BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer
Brookdale head softball coach Bo Scannapieco gets together with his team following his 600th career victory – a 14-5 win over Lehigh Carbon (Pa.) on Friday in Lincroft. There was an extra spring in Bo Scannapieco’s step after his Brookdale Community College (BCC) women’s softball team swept a doubleheader Friday.
It had nothing to do with the fact that the 14-5 win over visiting Lehigh Carbon (Pa.) in the nightcap was the 600th of his illustrious career at BCC. It was all about the way his club was playing.
For the first time this year, the man who has coached two national championship teams at Brookdale could see a championship team developing right before his eyes.
“We’re starting to turn it around,” he said. “We split a lot of doubleheaders that I thought we should have swept. I thought we’d played our best today.
“I see a different intensity, we’re turning the corner,” he added. “We’re pretty much where we should be.”
Scannapieco had shown patience with the 2006 Blues all year. The team was breaking in a number of new faces, and he knew it would take time for the mix to jell. The team dropped some close games it normally wins, but Scannapieco remained confident, and now comes his reward. With the season getting serious, his Blues are playing their best ball of the year.
They’ve won five straight games, including back-to-back doubleheader sweeps.
The Blues are as deep as ever on the mound with Erin Covell, Kara Hertzke, Kelly Hughes and Amanda Roberts forming the rotation. All are pitching to earned-run averages at 2.250 or under.
In a sweep of Orange (N.Y.), Covell and Hertzke together surrendered no earned runs and just five hits. Hughes and Roberts pitched well themselves in the sweep of Lehigh, which put the Blues, ranked No. 1 in the country, at 22-7 for the season.
Brookdale’s offense has been a productive as Scannapieco expected. Lynn Olender (.435) has been the spark at the top of the lineup, scoring 24 runs and stealing 18 bases.
Suzanne Gorczynski has 32 RBIs, 24 runs scored and is batting .417. Hertzke (.410, 21 RBIs, 22 runs), Lauren Ceravolo (.333, 20 RBIs), Amanda Kapsales (.400, 20 RBIs), Covell (.372, 17 runs) and Jenna Criscuolo (.359, 14 RBIs and 12 runs) have been the other heavy hitters.
The defense has been emblematic of Brookdale’s season, getting stronger with each game.
Scannapieco is not one for numbers, and 600 doesn’t mean that much to him. It did to his team and that is why he was more than pleased to get it over with Friday.
“I’m glad that it’s out of the way,” he said. “I didn’t want it to be a distraction. Now we’re playing games that count toward the conference and seedings. We can make a run at a good seeding.”
With the heart of the team’s 2006 schedule still in front of the team, Scannapieco had more to do than think about his 600 wins.
“I’m focused on what I got to do tomorrow,” he said. “We have a doubleheader with Gloucester.”
Still, 600 wins is 600 wins. It means a lot of time and commitment to something, and a lot of success.
“I’ve been lucky,” he said. “I’ve always been able to put together good teams. I’ve been to four national title games and won two.”
His Blues have also won 11 District titles, 10 conference crowns and 10 straight and 11 overall Region championships. From the way things are starting to come together for this year’s team, Scannapieco seems assured of adding more championships to his rsum.
The Blues are home for a Garden State Athletic Conference and Region XIX doubleheader tomorrow against Middlesex, starting at 3:30 p.m. This is an important twinbill as it will go a long way toward determining the seeding for the Region tournament that begins with first-round games April 29.
This year’s tournament finals will be held May 5-6 at Middlesex.