball. Automatic out to start it off.

Though Sam Baker, the No. 2 hitter, walked on four pitches, she was forced out at second and K.K. Shaw struck out to end the inning. Onto the bottom of the first.

Sierra Riter is pitching for the Yellow Jackets and I don't exactly see her blowing fastballs by this Panthers lineup. The first hitter is Smith. She hits a laser only to have it snagged by first baseman Baker for the first out.

That now brings up Osteen. The count gets to 1-2. Riter sets her up with a low pitch that Osteen waves at for strike three. But the ball goes off catcher Kiersten O'Niel's glove. She has to go track the ball down, then make a throw to first to complete the out.

That's when the three-ring circus parked its tents and made itself at home on Palatka's field.

O'Niel's throw to Baker was nowhere near the mark and scooted out to the outfield. Second baseman Lauren Avolos and right fielder Linzy Hayes were literally M.I.A. on the play. The ball rolled all the way to the right-field fence and Osteen kept running, then got the windmill go-ahead arm wave of Lewis to continue home to score the game's first run.

On an inside-the-park strikeout.

Yup. This St. Augustine team was bad.

Riter struck out freshman shortstop Ashley Burney and Gornto, and the inning was over. But things were about to get even more bizarre after the bottom of the first took place.

I'm literally watching the Panthers take the field from my perch up in the press box. I see eight Panthers going out to the field, and one leaving the dugout and walking past everyone on the way to the parking lot beyond the outfield fence, getting in her car and driving away.

It was Osteen. She just left. And was never to come back again. In all my years of covering sports, this one I never saw -- a player just up and leaving. This one had nothing to do with a stomach problem. This had everything -- I found later -- to do with her relationship with Lewis. Osteen was one of the more devoted players under Breed. And she and Lewis didn't exactly see eye to eye.

But in spite of all the differences, you stay! You just don't up and leave ... in the niddle of a game! Those of us in the press box knew what was happening and this was the culmination of a year's worth of frustration. In the end, she hurt herself and lost her All-County bid to another player for just walking out the way she did.

And if that wasn't enough, Shelby Moody, the team's second baseman, had to come out because she wasn't feeling well. So Hunter Harper had to play right field, Shelisa Oliver came into the game to play second base and Katelynn Smith, Lizz's younger sister and freshman, had to move into Osteen's center field position.

On top of that, when you looked at the scoreboard, you didn't see any runs up there. The scoreboard wasn't working! I guess it cost a lot to get an electrician to come out to the school on this particular night.

As stated before, this was Rod Serling territory we were traipsing into this night.

Gornto got things back to some kind of normalcy and showed her dominance by getting the three hitters in the second inning -- Hayes, O'Niel and Teri Tate -- on strikeouts. 

In the bottom of the second, Averett was hit by a pitch with one out and Allison Lewis singled her to second. Harper hit a flyball to center field where Tate was. Except Tate dropped the ball, then punctuated the error with a throwing error to score Averett to make it 2-0. One out later, Smith hit a groundball that shortstop Taylor Magnan flubbed for the team's fourth error of the game, bringing in Lewis to make it 3-0.

Gornto went strikeout, comebacker, strikeout in the third to give her five strikeouts in three innings.

In the bottom of the third, Arielle Driggers singled to center field with two outs and Averett belted a shot that almost cleared the fence. It hit the fence and went for a double as Driggers, running on the hit, scored to make it 4-0.

The teams played a scoreless fourth inning and we were about to get into the fifth inning. Somewhere in the top of the fifth inning, I hear a noise. Then I look down on the field ... the sprinkler system went off!

Can anything else go strangely wrong?! The delay was about five minutes, and before long the teams went back out to play. Gornto struck out two of the three outs she had in the inning to give her eight strikeouts on the evening.

The Panthers put this thing away with four runs in the bottom of the fifth as Burney singled, Gornto walked and one out later, Averett won a 12-pitch battle with Riter by hitting her second double of the game to bring in Burney and Gornto to make it 6-0. Lewis would single Averett in and Lewis would eventually score on a Harper sacrifice fly.

At 8-0, the lead was safe in Gornto's hands. St. Augustine, though, wanted to send a message that it was there not just for purposes of background art. Baker singled and eventually came home on a Lydia Hough passed ball in the sixth. In the seventh, Tate reached on an infield hit and eventually came home on a Gornto wild pitch.

And when Gornto made Hudson the 10th strikeout victim of the night, this bizarre hour and 45 minutes was over in an 8-2 Palatka win.

Gornto called it "a little different from your normal game." That was an understatement.

I remember talking to coach Lewis afterward. I asked what happened with Osteen and she confirmed my thoughts on the matter.

"Kori is done with the team," she said. "'She's leaving' was what she said and then she just walked out and left."

I go back down St. Johns after the bizarre events of this Monday night back to work and find out that No. 2 seed and tournament host Ponte Vedra was upset by No. 7 seed Menendez. If Palatka could beat Menendez, it was on to to the district final and the state tournament as an automatic district finalist.

But the Panthers were stunned by the Falcons a couple of nights later and did not make the state tournament.

Lewis left after one year as coach and Averett's dad, Todd, who had experience with coaching most of these Panther players through club ball, took over in 2012 as coach. But he gave it back up to Breed, who in 2013 returned as coach and got Palatka back to the state tournament as a district runners-up, losing the final, 1-0, in controversial fashion to North Marion.

Palatka got to host only one postseason game since that night in 2011. The next year, the Panthers lost a district semifinal to Belleview, 2-0.

I think about the bizarre events -- and unfortunate ones -- from that night in 2011 and I still have a hard time trying to truly describe what I saw.

Every so often, you get lucky with a game like this one.

Or unlucky. You decide.

And suddenly, the sports world stopped

 

All week long, it felt like the world's walls were closing in on anyone involved with sports.

The year 2020 had so much promise to it, and when the spring season began in Putnam County, there were those individuals and teams who had a chance of taking the county -- all of us, really -- on a long adventure.

One of those teams was the Palatka High School softball team. The Panthers were dynamite ready to explode on the rest of their competition that season after coming off a 19-8 year that saw them reach the state tournament for the first time in six years and give the No. 1 team in the state, Eustis, a run for its money before falling in the opening round of the state tournament on Eustis' field, 1-0.

Most of the pieces of that incredible team were back in 2020. The battery of senior pitcher Brittney Funk and junior catcher Carlie Drew returned. The team's main power supplier, senior first baseman Kortney Booth, was also back, as was senior shortstop Jaden Musgrove, senior third baseman-outfielder Jesenia Feggins, senior outfielder Julia Hudson, sophomore outfielder Makenzie Clemons, and pitcher-third baseman Aubrey Brown.

This team was loaded. Coach Brandi Malandrucco, the first former player in the program's player (as Brandi Holley) to ever coach the Panthers, was the Palatka Daily News' Coach of the Spring honoree in 2019. She knew how good this team was, but there was one obstacle in the way in the Panthers' new District 5-3A. That was a very good and established Pierson Taylor team.

The season, though, did not get off to a good start. I was there at Palatka when the Panthers made too many mistakes in the field and didn't get the job done in an 8-5 loss to Keystone Heights. But after that loss, they got rolling. The Panthers beat Menendez and Clay. The next week at home against Eustis in the rematch of that regional first-round game, they were down 4-0 after three innings, but chipped away while team newcomer and North Marion High transfer Amy Kennedy was making her way back from Arizona earlier in the day. She got into the game late, pitched scoreless relief, then delivered the game-winning double in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat Eustis, 6-5.

The Panthers were on their way to big things. That weekend, they won the county tournament by beating Peniel Baptist Academy, Crescent City and Interlachen. Then on back-to-back days, March 10-11, they slaughtered Menendez and Yulee by a combined 27-1 score.

Their win streak was at nine games and they sat at 9-1 going into their final game of the week -- and this one was going to test how far the Panthers could or might go in the state tournament. They were facing district rival Pierson Taylor at home.

Good times never seemed so good, once sang Neil Diamond in "Sweet Caroline." But all that week, what was happening outside of this little cocoon was pretty ugly.

The COVID-19 pandemic had started in late January in this country, began spreading throughout the U.S. in February, but it didn't have a grip on us just yet. However, there was no denying the numbers were growing. And with the apathy being paid to it by a presidential administration, calling it nothing more than a "Democratic hoax," there was no telling how bad this virus was going to get.

Then came the night of Wednesday, March 11, 2020. The bulletin had come over our newswire that night -- Utah Jazz star player Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus. Suddenly, the Jazz's game with the Oklahoma City Thunder was canceled. So were other games. And suddenly, March Madness was coming to an end in the snap of a finger with conference tournaments being canceled.

Major League Baseball put its operations on hold, which absolutely positively sucked because I had invested in over $100 in tickets to spring training games THAT UPCOMING WEEKEND in Fort Myers with games involving the Red Sox and Twins at two stadiums I've never seen games at before.

The only pillar that seemed to not be crumbling was involving high school sports. The softball game between the Panthers and Pierson Taylor's Wildcats was still on that -- ironically -- Friday the 13th.

So I had planned to write my Saturday column on the pandemic and it's plight among our county high school and college teams.

As I arrived at Palatka for this pivotal softball battle between the two best teams in the district, nothing about the mood changed much. Fans were still engaged on what was happening between the white lines on both sides. I got the rosters upstairs and saw our freelance photographer, Greg Oyster, before the game. We had done away with full-time photographers as of October 2019, a move that I still look upon as brilliant for a newspaper like us (THAT was said with sarcasm and I still don't hold back on my criticism of that matter).

I jotted down the lineups upstairs above the softball field, then went outside onto the deck to cover this game. Immediately, the Wildcats of coach Richard Gonzalez were scheming on how to put the Panthers in an early vice grip against Funk. It started with leadoff hitter Deana Cunningham. She singled to left and stole second base on the very next pitch. Karen Kelly walked. Avery Harcus fouled out to Hudson in right field, but on the play, Cunningham sped to third base. Kelly would steal second to put two runners in scoring position.

Ava Ramos, whose mom Tonya I've known for years as Pierson Taylor High volleyball coach, lofted a single into right field to plate Cunningham and send Kelly to third. Kailey Poole delivered a sacrifice fly to Clemons in center field to bring in Kelly to make it 2-0.

Harcus was the hard-throwing junior hurler Gonzalez had, but he chose to throw a seventh-grader named Hailey Whidden instead. Whidden could mix and match off-speed pitches and have Panthers hitters chasing the entire evening. And she did for the first three innings, not allowing the Pamthers anything good to get a bat on.

However, the Panthers had a rally in the fourth that was about to make things interesting. They had runners on first and second with two outs, but Kennedy hit a soft pop up to second baseman Hannah Worden to end the threat.

Just looking at the body language of Malandrucco, I could see a tinge of frustration since Whidden was not giving her team anything good to get a hold of and that it was a matter of time before Harcus came in to end the game early if Gonzalez wanted to.

Funk pitched 3 2/3 innings, but now gave way to Kennedy, who could challenge opponents with her heat and riseball. Taylor, however, was about to challenge Kennedy in the fifth inning, threatening to put the game away. Kelly hit a booming triple to right field, Harcus was hit by a pitch and Ramos walked to load the bases. However, Kennedy gained her composure and struck out the next three hits she faced to get the Panthers out of the jam and keep hope alive.

But once again, Whidden frustrated Panthers hitters. In her five innings of work, Whidden finished with four hits allowed, one walk and one strikeout. It was time for Harcus to finish things up. She had little trouble with the Panthers in the sixth.

After Kennedy finished up a two-hit effort in 3 1/3 innings with one walk, one hit batsmen and eight strikeouts with a flawless top of the seventh, it was now down to Harcus to finish it out.

Then again, these Panthers showed how resilient they were, starting with last season. They had the first two batters make outs, but Musgrove, who had two hits on the evening, walked. Drew hit a groundball that third baseman Ramos flubbed for the Wildcats' third error of the night, and suddenly, both runners were in scoring position.

The Panthers' faithful were up and cheering loudly for its team. This group had nothing to be excited about all night against a Wildcats club that got the job done. And now it was up to Booth to deliver the hit and tie this game.

But she fell behind Harcus. Then on a 2-2 pitch, she hit an easy grounder to Worden, who threw her out at first base to end the game, scoring the 2-0 shutout and ending the Panthers' nine-game winning streak.

That, though, was secondary. Malandrucco and assistant coach Mindi Buckles were talking to the team afterward. It was there she had to deliver the bad news to her players that did not know beforehand that a trip scheduled for the next day to Orange Park to play Ridgeview High School was canceled.

When she finished talking with her team, her players began tending to the field as they normally do. I can see the look on Malandrucco's face was glum. I had a feeling I knew why.

She showed me her phone and the email Palatka High athletic director Bobby Humphries had sent. It basically read that all sporting events as of that night (this game was allowed to be played) were postponed due to the growing pandemic.

Reality was slowly setting in and not only did I have a story to write on this game, I had a column to bang out and have everything done in 90 minutes after I arrived back at 8:45 p.m. from my game. I found Musgrove. One of their team leaders, she tried to paint a picture of optimism and of hope, like this will go away in a short time and all will be back to normal.

But when it came to this subject and not having a game the next day, you can see her mood and face changed. She said, "We were just talking before the game about the fact that tomorrow's game was canceled. I was really upset about it. I looked at coach Mal and said, 'Our game's canceled tomorrow,' and she said, 'Don't talk to me about it. I don't want to talk about it.'"

Then she continued on by saying, "This is the moment I've been waiting for since freshman year. Senior year was going to be my time and the seniors' time to shine. And that's all we really wanted. If this was our last game, it would be devastating to us because this year is so important to us."

And she was right -- this isn't college where you can redshirt your way to another senior year. High school, it's black and white -- you get it one time and one time only. That slumping, ugly feeling was beginning to come splashing over this talented group of Panthers.

At 9-2 -- and even after this loss -- they were still prime to go places when the postseason began. The mistakes they made on this Friday night were fixable. Malandrucco said so. If you saw this game, you'd agree. Give Pierson Taylor its props. The Wildcats wanted it a little more on this particular night.

But as far as keeping a stiff upper lip and remaining positive that this was temporary, the truth was right there upon everyone. No vaccine to stop this and the death toll was about to rise from the coronavirus. 

"I have to sit back and impatiently wait on what I can and can not do," Malandrucco said. "As of right now, we can not be near the girls if they want to go to practice. It's like back to preseason where they can't be on the campus, can't use the facility and if they want to go play or throw or hit, they have to be at a whole different place to go that isn't PCSD (Putnam County School District), and the coaches can't be anywhere near them."

But the coach remained optimistic.

"I don't see this being our last game. I don't. If (the state) get ahead of this and tries to squash this as early as they can and keep everyone in spot and try to keep everyone in their homes and hope (the virus) doesn't spread, maybe we can play again. There's a lot of uncertainty. I'm trying to be patient."

And so I left with a lot of people back at that field wondering if they should say, "See you later," or "Good luck next year." It was sobering.

But in my heart of hearts, I knew I was never returning to this field for another game this year.

I wrote the column and story for my boss, Andy, and we got the paper out as we normally did that night with few local games being played on this day (Interlachen and Crescent City baseball played that night, too).

Now with my original vacation plans with my better half gone, Kamesa and I decided we should go north instead of south. Instead of Fort Myers, we chose Savannah to do a two-day, one-night trip that Sunday and Monday since I took the day off from work on that March 16. But even in Savannah, we knew all the possible St. Patrick's Day plans were about to be put down by this virus no one had an answer for other than masks or just staying home.

Social was now no way to go. I had to prepare for a new way of sports thinking without any action going on.

The high schools were now not only on spring break, but they were on sports hiatus. St. Johns River State's baseball and softball seasons were both gone and never returning that spring.

Andy and I made the decision that instead of having our All-County winter teams come out in May like they normally do, we would run them starting the following week. And so we did. Girls basketball, which Andy wrote, was first up. They went into the paper on March 25 with the girls player of the year (Interlachen's Malea Brown) and the girls basketball player of the year the following day.

But it was that Thursday, March 26 that I walked into the Daily News building and saw Andy come out of our editor's office and walking to me to tell me I was in charge now. The paper decided to furlough him.

I won't lie -- I was bitter and I was pissed off that my partner in crime of 17 1/2 years was being sent away, but in fairness, he was not in the best of health. Suddenly, I had no time off because, well, I WAS the sports department.

As for the state high school sports world, it became official on Monday afternoon, April 20, 2020 -- the FHSAA shut down all athletic competition until the following year. Just as I expected it would happen. And those seniors who were hoping to have a final year to enjoy and make a final name for themselves ... that was gone. Other than being born between late 2001 and the first seven or eight months of 2002, it was not their fault that a virus screwed them completely over.

Before long, I had one-page sports sections and had to basically come up with sports stories to have something local on a regular basis.

Eventually, I got two weeks off in the Summer of 2020 and went back to New Jersey as Andy did return for one last time to lay out the paper and help me out. He would pretty much be my assistant and even take charge on some nights between August and October before his health was grew worse.

Then on my birthday in 2020, I got the greatest gift of all -- I found out I tested positive with COVID. Without Andy around regularly anymore, it was left to me to lay out the sports section from the confines of MY OWN PLACE the following week!! I got through that and on December 15, 2020, I officially became sports editor.

Eventually, Andy passed away on August 17, 2021. I've had two assistant editors/writers since then.

Things changed dramatically, and I can pinpoint that night -- that Friday the 13th -- for when they did.

I think about that transitional time. I think about what happened to my boss. I think about those seniors that had the carpet pulled out from under them.

And I think of the Palatka High softball team and how so much greatness that was put in front that team got taken away from the Panthers that night. All of it could have been avoided, but it wasn't. I'd understand the anger and the hurt.

Nonetheless, the walls and pillars crumbled and no one could do a thing about it.

An Ocean County kegler's delight

 

One of the best gigs I ever had covering high school sports was bowling.

Yes, I did not stutter with my written words there. For the most part, the best part for the 15 years I did it was getting the results from the two bowling houses I used to deal with every week during the winter -- Ocean Lanes in Lakewood and Thunderbowl in Berkeley Township in a strip mall that no longer exists. Steve Vandegrift was wonderful to talk to in getting results every Wednesday.

That, honestly, was about 90% of the work. The rest of it really was postseason stuff. There was the Shore Conference Tournament for the top teams in each division from Ocean and Monmouth counties. There was the NJSIAA sectional tournaments for which if you finished Top 3 as a team, you qualified for the biggie every year -- the NJSIAA championships.

Over the years, the site for the championships moved around quite a bit. My first experience of covering the state final was in 1988 at the old Showboat in Atlantic City. On the surface, the idea to hold the state final in New Jersey's playground was intriguing and enticing, but when kids were sneaking out of the bowling house in between games to go next door to play slot machines, the NJSIAA had to reconsider this idea.

So in 1989, they moved the event to Carolier Lanes in North Brunswick alongside Route 1. The house got a big reputation, so much so that it was hosting the Johnny Petraglia Open there -- and where ABC would bring their cameras and crew and shoot the event live every year. I know -- in 1991, I had to step over some the thickest cables I ever laid eyes on to get through the front door to cover the NJSIAA championship, which started at 9 a.m. and needed EVERYONE out of the building by noon for the 1 p.m. telecast on ABC because BOTH events were being held that day.

Interestingly, that was the one year between 1987-92 that Ocean County did not walk away with a state title of some kind. In 1992 at Carolier Lanes, it was Lacey High newcomer Danielle Davis winning the girls overall state title. In 1987, Southern Regional's Debbie Freeman won the overall girls state championship and the Toms River High School North boys won the state team title. In 1988, North's Jay Stanton, who had a gaudy 220 average at Ocean Lanes that year, won the boys individual state title. And in 1989, a Lakewood High sophomore named Addie Dix won the girls state individual title.

And there were other things I witnessed after I started covering the state championship -- in 1988, highly touted Toms River North's boys team, coached by beloved band leader Frank Hughes, came up short in repeating as a state champion, taking second place, though Stanton won individually. The following year, Brick High's boys team coached by the wonderful Al Grove came up second, even with a star-studded pair of seniors Gabe Kamphausen and Kevin Musiakiewicz. 

But 1990 had the makings of one of the best bowling seasons Ocean County ever saw. Though Kamphausen and Musiakiewicz were gone and in college, Grove's team was not depleted by any means. He had two senior mainstays back in Mike DeTata and the young man who I called the "bowler's bowler" in Anthony Bilello, a longtime kegler who would go on to coach college bowling one day. DeTata and Bilello were the Mutt and Jeff of the team, DeTata being shorter and stalky and Bilello taller and lanky.

Still, you need a supporting cast to take you places and Grove's Green Dragons had that in Mike Ulrich, Tom Lucas and Tony DiGironimo, It was as if this team did not miss a beat week after week.

The Green Dragons had been the county's best bowling team in the six years I had covered the sport on the boys side. The best team on the girls' side? That was Brick Memorial, who was coached by Marie Kobilnyk. She took the program over the year I started covering the sport in 1984. And her teams were always consistent and had reached the state finals a few times. But something would always happen and the hopes of a state title died on those oiled-up alleys.

Except for one girl who graduated the year before, Dawn Hess, Kobilnyk had her whole team returning. This group of Mustang girls was led by Tracy Whitman and Eileen Ruddy, the team's lone seniors. They, like the Brick boys, had a strong supporting cast in Paula Yancis, Stephanie Sabatino and Gina Gioia, a freshman, putting them in the conversation to compete for a state championship.

Both the Brick boys and Brick Memorial girls were coming off stellar performances at the South Jersey championships in Cherry Hill and Pennsauken. Now could they finally duplicate that into state championships?

Saturday, March 3, 1990 was going to be the telling tale. I woke up very early -- like 7:30 a.m. early -- and was on the road by 8:15 for the 10 a.m. start to the NJSIAA finals at Carolier. Thankfully, I had been there the year before, so I knew once I got to the ridiculously cluttered intersection of Route 18 and Route (OK, US-) 1 in Middlesex County, I had to be in the right lane to make the jughandle to head south on 1 until I saw the house on the opposite side of the highway. Then I'd have to find the first jughandle and make a U-turn to head in the other direction to pull into the parking lot, which was barely sufficient for parking, but it worked on this day.

This is why you show up early for these big events!

I found out on this particular day from Grove, one of the most recognizable people you will ever meet with the Jerry Garcia-like glasses and long beard, that his team shared a yellow bus with the Brick Memorial girls to get to Carolier Lanes. On the other side of the house where the girls competed, I saw Kobilnyk, asked her how she was doing. After answering me, she nudged her head slightly to the crowd behind her team. Let's say Brick Memorial brought a large representation of fans to this event.

"We're going to be fine," she said.

The third person I needed to find was Dix, who was back to defend her championship. She was bowling with her Piner teammates and her coach, Madli Monesson, was watching intently behind her. You could sense some nerves there, but coach told me she had seen her star pupil, now a junior, do this plenty of times.

There was plenty of representation from the county at this large house on this cool March morning. Even among the talented North Jersey bowlers there, I was comfortable among the people I was there to cover that day.

Somehow, I had a feeling we were going to win a state title. What happened next, I didn't expect.

I positioned myself behind Brick's bowlers, who were rolling against a North Jersey team, though the school name escapes me. Brick High's boys did not bring a large contingent compared to their sister school's girls team, but they were loud. And the Green Dragons were on a roll. DeTata, DiGeronimo and Bilello were unstoppable. They rolled a 210, 208 and 202, respectively, in that first game. It was one strike after another.

When the game was done, I looked up at their screens above the ball returner.

Brick -- 1,001.

Sadly, I had been here before with North in 1988 and with Brick in 1989. My attitude was "Show me more." So I told Grove I'd return to him for Game 3 when I got the chance and that I was going to be over watching the Brick Memorial girls bowl.

Turns out, I didn't have to relocate them -- I just followed the noise their fans brought. They had to be loud for a reason and they did have a reason. In their first game, the Mustang ladies had bowled an 856 first game. They were well ahead at this point, so I wanted to hang around to see what the second game would bring.

By the middle of the second game, I was in need of earplugs ... desperately. EVERY strike the Mustangs girls nailed or even a simple spare was met by loud cheers. They followed the 856 first game with an impressive 890 second game. That put them up at 1,746 and over 170 pins ahead of JFK-Iselin. Unless they forgot how to bowl or JFK-Iselin put on a show that left jaws dropped in the third game, Brick Memorial was winning their first state title in the sport.

I took a quick walk down to where the Brick boys were. they followed 1,001 up with a 995 and at 1,996, it was still hit or miss, even if the Green Dragons had a 200-pin lead. Remember as I said -- I'd been here before.

I said I'd return again, but this time I wanted to watch Dix bowl with her Piner teammates. They were in the hunt for a top three placement because they weren't winning as a team. As mentioned, unless Brick Memorial went sleep-walking, the Mustangs were on their way to a championship. But after two games, Dix was leading the girls' individual competition. She had been consistent in rolling a 425 through two games, compared to Pascack Valley's Janine Cauwels, who had a 397.

Was I really dreaming this day? In one day, I would have been covering THREE state champions out of four opportunities at this event.

However, things changed for Dix. Suddenly she wasn't figuring out the alleys like she had in the first two games. She left frames open and had finished with a 172 final game to roll a 597. Cauwels, meanwhile, got going and nothing could stop her at her end of the alleys She bowled a 236 and ended up taking the state title away from Dix with a 633.

The calm, cool and laid-back Dix liked how she did on the day, but you can tell the disappointment on her face. It didn't end the way she was hoping it would end,

Meanwhile, the Brick Memorial fans didn't stop screaming every time one of the Mustangs did something. The third game ended with them rolling an 863. They put JFK-Iselin away by nearly 300 pins in the end with a final pinfall of 2,609. The numbers they put up on this day were insane, and here's the tragedy -- none of the Mustangs' quintet had qualified individually from the previous week's South Jersey championship. Yancis would have finished third with a 594 total.

Gioia, the freshman, rolled a 529. Sabatino finished at 511, Whitman at 503 and Ruddy had the low total of 472. I surely would have loved to average 157 per game each time I bowled.

"I had a lot of confidence in this team," Kobilnyk said afterward. "This was a team effort."

And over on the boys' side, Brick was finishing off its day to remember with its best game of the day -- a 1,021 to finish at 2,977, well ahead of second-place Linden. And two other county teams I was there to cover on this day -- Lakewood and Toms River East -- finished third and fourth, respectively.

Bilello finished third overall with a 635 pinfall, while DeTata was sixth individually at 626.

"Last year's team had mega-talent and we should've won the title," Bilello said. "This year's team is full of spirit. Everyone's bowling for the team, not for themselves."

Grove was playing the championship moment cool for he had one more surprise for his team -- and I knew what it was going to be. He had always told me over the years that the day his bowling team would win a state title, he'd shave his trademark beard off. It may have taken him 11 years as coach, but he kept a kit in a bag he brought with him to matches. There was the razor and there was the shaving cream.

And with his bowlers watching -- they may have been accurate on bowling lanes, but he wasn't trusting him with his whiskers -- Grove shaved off the beard as promised.

"I'll feel it when I go outside and the cold breeze hits me," said Grove. "I've wanted to shave it for years, but I needed a reason to do it. My wife likes the beard."

It was a different look I had to get used to at that point, especially covering softball that spring where Grove was head coach. He would coach both the boys bowling and softball teams until retiring in 1994. Sadly, we lost this wonderful man to cancer in 2011. He will always be one of my favorite coaches.

Oh, and that bus ride home -- I am sure that had to be the loudest-sounding bus in central New Jersey with two state champions aboard. 

I left after getting all the information I needed from that day and headed back the other way, though for some silly reason, I wanted to have lunch at the Big Boy's restaurant at the rest stop just over the Garden State Parkway. I did and headed back down the Parkway south to Toms River to get back to the Observer building to write about this amazing day.

Amazingly, a front-page story of not one, but TWO state championship teams ended up on the THIRD page of the sports section. I know .. WTF?! Don't ask me why ... I can't answer for my sports editor's decision then.

That

day at Carolier Lanes is still one of the most amazing ones I've ever witnessed. It was an Ocean County kegler's delighr.

If all days were quite like that one.

From locked out to the culmination of a great 1988 season

When we last left the Central Regional High School softball team, it was Wednesday, June 8, 1988, and the Golden Eagles had just scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning on Stacy Witfill and Monsignor Donovan to win the Ocean County Tournament in dramatic fashion, 3-2, at Toms River High School South.

It was truly one of those moments in time that showed those in attendance what the Golden Eagles' softball program was all about under coach Norm Selby -- the grit of a comeback victory and doing so without the panic that would dull that calmness this club exuded.

And so after the championship was over and the Golden Eagles had received the championship trophy from tournament director and Lakewood High softball coach Dave MacKelvey, you'd thought they'd have a little party on the bus as they immediately went back to Bayville to the school and party some more there, right?

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!

"Selby, you know we should just drive over to Donovan and do a lap around the school with the trophy!" Angel Slack told Selby. Normally, that would be an idea left to the side of the road after being laughed at during the moment. But these two teams were big-time rivals. Selby and assistant coach Gloria Garibaldi prided themselves on the program they built into a winner in the 1980s, first under previous coach Marshall Davenport. Selby and Garibaldi just enhanced it further. Johnny Come Latelys were frowned upon, especially when a new pitcher with Witfill's talent and power shows up at the team's doorstep from St. Rose the year before and automatically transforms a Donovan program that struggled for years into a winning club.

So the idea that Selby's star pitcher threw out there was taken into consideration. Central's bus headed from South up Hooper Avenue no more than a mile and a half to Donovan where -- sure as anything -- Central's bus did the one lap around Donovan's parking lot showing off the trophy, then headed back to Bayville.

Truth is, for all the celebrating these Central ladies wanted to do, they still had one last bit of business to attend to -- capturing the Shore Conference Class B South championship all to themselves. Because of postseason tournaments, which took precedent over regular-season games, the Golden Eagles had one last game to play for the division title against another team Central had a history with -- Manasquan High School, led by longtime mentor Pat Barnaba, who, too, had a ton of talented young ladies on her club, led by leadoff hitter and catcher Chris Hilla and No. 3 hitter and second baseman Amy Faas.

Manasquan would go into the game with a 20-6 record and 9-2 divisional record, the only blemishes being to Central on Central's field and to an up-and-coming Wall team of second-year Tony Vodola. The Golden Eagles were trying to top off the greatest season by an Ocean County softball team, taking a 26-3 record into the game with the losses coming to Wall in the regular season in divisional play, JFK-Iselin in the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III state semifinal round and to Manasquan in the Shore Conference Tournament semifinals.

So that loss to Manasquan was still in the front of Selby's mind as well as his players' minds when they loaded up the bus at 8:15 in the morning on Saturday, June 11, 1988, and headed north to Manasquan to arrive for a 10 a.m. game that would determine if Central was going to win this divisional title by itself or have to share it with both Wall and Manasquan at 10-2 since the Knights' season was over with that 10-2 mark. As for myself, I left my childhood home at 8:40 a.m. to get to Manasquan's field -- which I never covered a game on before -- for the 10 a.m. game. I used to leave way early when I was heading to a school I had never been to before and frankly, I had never covered an event at Manasquan High in the nearly four years I was at the Ocean County Observer. 

I arrived at Manasquan High at about 9:15 a.m., the field located in the back of the school along a street in the back. Neat little set-up. I parked my car a few blocks away from the field (foul balls, windshields, you know what I'm talking about here, don't you?). I walked over to the field and Central was already there, but there was a problem.

The gates were locked to get onto the field from the street and this forced Central players to have to practice outside the fence with simple tossing. You didn't have to ask Norm Selby how he was feeling at the moment -- he was pissed off to say the least. He wanted to start practicing infield/outfield with his players like he had for 29 previous games. Normally, he would take catcher Lisa Wallace with him to the plate and he'd hit grounders to a sound infield of Dawn Boertmann at first base, Dee Boudah at second, and star players Kelly McGowan at shortstop and Michelle Carlson at third. Garibaldi would take the outfielders, hitting fungos to left fielder Alison Duffy, center fielder Sue Faella and right fielder Sue Bitten. Then Slack, who was slated to start this finale to her season and career, would come to the circle and start taking grounders and relays after warming up.

This would be the normal routine. This is what Central Regional would be doing over a half hour before the game. But they couldn't because they couldn't get on the field, and worse, there was no sight of Barnaba and her Big Blue players in the distance of the school. Suddenly, 9:20 became 9:25, then 9:30, then 9:35 and finally at 9:41 a.m., the doors opened and the Big Blue players just casually walked out of the school and to the field.

It was Manasquan's home game, and the umpires were arriving five minutes after Barnaba and her players showed up. Needless to say, none of Central's bunch were too pleased having to wait this long to have the gates unlocked and properly warm up. We were all wondering if this was just a mental game Manasquan was playing in making Central wait to get on the field.

If it was, all it did was fuel Central further. And needless to say, the game didn't start until 10 minutes after 10. Manasquan pitcher Debra Swaney started and got two groundouts and a strikeout in the first. In the bottom of the first, Hilla led off with a single and Barnaba decided to shake things up by having Hilla steal second. But Wallace put a perfect throw to McGowan to throw her out.

This was key because both Amy Burns and Faas singled to put runners on first and second immediately after the caught stealing. But the shaky Slack got a forceout of Melissa Metuch's grounder to Carlson at third and struck out Denise Aromando to end the inning.

Maybe those early jitters were out of the way. Soon, though, Slack was back on the mound after Central's middle of the lineup went groundout, popout and foulout to end the second.

Big Blue third baseman Jenny deCastro singled and moved to second on a wild pitch. That was followed by a walk to Katy Hoos (Manasquan had some interesting last names on its roster) and an infield single by designated hitter Kim Lockenmeyer to load the bases.

Uh-oh. Maybe the mental games of before the first pitch were playing tricks on Slack and her teammates. Slack settled down, though, to strike out No. 9 hitter Stacey Schilling. But that meant Hilla was back up. She looped a 1-2 pitch into center field to bring in deCastro. Burns hit a comebacker to Slack, who threw to Wallace to get Hoos at the plate, but Faas walked on four pitches to bring in the second run to make it 2-0. Slack got Matuch to pop out to end the inning, but the Golden Eagles were down to 2-0.

And to a casual viewer of the game such as myself, something didn't seem right or feel right with Slack. It turns out she wasn't 100 percent for the game. Selby told me after the game, "Angel was pitching with a 102-degree temperature. Gloria knew she was ill and we just sent her home Friday. She wasn't doing us any good practicing with us on Friday, so we told her to get the day's rest and come back today."

It may have been short-sighted for Slack to be out there trying to pitch her guts out when she wasn't at her best, but nonetheless, there she was trying to secure Central's first outright Class B South title ever and first outright divisional title in seven years.

After going six up and six down, though, there needed to be a wakeup call. Faella began the top of the third inning with an infield single. After Boertmann popped out, No. 9 hitter Boudah forced Faella at second base.

There was two outs, but at least it was back to the dangerous top of the Golden Eagles' lineup. Carlson, who was building an impressive softball resume as the cat burglar-quick third baseman and an eight-game winner in the circle as the backup pitcher, while also being the quintessential "do-everything-to-get-on-base" leadoff hitter, dropped a two-out bunt on an unsuspecting Big Blue infield and beat it out for an infield hit.

This brought up Duffy, a solid junior leftfielder. She hit a grounder that shortstop Matuch should have just swallowed up and stepped on second base for the forceout of Carlson. But she may have seen Carlson barreling into second base with her speed and for one second took her eye off the ball. The bobble and error allowed the bases to be loaded for No. 3 hitter Wallace.

Like Duffy with older sister Dee, Wallace had an older sibling who had enjoyed success in previous years as Lynn Wallace played center field for the 1986 team that won both the NJSIAA South Jersey Group III and Ocean County Tournament titles like this '88 team did.

Swaney threw a first-pitch ball. Wallace nearly lost the next pitch to her.

"Ping!" The sound still resonates to this day as Wallace nailed the delivery and put a laser shot to the right-center field gap on a fenceless field. Boudah, Carlson and Duffy all scored and suddenly, it was Central holding the 3-2 lead. Wallace would tell me after the game, "I was just looking for a base hit. I just wanted a hit. (Swaney) threw it right down the middle. I had been coming under the ball and (Selby) had his eye on it. I had to keep my hands in and back."

If not for Bitten hitting a rope right at third baseman deCastro, the inning would have gone on.

Suddenly, the fans on the Central side of the field along the back street were excited. And Slack further got them excited by finally having a 1-2-3 inning in the third.

Soon, though, the Big Blue would be back to the plate. Slack got Lockenmeyer on a strikeout and Schilling on a groundout. But that meant Hilla was back to the plate. One swing could change the game from her. And it did. Hilla sent a booming triple over Faella's head and suddenly, the Big Blue were in business again. Burns walked and stole second, but still, all Central needed was one out to get out of the inning.

It didn't happen as Faas hit a grounder to Boudah, who booted it for an error to allow Hilla to score the tying run. Slack got out of the jam by inducing Matuch into a foulout to Carlson, keeping it at 3-3.

Suddenly, I thought, "Oh, great. There goes the momentum!" For all the successes I had seen of Selby's Golden Eagles over the years, I had seen their failures, too. But with this team, I never had that "Oh, no, it's all starting to go downhill" feeling, even with Slack throwing with a 102-degree temperature, Carlson still dealing with the aftermath of a badly hurt thumb in the final week of the season, McGowan dealing with a hurt arm, Bitten having to nurse a slight knee injury and Faella sporting a toothache she had no time to take care of, all according to the coach.

Yet, all these young ladies with the physical troubles were out there trying to win that outright divisional title in the final game of the season on this sunny, blue-sky Saturday morning as Bitten and Slack were playing their final games in Central uniforms. 

The Golden Eagles had a threat in the fifth inning as Duffy singled and Wallace walked, but Bitten popped out to first base to end the inning. Other than a deCastro single with one out in the bottom of the fifth, Slack navigated out of possible danger with a flyout by Hoos and a foulout by Lockenmeyer.

With all the hurts and aches Central players were dealing with, it probably was best to avoid extra innings at all costs. And the girl with the bum arm at shortstop took matters into her hands.

McGowan had delivered the game-winning hit that ultimately captured Central's first state sectional title in 1986 when she was a freshman. She was about to help put the ribbon on this amazing season. On a 1-1 pitch from Swaney, She blasted a shot over Hoos' head and didn't stop running until Selby put the hands-up stop sign at third base.

The triple was a nice start to the sixth. All Central needed to do now was get a bat on the ball and avoid a Big Blue glove to get McGowan home. The Golden Eagles had struck out just twice in the game against Swaney. Sounds easy, right?

It was! Slack hit a grounder away from danger as first baseman Burns got the ball, but had one play to Faas covering first for the out. McGowan crossed the plate and Central had a 4-3 lead.

With one out in the sixth, Hilla finished out a superb high school career for herself with her fourth hit of the game, a single to left field. But there were no thoughts of trying to steal again on Wallace. Burns flied out to Faella and her achy tooth and Faas hit a comebacker to the girl with the 102-degree temperature.

Central put two runners on base with one out in the seventh, looking to expand on the lead, but Swaney got Bitten to pop out to Matuch and McGowan hit a grounder to Matuch, who tossed to deCastro at third for the forceout and final out of the inning.

All it left was Slack to get the final three outs of the game, the season ... and her career. Matuch hit a grounder at Carlson, who swallowed it up and fired to Boertmann at first for the first out. Aromando hit a line drive, but at Boudah for the second out. All that was left was deCastro, who had touched Slack for two hits on the day.

And she hit the ball again -- but this time to the wrong player. Right at Carlson. She gobbled that grounder, too, and fired to Boertmann for the final out of the game.

Central had held on for the 4-3 win and could now add Shore Conference Class B South champions along with their titles of NJSIAA South Jersey Group III, Ocean County and early-season Pemberton tournament champions.

They ended the year with a 27-3 record, breaking the county and program record of 26 wins established by Selby's first team in 1981. Slack ended her year at 19-2, striking out five Big Blue hitters, walking three, scattering eight hits and giving up two earned runs.

There were hugs and happiness from the Central young ladies, though with all that was ailing Central on this day, I'm not sure how much partying they wanted to do. 

Over the years, Selby always told me about the pride he ran his program with Garibaldi. They were never "girls" to him. They were "young ladies." And he could not have been prouder of how his "young ladies" handled the adversity on this Saturday morning, especially being locked out of a softball field so they could warm up before the game.

"That's the kind of kid we had here at Central this season," Selby started off telling me after the victory. "If they had a 2 p.m. appointment somewhere, they would get to that appointment at 2:25 p.m. They put up the time to practice and put up with me and G (Garibaldi). They had to put up with that and more."

These Golden Eagles were always devoted to the love of softball and the chance to do something special -- like this '88 group was.

It was an early day for me. I got to the Observer just after 1 p.m. and wrote the story, did some other things around the office and went home for the rest of that day.

But it was a wonderful morning, which started in that bizarre fashion of Central not being able to get onto a field to practice. Mentally, that could have ruined most good teams that the other team didn't want you to have your regular routine. Maybe it was miscommunication, too, but even 33 years later, I highly doubt that.

Central and Manasquan were, at times, very bitter rivals.

And that's what made the last game of the 1988 season -- even a regular-season game -- a special one, played by a group of special players who made it their business to not share anything with any other team that day.

The capper to a long-awaited great season

So many things could have conspired to make the 1989 Toms River High School East softball season yet another season of heartbreak and failure.

Whether it was the first coach of the program, the late Gail Halbfoster, or her successor, Rick Dispoto, or his successor before the 1988 season, Debbie Dietrich, the history of Toms River East softball was one of disappointment.

Sure, there were plenty of fantastic seasons in which the team would win the Shore Conference Class A South title. The Raiders did that five times between 1983-88. But when it came to postseason play, the Raiders had never gotten far enough to claim a title of any kind. As a matter of fact, the only time in the first nine years of the program the Raiders played for a tournament championship was 1987 and they were shocked by Lacey High in the final, 7-5, the Lions being the last of 10 seeds in the Ocean County Tournament that year.

The 1988 Raiders won the Class A South title under Dietrich in her debut year as coach with assistant Diane Morrissey helping her. But Margie Egrie-led Atlantic City would beat the Raiders on the Raiders' home field in the South Jersey Group IV tournament. In the Ocean County Tournament, it was Toms River North taking down the Raiders on the Raiders' home field in the quarterfinal round. And the Raiders would lose to Central Regional, 16-9, in the Shore Conference Tournament quarterfinals at Central as the Golden Eagles were in the middle of a 27-3 season under coach Norm Selby.

But one of the centerpieces of that 1988 Golden Eagles team was about to tip the scales in East's favor in the Fall of 1988. Michelle Carlson was moving with her family out of Bayville into Toms River and though she told yours truly over the years she never planned on leaving Selby and the Golden Eagles' program, that it wasn't going to work semantically. Her parents weren't going to get her in a car and drive from Toms River to Bayville every day, so she was having to enroll in classes at Toms River East as a junior.

And once Dietrich found out about this, she suddenly realized her very good team, which had won 20 games the year before, was about to become better. The all-important battery was established with catcher Kathy Hawtin and pitcher Kim Tompkins beginning their third year together on varsity. Jennifer Brown was back at first base, junior Christine Grice was returning to second base, Cristy Iorio, like the battery, was now the Raiders' established shortstop, and Carlson was going to fit in perfectly at third base, moving Grice from the hot corner to second. The outfield featured seniors Kathy Higley in right field, Sally Ballantyne in left and junior newcomer Jeannine Zarillo in center field. Cheryl Stump would take the pressure off Tompkins ever hitting by being the designated hitter (designated player now).

The Raiders started the 1989 season at 18-0, the second-greatest start behind Toms River South's 19-0 start in 1976. But Greta Jannsch stymied East in the circle down at Southern Regional High and handed the Raiders their first loss of the season, 6-3. The Raiders, though, would not be deterred to win yet another Class A South championship.

First up was the state tournament -- yes, the state tournament was FIRST!! The Raiders won a dramatic, come-from-behind victory over Toms River South for their first-ever state tournament win -- yes, it took all these years to WIN A STATE TOURNAMENT GAME for the program. But in the following game, a gamble in center field by Zarrillo on a low-sinking line drive proceeded to go behind her on East's fence-less outfield and two runs scored -- the only two runs Washington Township needed to beat the Raiders, 2-0.

Uh-oh!! Here we go again!! All I kept thinking was "please don't let arguably the greatest Raiders team assembled go down in flames, too."

Stump delivered a pair of run-scoring doubles in the opening round of the Shore Conference Tournament on Memorial Day, May 29, 3-1. Over a week earlier, the Raiders began the Ocean County Tournament run with a quarterfinal victory over Brick, then defeated Lacey in the semifinals, 8-3, to advance to the final for the second time in three years.

But on May 31, the Raiders were hosting Lacey again, this time in the Shore Conference Tournament quarterfinals. And coach Mike Shern had his Lady Lions ready. They took a 1-0 lead on the old East field which is now a soccer and lacrosse field on the side of the gymnasium. East threatened with Hawtin on second and one out. Grice hit a screaming liner that was ticketed for the left-center field gap. In what I still consider the greatest catch I've ever seen on a softball diamond, left fielder Janene Spitaletto dove to her right and caught the ball while sliding o n East's rough outfield turf. When she got up, she fired the ball into second base to complete the double play as Hawtin was heading back to the dugout thinking she had just scored the tying run.

Lacey built a 3-0 lead going into the sixth. But an error off a steal attempt of third base by pinch-runner Cindy Himpele allowed her to come home and an RBI infield hit by Ballantyne brought home Zarrillo to make it 3-2 going to the seventh.

That was the first time all year I started to feel that "Raider magic." In the bottom of the seventh, Hawtin walked, Grice beat out a sacrifice bunt for a hit and an error by pitcher Patty Brilly on a Higley grounder loaded the bases with no outs. Left-handed hitting Stump came up. On a 1-1 pitch, she drilled a drive into left-center field to score both Hawtin and Grice and complete a 4-3 victory. I watched Raiders players jump up and down in elation and angry and sad Lions players come off the field in dejection.

That was Lacey's win and East was having nothing to do with it.

One night later with the glow of that victory very much apparent, East arrived at Wilbur Thompson Field in Lakewood to play a back-and-forth drama with rival Toms River South, who the Raiders had beaten three times during the season, for the county championship. In a game that saw Tompkins get a line drive back at her face by South's Emily Dupignac, but the blow of that ball hitting her was dulled by her putting her glove up in time, the teams battled to 8-8 by the bottom of the seventh inning.

Once again, though, the "Raider magic" prevailed. Hawtin walked, stole second, took third on a single and once again, it was Stump playing hero by hitting a high chopper to second baseman Marti Seaman, who did not have enough time to throw Hawtin out at the plate as East celebrated its first-ever tournament title, beating the Indians, 9-8.

And once the Raiders won that first important championship in program history, everything else fell into place for what would be the finale. The Raiders came back on Monday, June 5 to take down Wall, 8-1, in the SCT semifinals at Toms River South.

Now one game was left. It was the Shore Conference Tournament final on Wednesday, June 7, 1989, and the last team left standing was Red Bank Catholic. The Caseys were having a really good season at 19-3. The heart of the Casey team was the top of their batting order -- shortstop Megan Zusi leading off, right fielder Jen Gross batting second, pitcher Ellie Traino hitting third and center fielder Kim Harter batting cleanup. Traino, undeniably, was the Caseys' best player, a tall talent at 5-foot-10 who could bring it hard on opposing hitters.

By now, though, these Raiders were confident. The 25-2 record they came into the game with spoke volumes. But, of course, there was one more demon Dietrich, Morrissey and her Raiders needed to turn back -- one of the two losses the Raiders suffered was on this Southern Regional field.

I was at the game covering it as I was expected to as the softball writer for the Ocean County Observer, finishing up my fifth year of covering high school softball. I am a Toms River East graduate so I knew a lot about the program and the players in general. A good amount of them were seniors on this team and were graduating with my sister that June.

Well, Asbury Park Press softball writer Theresa Shevlin arrived at Southern moments after I had gotten there and she was an unabashed RBC grad. This made for interesting coverage. I sat up top of the small bleachers along the first-base side, Theresa sitting along the first row. She looks at me and tells me she thinks this is going to be her alma mater's day and they'll break through against the top-seeded Raiders.

I looked at her, smiled and said, "No chance."  Traino needed to be better than excellent to keep this Raider lineup down. And after the first three batters in the Casey lineup hit groundballs to Iorio (two of them) and Carlson that they turned into outs. I was pretty confident on what the outcome was going to be. In the first, Ballantyne got a base hit, but Traino got Iorio and Brown to fly out to end the inning.

In the second, that got tested though, when Harter hit a grounder that swallowed up Brown for an error. One out later, Karen Taylor bunted her up to second, but in what would be her last game as a Raider, Tompkins got Dana Jack to pop out to Iorio.

In the bottom of the second, Grice singled with one out. Traino struck out Higley, but Stump walked to put runners on first and second and bring up No. 9 hitter Zarrillo. Ever since that line drive in the Washington Township game went under her glove allowing the only two runs of the game to score, she had beaten herself up for the mistake. Now, Zarrillo had a chance to redeem herself in the first huge moment of the game.

And, oh, did she ever do so. On a 1-2 offering from Traino, Zarrillo drilled the ball over Harter's head. I'm guessing Harter did not think a No. 9 hitter could launch a rocket over her head. She was proven wrong. Grice and Stump scored and Zarrillo landed a third with a triple.

Zarrillo's shot had practically opened the cork to the champagne and the soon-to-be celebration. Still, to this day, it's one of the biggest clutch hits I've ever witnessed.

But the inning was not over yet. Leadoff hitter Carlson was hit by a pitch and openly took second base. Ballantyne hit a grounder at Jack, who muffed it for an error, allowing Zarrillo and Carlson to score to make it 4-0.

In the third inning, Kim Dollinger singled. RBC put the hit and run on with No. 9 hitter and designated hitter Melissa DelPresto at the plate. But DelPresto popped up to Brown, who only had to step on the base to complete the double play. Zusi flied out to Zarrillo and suddenly, RBC looked like a confused team down 4-0 and East was a confident team which could sense the blood in the water.

In the bottom of the third, Hawtin and Grice started the inning with singles. Grice beat out a close play at second on a Higley grounder to load the bases. But things started looking bad for East. Stump struck out and Hawtin was thrown out at home trying to score on a passed ball (the backstop on Southern's old field wasn't too deep in those days).

So with two outs and runners on second and third after the out at the plate, Zarrillo stepped up again. On a 2-1 pitch, she drilled a shot to left-center field for a single that brought in Grice and Higley and it was 6-0.

Meanwhile, Tompkins settled into a groove. She retired five of the next six batters in the fourth and fifth innings, but with two outs in the fifth, Dollinger doubled. With Liz Ryan at 1-2 in the count, RBC thought it might be a good time to catch the Raiders sleeping. Pinch-runner Nicole Gross took off for third, but Tompkins was fully aware of what was happening and fired to Carlson, who chased Gross back to Grice, who caught the ball and made the tag for the third out.

These Raiders could simply do no wrong. Traino, who the next time I would see on a softball field was in some professional league in the mid-1990s that ESPN2 used to show the games, the same league that also had Michelle Carlson playing in it, kept the deficit to 6-0 heading to the bottom of the sixth, hoping to give the Caseys one more chance in what was already a humbling experience. Traino got Stump to line out to open the inning, but her personal kryptonite, Zarrillo, was up again. She drilled another single to left field to be 3-for-3 for the game.

Carlson worked out a walk. An error by Traino trying to throw out Zarrillo at second moved the runners up a base. Ballantyne hit a grounder that they tried to get Zarrillo again at third, but she beat the play back to the base, loading the bases for Iorio. Iorio singled to center to score Zarrillo and Carlson, and when Traino committed another error on the play, that allowed Ballantyne to come home from first to make it 9-0.

The story of the '89 East season was almost finished. Traino helped finish it for East when she threw a wild pitch to Brown on the first pitch of the at-bat, allowing Iorio to scamper home with the 10th and final run of the game.

And it was over -- East had the emphatic 10-0 victory over the Caseys and their first-ever Shore Conference Tournament. Tompkins finished her career in terrific fashion, allowing three hits, walking one batter and striking out three to finish her season at 26-2 like the team. Both she and Zarrillo were the stars of the capper to one of Ocean County's greatest seasons.

It was also East's breakthrough to what would be an amazing 26-year career for Dietrich, now Debbie Schwartz, as head coach. Now Donovan Catholic's head coach, Schwartz's Griffins won the overall NJSIAA Tournament of Champions title in 2019, exactly 30 years to the day East won her first-ever title as coach in the OCT final over Toms River South.

East players rightfully celebrated this amazing 26-2 season, but realized this would be the last time they would be together. But it was a longer ride home than expected. I remember heading back onto the Garden State Parkway, but traffic came to a standstill due to an accident miles up the road. I got to the Lacey Township rest stop and just took a walk to the northbound-side of the Parkway to see how long the traffic was. Suddenly, I see a Toms River bus coming up on right side. One of the East players asked what was going on and I told them there seemed to be an accident up ahead. We had about a three-minute conversion before the bus could move up a little more. 

I eventually got back to the Observer to write the story and continue working on the Lacey-Middletown North girls soccer championship in the SCT. Lacey would win that championship, 4-2.

I had one more final thing to do and that was write about the All-County team for softball in which Carlson, Tompkins, Higley, Ballantyne, Hawtin and Stump made first team.

That 1989 season ended in a way a great team's season should win -- a title-game victory. That '89 East team was special ... and found its way out of possible pitfalls of its past to prevail as a two-time tournament champion.

When I told Theresa Shevlin that RBC had no chance to beat East, I meant it. It wasn't small talk.

These East Raiders were committed to putting an exclamation point on what was a great year.