Falcons reel off three in a row behind Salvatore

By: Carolyn M. Hartko
   The Monroe High School girls’ varsity softball team finally won its first game of the season this past Monday, but starting pitcher Brittany Salvatore didn’t get to go to Disney World.
   Instead, she had to settle for seeing the move Anger Management on Monday night. That was almost as good, since Salvatore really likes comedies. And the Disney World trip will come this summer, as her family makes the annual pilgrimage to their favorite playground.
   It turned out that Monday was the start of at least (as of press time) a three-game winning streak for Monroe. The Lady Falcons demolished Metuchen 17-1 on Monday, squeaked by North Brunswick 1-0 on Tuesday, and downed Colonia 6-3 on Wednesday. The latter two games represent Monroe’s first victories against division foes since moving up into the Greater Middlesex Conference’s White Division, and the streak raised Monroe’s record to 3-4.
   Salvatore had a big game on Monday, from both directions. She pitched a one-hitter, went 2-for-4 at bat with two RBI and three runs scored. She gave up just four hits against North Brunswick, and three against Colonia, and she struck out six of the Lady Patriots. On a team that hasn’t yet produced a big hitter, Salvatore continues to help out on offense.
   "Sometimes with pitchers, you overlook how they play the other part of their game," Falcon head coach Keith Hudak said. "Brittany’s not a big power hitter, but she can hit from both sides of the plate. She does a little bit of slap stuff lefty, and hits righty, and she’s got very good speed. When she gets on base, we can do some things with her speed."
   But Salvatore knows her primary job for the Falcons is pitching, and that’s where she spends most of her practice time. The 16 year old sophomore estimates 75 percent of her practices are devoted to hurling.
   "Most of the time, I’ll pitch," Salvatore said. "And when I’m not pitching — if I take a day off or something — I’ll go to the batting cages for an hour, and I’ll work there. But I don’t really work on my hitting as much as I do on my pitching."
   Salvatore has a repertoire of five pitches, including a change, screwball, drop and curve. She’s working on a rise. She feels that her best at this point is the drop, but she finds herself using the screwball most in high school competition.
   Salvatore came to the game of softball a little later than girls who start out on rec teams in fourth or fifth grade. She was 12 when her father, Joe, recruited her to play on a travel team that he coached. Brittany is still playing travel team ball, currently with the NJ Breakers. Based in Monroe, the team plays games all over New Jersey, and in neighboring states as well. Joe, who grew up playing baseball, has continued to be his daughter’s pitching coach.
   When it comes to strategy, Brittany feels she still has a lot to learn, but she likes the intensity of the game of softball. That’s especially true when it comes to trying to psyche out batters.
   "You’ve just got to focus on what you’re going to throw," the young Falcon said. "Just focus on that one pitch, and not worry about anything else that’s happening around you. You’ve just got to focus – that’s basically it."
   "Brittany competes very well," Hudak said. "She struggled a little bit at the beginning of the year with control. She’s walked some people. And if you run into trouble like that, you have to have a little bit of toughness to you. You have to be a bit of a competitor. And I think that’s her best feature."
   Between the high school team, and the Breakers, Brittany pretty much lives and breathes softball. But she has made time for competition cheerleading in the fall, and she keeps her grades in the A-B range. And like most teenagers, what little free time she has is spent socializing.
   "I hang out with my friends," Salvatore said. "We go to movies, malls, that kind of stuff."
   And the movie is usually a comedy. Her favorite movie, the one that can always lift her out of the doldrums, is Dumb and Dumber.
   "My cousin made my watch it one day, and now I just watch it all the time," Salvatore said.
   When not traveling to softball games, the Salvatore family, which includes mom, Patty, and little sister Amanda, spends as much time in Florida as possible. They are all big Mickey Mouse fans.
   But when it comes to pitching, Salvatore hardly has a Mickey Mouse arm.
   NOTES: Jackie Varacallo had a double in Monday’s win over Metuchen … In Tuesday’s 1-0 win over North Brunswick, Danielle Cocuzza singled and eventually scored on a fielder’s choice. Laura Gibbons preserved the win by throwing out a runner at home to end the game . . .Gibbons had three hits, an RBI and a run scored in a 6-3 win over Colonia on Wednesday while Danielle Payne clubbed a two-run single.