In a game that took more than 2 1/2 hours to play, in which there were 50 at-bats for each team, Park Ridge outlasted Old Tappan 18-16 to move into the second round of the Bergen County Tournament.
“I told the girls at the end of the game, ‘we just won another football game,’” said Park Ridge coach Cindy Turner.
The 34 runs scored by the two teams in the April 30 game broke the record for the 38-year old tournament. In 1977 Indian Hills beat Emerson 17-12.
“I was getting so tired,” said Owls centerfielder Kelsey Wimmershoff. “My arms were feeling heavy and I had to get up. My bat felt like it weighed 100 pounds.”
Park Ridge has been scoring runs in bunches all year, averaging 13 runs per game, while the Old Tappan offense has been struggling.
Not on this day.
The Owls took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on singles by Cailyn Lavender, Claudia Bonvicino and Nikki Kalafut. The Golden Knights tied it in the second when Brittany Steindl drew a one-out walk and later scored on a base hit to left by Christina Carbaugh.
A two-out rally gave Park Ridge a 3-1 lead in the third. Wimmershoff singled and then Bonvicino and Kalafut walked to load the bases. Kelly Frasciello plated Wimmershoff and courtesy runner Kaitlin Mital, who had gone in to run for pitcher Bonvicino, with a base hit to center.
Old Tappan re-tied the game in the bottom of the third. Catcher Allison Brown doubled to center and Danielle Matteo went in to courtesy run for her. Next up was pitcher Mary Wiley and she just missed a two-run homer when the plate umpire ruled the ball had curved foul before it passed the foul pole in right.
After Wiley popped out Emily Russell walked and moved to third on Kayla Farrell’s single to center. On the play Matteo scored. Russell scored the tying run when Steindl laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt.
From then on both teams scored a minimum of two runs each time they came to bat.
Park Ridge scored four runs in the fourth inning as Samantha Vradenburg had a double, Wimmershoff smacked a triple and Gabby Katz, Lavender and Bonvicino all stroked singles. Old Tappan scored two runs in the bottom half, highlighted by a double by Wiley that drove in both runs.
The Owls scored three more in the fifth. Lavender drove in two runs with a double to right and scored on Wimmershoff’s second triple of the game.
“We hit every single day,” said Wimmershoff. “If we come in for a half an hour we’ll hit. On days we’re supposed to be off we love to come in and hit. We’re all great hitters and half the team goes to a hitting coach. When you get a hit it starts the momentum. The whole team wants to get a hit.”
The Golden Knights fought back to take an 11-10 lead by scoring six runs when it was their turn to bat. Steindl knocked in three of the runs with a bases-loaded double. Brown, Russell and Farrell plated the other three runs.
Kelly Frasciello led off the Park Ridge sixth with a double and Alexis Criscuolo walked. But Katz flew out to left and Marie Confreda forced Frasciello at third for the second out. Then Vradenburg beat out an infield roller on a bang-bang play at first to load the bases.
Lavender worked the count to 3-2 and then gave the Owls the lead again with a single to center, scoring Criscuolo and Confreda.
“It was one of the best hits I had in the game,” Lavender said. “In a back and forth game like this, when we’re behind it makes us want to play better. It keeps everybody on top of their game. It makes us play better when we fall behind.”
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