A Guest of Honor

The following is a guest blog written by Jerry Carino, who covered Wednesday night's Somerset County Tournament semifinal between Montgomery and Hillsborough for the Courier News.

Check out Jerry's blog at www.jerrycarino.blogspot.com

*****

First, a writers note about the article that appeared in today's Courier News: Because the game ended so late (and our deadlines are soooo early), I had to throw the story together in about 8 minutes. I screwed up the number of hits for both teams and did not include the pitching line.

Hillsborough's Megan McInaw allowed six hits and two walks while striking out six.

Montgomery's Elora Daniele allowed eight hits and one walk while striking out five. She also threw two wild pitches.

Here are Hillsborough coach Cheryl Iaione's quotes that I didn't have time to include in the story:

On Caitlyn Katzelnick’s critical throw home: "She came up and threw a strike and my little freshman behind the plate (Margaret Gilroy) came up big. It’s a whole different ball game right there."

On the Raiders' resiliency: "They’re young. We haven’t hit. We’ve played good defense and gotten great pitching and it was just a matter of time before the bats broke out, and tonight the bats broke out in a big way. I keep telling them if you guys hit you’re a dangerous team and we showed that tonight."

On making the SCT final for the sixth straight year: "It's tradition. We talked about pride and tradition. It was more relaxed today because we were the underdog. We had that X on our back and now he (Montgomery coach Johnny Rooney) has the X on his back, and it’s a tough one to handle. They played well. It was a great game. Too bad it wasn’t a final but, hopefully, Saturday will be just as good."


NOW TO THE CARINO ANALYSIS:
This was an exciting game but not because of the quality of play, which was sloppy (seven errors, two wild pitches, two passed balls) by these programs' high standards.

It was exciting because of the sheer intensity and emotion of the rivalry, which has to be Top 5 in all sports in the Courier News area. There is bad blood here and you could feel it. At times the intensity spilled over into poor sportsmanship.

One instance was when Montgomery catcher Tara Bucci's mask broke while Hillsborough was starting to mount a rally, and it took Rooney almost 10 minutes to fix it. Hillsborough fans were jeering him, accusing him of stall tactics -- I was sitting four feet from home plate and the mask was BROKEN, people. When Rooney finally did fix it he got a Bronx cheer, to which the coach tipped his cap as he walked to the dugout.

A couple of Hillsborough's adult fans were really obnoxious, riding the players on both sides, Rooney, the umpires, everybody but the park rangers. Boorish behavior and a poor example -- adults should know better.

The game itself, though sloppy, had some wild twists and turns. The bottom line is that Hillsborough's bats got hot when it counted, and Montgomery made critical mistakes in the field, in the circle and on the basepaths over the final three innings. The Cougars had a chance to tie it in the seventh but their momentum fizzled when they got thrown out at second on a double steal.

The MVP was Katzelnick, who went 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored, registered the game-winning RBI and made the great throw home to prevent Montgomery from tying the game in the bottom of the sixth.

It wasn't a classic, but it was exciting, unpredictable and intense, which is what we've come to expect from this great rivalry.