Mustangs get revenge, and a title to boot
BY SHAWN LAYTON
Staff Writer

ISELIN - The John F. Kennedy High School softball team avenged its loss to South Plainfield in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament with a 2-1 victory in the North Jersey Section II Group 3 title game last week.

"We were very disappointed in our performance against South Plainfield in the GMC semis," Kennedy head coach Nancy Cuntala said. "I credited Jennifer Little with a great pitching performance against us because she came up with a big pitch time and time again. This time around Allison Greaney made the big play and came up with the big pitch when it was needed."

Both teams had plenty of opportunities to put runs on the board and South Plainfield appeared poised to do just that in the sixth inning with the score tied at a run apiece.

With a runner on third and one out, South Plainfield went with a suicide-squeeze play in hopes of putting the go-ahead run across. In what proved to be the play of the game, Greaney fielded the bunt attempt in the air and doubled the runner off third base to end the inning.

"South Plainfield had runners in scoring position in five of the seven innings, but we were able to make the right pitch at the right time," Cuntala said. "Allison has been terrific all season and her play in the sixth was spectacular."

Greaney was touched up for two consecutive doubles in the first inning to give South Plainfield an early 1-0 lead. She settled down and kept her opponent scoreless the rest of the way.

After Greaney's game-saving play in the top half of the sixth, Kennedy put the winning run across in its half of the inning. Greaney led off the inning with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice. Heather Corica singled to put runners at the corners with one out. After Little struck out the next batter, it looked like South Plainfield would get out of the inning unscathed. Kennedy catcher Jessica Tymitz had other plans. Tymitz hit a hard ground ball to short that took a wicked hop to give Tymitz a single and plate Greaney.

"It hadn't rained at Merrill Park in a while so the infield was like concrete," Cuntala said. "We knew if we hit some hard ground balls we'd have a chance at getting the ball through the infield. It was a tough play for anybody to make and it proved to be the winning hit."

Kennedy's ability to hold South Plainfield to a 1-2-3 inning in the sixth prevented Kelly Downes and Lauren Fry from getting at-bats in the top half of the seventh. It was back-to-back doubles in the first inning from the lethal tandem that gave South Plainfield its only run in the game.

"We wanted no part of Fry or Downes in that last inning," Cuntala said. "They are such tough outs and they really hit the ball hard. Kennedy has a number of able hitters, but we definitely didn't want Fry or Downes up with the game on the line. Fortunately, we didn't have to face them in the seventh."

Kennedy will now compete for the Group III title. The Mustangs took on Ramapo earlier in the week with the hopes of advancing to the title game this weekend in Toms River.

"It was so nice to see the girls celebrate on the field after the win," Cuntala said. "They had their moment and that was very special. It's not often that you get a chance to play for a Group III title, and we'll be prepared and focused. The team wants to play in Toms River."