With 25 consecutive victories, the regular season Garden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) and Region XIX championships secured, and the No. 1 seed for this weekend’s Region XIX Tournament, Bo Scannapieco’s Brookdale Community College softball team has everything going for it.
So why is Scannapieco not punching the Jersey Blues’ ticket to the national championships? He knows that on Friday, all four teams in the Region XIX championships are 0-0, and anything can happen in a weekend tournament.
"You don’t know what is going to happen until you play," he said.
Scannapieco’s biggest concerns this week are keeping his team razor sharp (their final regular season game was April 30), and preventing complacency and overconfidence from setting in. A 25-game winning streak and No. 3 ranking in the nation will do that.
"This is the most competitive tournament in the last couple of years," said the BCC coach. "The four teams that are here will all have a chance. Top to bottom there is better pitching this year.
"That will keep scores down," he added. "You’re going to have to cash in on your opportunities."
Gloucester, ranked No. 10 in the country, is the No. 2 seed.
As for overconfidence setting in, Scannapieco just has to remind his team of the ’96 Jersey Blues who had a 27-game winning streak entering the tournament and promptly lost the first game. Although the Brookdale team survived because of the double-elimination format, they made it extremely tough on themselves.
Of course, Scannapieco has every reason to be confident that his Jersey Blues can win their seventh straight region title. After all, it all starts with pitching and he has the two best in the region in Dara DeVincenzo, of Jackson, and Marissa Busch, who have put up staggering numbers this spring. They are not only the best tandem in the region, but the two best, period.
Brookdale ended the regular season with a 40-8 record and of those 40 wins, 25 were by shutout from their aces.
"It’s a once-in-a-lifetime run to have two pitchers who are that talented who are both having great seasons," Scannapieco said. "They are very talented and they work at it. They are hungry and they are improving."
DeVincenzo, a sophomore and last year’s region tournament Most Valuable Player, pitched the final regular season game, a one-hit, 8-0 blanking of Morris. It was her 12th shutout of the season and ran her record to 18-4.
Busch, a freshman, is also 18-4, and she has the best earned run average in the country, 0.802, with 13 shutouts. She had 131 strike outs in 131 innings.
Before her one-hitter, DeVincenzo had the fifth best ERA, 1.28 with 114 strike outs in 114 innings.
It comes as little consolation to Brookdale’s opponents that they are improving. Beating these two pitchers back-to-back is a very difficult assignment for any team playing this weekend.
Offensively, the Jersey Blues don’t have the fearsome sluggers of years past, like Maryanne Soares, but they have been pushing runs across the plate in droves anyway.
Lead-off hitter Amanda Smith is this team’s catalyst. She gets on base more than 50 percent of the time and scores and scores. She has crossed the plate 61 times, more than anyone else in the country. The sophomore has also collected 61 base bits.
Running is an added dimension for the Jersey Blues and Smith is among the nation’s leaders with 18 stolen bases in as many attempts.
With Tiffany Kenney (42), Allison Cenci (38), Kim Roessner (38), Sarah Otto (38), Busch (37) and Smith (31) ranked third, fifth, eighth and 17th in the country in RBIs, the Blues have proven beyond a doubt that they can score without the long ball.
Although the Jersey Blues have won the last six Region tournaments, Scannapieco doesn’t see the team in a been there, done that mode at all.
"The sophomores on this team want to get back to the nationals to improve on what they did last year," he said. "There is incentive there."
And there are freshmen like Busch and Roessner who have never been to the nationals and are hungry to experience that.
The Region XIX Tournament begins tomorrow at 2 p.m. with games at Brookdale in Lincroft and Dorbrook Park in Colts Neck. The Jersey Blues will be playing at home. Winners of these 2 p.m. games will play at Brookdale in the winners’ bracket, while the losers will go to Dorbrook for an elimination game in the losers’ bracket.
Saturday all the action is at Brookdale and it starts at 11 a.m. with the losers’ bracket winner from Friday playing the loser of Friday afternoon’s winners’ bracket game. That will determine who will play at 1 p.m. for the championship against the only undefeated team. Since it is double-elimination, the losers’ bracket team would have to beat the winner twice. The region champion qualifies for the National Junior College Athletic Association National Championships, May 16-18 in Joliet, Ill.