BRICK TOWNSHIP — Brick Township High School’s softball team, enjoying perhaps its greatest season ever, has added some magic to its late season stretch thanks in part to Kelly Garrido and Heather Figula.
The Green Dragons played two games at home on May 19 and pulled off a pair of exciting victories, The girls team won, 3-2, over Monmouth Regional in the NJSIAA Tournament in nine innings and 14-13 in eight innings that night over Brick Memorial in a regular season game.
Garrido got the walk-off hits in both games and Figula picked up both victories, the second game against Brick Memorial in relief of Ronnie Wilenta. “Kelly Garrido really came through for us but it’s really the whole team doing its part,” coach Ed Lowe said.
“We’re a tired team today,” Lowe said the following day as his No. 6-seeded team, 16-6 on the season, prepared for last week’s second-round state tournament game, a tough 3-2 loss to No. 3 seed Wall, a perennially competitive team in the Shore Conference.
The Green Dragons were scheduled to return to the field over the weekend to play at Middletown South in the second round of the Shore Conference Tournament.
As for the two exciting victories, Garrido,
a senior, hit a home run to left center field to end the thriller against Monmouth Regional. Brick Township was one out away from losing when Emma Erbig lined a run-scoring double in the seventh inning to tie it. Figula allowed two runs in the first inning before settling down and striking out eight. She did not walk a batter. Her teammates pushed across a run in the fourth inning to set the scene for Erbig.
Later that day, Garrido drilled the game-ending double in the eighth that drove in pinch runner Kathy Kawa. Colleen Gross launched the winning rally with a base hit and was replaced by Kawa. Katarina Kiseli beat out a bunt for a base hit to set the scene for Garrido.
Daria Siwczak and Ashley Malone hit back-to-back home runs for Brick Memorial that tied it at 13-13 in the seesaw game. Brick Township took an early 6-2 lead before Brick Memorial rallied for an 11-8 lead. Brick Township pushed across five unanswered runs for the 13-11 lead that set the scene for the clutch homers by Siwczak and Malone.
The game was a stark contrast from a recent earlier meeting between the two teams when Brick Township pulled out a 2-0 victory in 10 innings. In that game, the teams invoked the international rule that Shore Conference A South uses for games that get to the 10th inning in which a runner
is placed on second base to start the inning. Sophomore Carli Gleason pitched superbly for Brick Memorial in that game, striking out 17 and allowing four hits, including only one hit allowed over the first nine innings.
Figula took another tough loss to Wall
(15-7) as she allowed two runs in the first inning and the deciding one in the second before her teammates came back in the fourth with two runs off doubles by Erbig and Wilenta.
Erbig and Wilenta also got the other two of Brick Township’s
four hits in the game in a sixth-inning rally that stalled when Nikki Binetti was coaxed into an inningending fly pop.
“They didn’t quit,” Lowe said. “Heart and determination motivated these girls. I’m blessed that they showed the will to fight and never quit against an experienced team.”
For Brick Memorial, it’s been part of a frustrating 6-16 season of tough losses for the Mustangs who recently defined their season with a 6-2 victory over Red Bank Regional, ranked No. 9 in the Shore. Pitcher Renee Panter allowed only two hits that game with six strikeouts and Claudia Gallagher lashed an 0-2 pitch for a two-run double and a 5-2 lead.
Early in the season, Brick Memorial upended Jackson Memorial, 2-0, behind Stephanie Romano’s pitching.
“It seemed that when we focused and played (good) defense, we hung in a lot of games,” first-year head coach Dave Shilanskas said. “At times, our defense has let us down.”
Gleason and sophomore Kelly Frangione, who has played shortstop and catcher, are batting .400 to lead the way but there hasn’t been enough offensive support through the lineup.
“We’ve gotten girls on base and not get the (timely) hits,” said Shilanskas, although that was not evident in an 18-0 victory over Long Branch on May 18, before the Brick Township rematch. “Teams have been doing that (timely hitting) to us, instead.”
Frangione, who bats leadoff, has helped replace Brianna Gaspich at catcher. Gaspich suffered torn ligaments in her thumb that sidelined her for virtually the entire season until the final few games when she returned.
“That hurt us as a team. Losing her was enormous,” Shilanskas said.
Although Gaspich, a sophomore, also returns for next season, seven seniors who started or saw ample playing time graduate, including outfielder Jackie Lyons, who made the play of the season with a home run saving catch against Toms River East. Others include Panter, infielder Gallagher, first baseman Romano, outfielder Corinne Daffeldecker, infielder Kristy Yurash and Siwczak, a shortstop who also has helped fill in at catcher in Gaspich’s absence.