Cougars avenge county final loss to Hillsborough
By: Justin Feil
When the Montgomery High School softball team came one out actually one pitch away from the Somerset County Tournament championship last year, Kelly Dubin experienced a pain that was not matched even by the broken arm that kept her out of the loss.
Dubin and the top-seeded Cougars found the opposite end of the spectrum when they captured the SCT title with a 2-1 win over defending champion and second-seeded Hillsborough on Saturday.
"It’s amazing," said Dubin, who singled in the bottom of the seventh inning before Katherine Stoltenberg ended the game with a walk-off single. "They are two completely different feelings. Being able to have last year’s feeling compared to this year’s feeling, I’d never want to go back to last year. It’s so much better being able to celebrate."
There was much to celebrate. Last year’s trip to the SCT finals was a program first, and winning the county tournament Saturday was a new and improved first.
"Everybody was a part of it, so across the board it feels pretty good," said MHS head coach Johnny Rooney, whose team improves to 18-4. "It feels great. For the kids and for the coaches, it couldn’t have been written up any better. Getting this opportunity. We flip-flopped seeds. We were the home team. It was against Hillsborough, who we split the regular-season series with. To win the way we won, it was not identical, but it was similar to the way we lost last year."
The win helped push aside the bitter taste of the loss to Hillsborough in last year’s final. MHS fell, 3-2, last year after leading, 2-0, going into the final inning.
"That basically stuck with us all year," Dubin said. "The reason we’ve been waiting for counties all year is we wanted to get over counties last year."
Dubin, one of four seniors on MHS, found it more rewarding to have had a hand in it. While Stoltenberg was named Most Valuable Player for her error-free play at shortstop and her clutch hitting, the Cougars had different players making key contributions throughout their title-winning game.
"Katherine played unbelievable in the field," Rooney said. "She had the big hit to end the game and she was playing with a new second baseman. I had our regular second baseman, DP. And Kelly has been there all year. She’s one of those contributors that’s not real flashy. It’s not about how many hits you have, not how many plays you make.
"After last year, it was awesome," he added. "It was a great softball game. There were a lot of plays and lot of things that went on that have not been talked about because it ended in the bottom of the seventh like that."
MHS pitcher Kim Dougherty and the defense behind her did not permit a Hillsborough run after the first inning. The Cougars still trailed, 1-0, until Ali Knapp had a pinch-hit double in the sixth and Elora Daniele drove her in with a double of her own. It was the first time that MHS got to Hillsborough pitcher Megan McInaw in the game.
"We had seen her," Dubin said. "That was second time seeing her that week. We knew where she was throwing them. We were hitting it, we just couldn’t hit it in the holes. We kept knocking on the door and eventually we hit the holes. We took advantage of every runner we got on base."
That sixth-inning doubles dipping only tied it, however, and it took some last-inning heroics by the Cougars to win the crown. Hillsborough last year did it with two outs. MHS went with one. With one out, Dubin came to the plate in a tie game.
"I tried not to think about it," Dubin said. "It was such a big situation, the more I thought about it, the more I knew I’d freak out. I tried to stay calm. I kept telling myself I knew what to do. Coach always tells us to get the job done."
Dubin delivered a single into the hole that the Hillsborough shortstop reached but could not throw out the hustling Cougar third baseman.
"I just ran as hard as I could," Dubin recalled. "I didn’t know if it had gotten through. Coach was yelling, ‘Get here, get here!’"
Dubin did, and Stoltenberg then sent pinch-runner Melissa Maurer racing home from first on a single to the fence.
"She went from first to home on a single," Dubin said. "She just didn’t stop."
Dubin was cheering the whole way, screaming so loudly that her voice was still raspy the following evening. Last year, Dubin didn’t have the chance to help the Cougars on the field after being hit in the arm with a pitch, ironically in the earlier Hillsborough matchup.
"I was being tortured on the sideline," Dubin said. "Last year, it was so hard to sit and watch and watch everything fall. It felt so good to be a part of it this year.
"The revenge was so much sweeter just because it was Hillsborough," she added. "It was a great game with any team. We couldn’t be happier with the ending."
Dubin and seven other MHS players can now say they have been a part of a state Group III championship, a Skyland Conference championship and a Somerset County Tournament championship.
"My sophomore year when we won states, we were the underdog that came up from nowhere according to everyone else," Dubin said. "We played every game like it was our last game. By doing that, we were able to do it. That’s how we were able to win counties this year too. We left our hearts and everything on the field.
"There’s definitely momentum we’ll take from this. Hillsborough was up, 1-0. Being able to constantly push to get back, we’ll always look back on that and know we can always do it."
It was the second win in the week over Hillsborough, which had defeated MHS, 6-1, early in the season. MHS now awaits its seeding for the state tournament.
"They’re not going to look at a county trophy and say, we won something and let’s have fun now," Rooney said. "I think it’ll give us some serious momentum going into the state tournament."
To some, winning a county crown is more difficult than even winning a state championship. MHS got over a big hump with a big win Saturday night.
"It is very difficult to win a county championship," Rooney said. "Some of the big schools have a gazillion of them. We have a lot more Group I and Group II titles. For counties, we have some golf, tennis, lacrosse, swimming, baseball and hockey. I think it is harder to win.
"It’s like any other tournament. It’s a team that’s playing well, that’s got a good run for the two weeks. When we won Group III, we were playing our best softball certainly. Beating Somerville the way we did with defense, beating Hillsborough on Tuesday the way we did, set up momentum for Wednesday night against Mt. St. Mary’s. Playing Hillsborough again was good timing. We were playing well at the right time."
It’s been a perfect time for Kelly Dubin and the Cougars, and they’re not done playing their best softball yet.
"There’s no better way that I would rather have had my senior year," she said. "Our team gets along like no other team. It all falls into place. We all love playing for each other. We have so much fun doing it. It makes everything so much better.
"It was such a big win for us. We’re going to press just as hard for states and just as hard for anything else."