It’s official – the Red Bank Catholic softball team is red-hot. The top-ranked Caseys enjoyed a brilliant stretch of games last week, beating the state’s No. 1 team from Toms River East, 5-0, a perennial power from Mount St. Dominic’s, 1-0, and capping the week off with their second Monmouth County Tournament title in three years, beating a game Mater Dei team, 1-0, on Saturday in Wall Township.
With junior pitcher Brittany O’Donnell continuing to emerge as one of the very best players in the state, RBC has followed her lead and staked its claim as the state’s top team heading into the postseason tournaments.
On Saturday, they faced a dangerous Seraphs team that played like a team with nothing to lose. Few people expected the Seraphs to beat the state’s second-ranked team from Red Bank Catholic and the Notre Dame-bound O’Donnell.
As it turned out, Mater Dei did not beat RBC, losing the dramatic 1-0 affair when RBC sophomore infielder Holly Klodin blooped a single down the rightfield line to score Alana Dimaso in the bottom of the ninth inning.
However, what Mater Dei accomplished on Saturday night was nearly as big as a win would have been. The Seraphs proved to everyone that despite having a small program (which consists of a whopping 24 girls) in what is one of the Shore Conference’s smallest schools (less than 400 kids in the entire school), the 2008 Mater Dei High School softball team can play with anyone in the state.
RBC had a few chances to win this game, but each time they threatened, Mater Dei senior Sara Cline was able to close the door and preserve the tie.
The Seraphs knew they would need to play a perfect game to beat RBC, and they very nearly did, before Klodin’s hit ended the game. Klodin’s game winning hit appeared to be a foul ball off the bat, but landed just inside the foul line, ending what had been a classic pitcher’s duel, and an as-good-as-advertised MCT final.
Klodin said that with runners on first and second and two out, she was simply looking to make contact.
“Getting the ball in play and just putting pressure on the defense was really my main goal,” she said. “She was pitching me mostly inside, but on that outside pitch I just went with it.”
As the ball fell in, the sophomore Dimaso streaked home with the winning run.W
hile O’Donnell was stellar once again, allowing just two hits and striking out 16 batters, Cline was brilliant as well, allowing just five hits, while striking out seven. She was not quite as dominant as O’Donnell, but just as effective through eight innings.
Following the game, Mater Dei’s head coach Jeanne Dickinson was hardly disappointed in her team’s performance.
“RBC is a great team and I couldn’t be prouder with how, No. 1 we got here, and No. 2 we held our own. It’s a great feeling,” she said.
As for RBC, it was the perfect ending to a brilliant week – one which the Caseys hope will catapult them to even more glory in the coming weeks.
“We definitely feel like we believe in ourselves,” Klodin said following the win. “We’re not saying that we can’t lose, but we definitely have high hopes for our season.
“(The win) is definitely going to give us some momentum.”
And that is a scary thought for anyone in the Caseys’ path the rest of the way.
Teams prepare for tourney time
Local softball and baseball teams will be kicking into postseason mode over the next week in preparation for the upcoming NJSIAA state and Shore Conference Tournaments.
Locally, there were a slew of teams in both sports that earned the berths over the weekend, with the NJSIAA cutoff being at the end of the day Friday, and the SCT deadline passing on Monday.
With their recent play, the Caseys have likely locked up the top seeds in both the Non-Public South A bracket for the NJSIAA state tournament, as well as the Shore Conference Tournament.
Among the other local softball teams heading to the state tournament are Shore Regional (17-2), Red Bank Regional (10-10) and Ocean Township (14- 4).
First-round games for public schools will be played on or before May 20, with the non-public games to be played on or before May 22. The public sectional finals are set for May 29, with the nonpublic finals scheduled for June 3. The state finals are set for June 7 at Toms River East and North.
The same four local softball teams will also play in the SCT, which was to be seeded Monday night, and will begin this week. The semifinals are scheduled for May 31, with the finals to follow on June 4.
There are also a handful of local baseball teams that will be chasing down tournament titles in the next few weeks.
The local squads that qualified for the state tournament are Monmouth Regional (10-8), Shore Regional (16-2), Rumson-Fair Haven (12-2), RBC (10-9) and CBA (13-6). The state baseball tournament will also get under way next week.
All five teams will also be in the SCT, which gets under way this week, and will hold its championship game on June 3 at Toms River East.
One team that will be conspicuously absent from both postseason tournaments is Ocean Township, last year’s Group III champions, who at 9-10 missed out on their chance to qualify for the SCT with inclement weather canceling Monday’s game with Rumson-FH. This marks the first time since 1998 that the Spartans have not appeared in the postseason tournaments.