Softball Team Loving the Game

The chants from the Hackensack bench were deafening, and one in particular had the Pascack Valley players a bit baffled. The Lady Comets were cheering for their clean-up batter, Nicole Schider, who was up at the plate during last Saturday’s Bergen County Tournament game.

It was a simple but drawn-out, two-syllable call of the Comet catcher’s last name, the typical rally cry when Schider bats, that resembled Red Sox fans’ taunts of Darryl Strawberry in the ’86 World Series. But to the Pascack Valley Indians, who at that juncture of the game held a commanding six-run advantage, they thought Hackensack was egging on their star pitcher Nicole Schneider.

After a moment of confusion, an Indians’ coach clarified the chant to his players. The Pascack Valley girls nodded and smiled with approval, some single-clapping at the irony of the similar names while all tipped their caps at the Comets’ spirit.

We’ve spotlighted the Comets’ fight in the past, but it all took center stage in the opening round of the county’s biggest softball tournament last weekend in Hillsdale. Though we can’t escape the fact that Hackensack, ranked No. 31 in the tournament, lost to second-seeded Pascack Valley 7-1, the Comets showed and proved that despite owning a sub-.500 record, they indeed belonged in the tourney.

Based on their won-loss record, Hackensack had failed to earn an automatic berth into the 2010 Counties. But head coach Joelle Della Volpe filed the team’s application anyway. Della Volpe asked the committee to consider Hackensack’s schedule as well as several close games that turned against the Comets as a result of questionable officiating.

Early last week, Hackensack learned that it snuck into the tournament as the last team in. The Comets, as well as four other teams to earn selection despite losing records, answered criticism that their entry watered down the brackets by beating the defending Passaic County Tournament champion, Wayne Hills, and dueling a tough Ridgewood team in a narrow 1-0 loss. They even exacted revenge on Teaneck, Hackensack’s bitter rival who beat the Comets and ensured that they would have a sub-.500 record before the County Tournament deadline.

So Hackensack had nothing more to prove when it squared off against powerhouse Pascack Valley. But, if skeptics weren’t convinced that Hackensack was a legitimate tourney team before the Counties started, they were believers at the end.

The Indians, behind top-flight pitcher Schneider, controlled the game but never dominated in a way a No. 2 team would normally handle a 31st-ranked squad. Run-scoring hits by Dana Amato and Schneider off of Hackensack ace Korey Kozaryn gave the Indians a 3-0 lead after the first inning, and they upped the advantage to 6-0 following a three-run third inning.

Still, Hackensack was never out of the game. The Comets took good cuts against the usually overpowering Indians’ lefty, making Schneider work extra hard under the first 80-degree day of the season. And they finally broke through in the fourth inning.

After Schider’s loud fly-out to centerfield to lead off the inning, Megan Gowe slugged a Schneider offering to the base of the leftfield fence for a double. Gowe later scored on a Krystina Gronka RBI single.

The run was Hackensack’s lone score of the game, but the noise level from the visitor’s side of the field made many think the Comets were in the lead. As each Hackensack batter dug in against Schneider, there were cheers. With each pitch thrown by Kozaryn or Sam Curran, there was excitement and encouragement.

Warned in the past about their handshake routine between innings, Hackensack’s infielders still did it, acting in team unity and not defiance. "Huddles are for football," the home plate umpire yelled to the Comets as the meeting on the mound dispersed. Curran smiled.

Imagine the tournament, the game, without the spirit of Hackensack’s youthful energy. This takes nothing away from the other teams still playing, but we’re especially thankful and overjoyed that the Comets earned a spot in the Counties.

They showed that they belong and can compete with the elite.

And they made a little noise doing so.

BY DARIUS AMOS

Photo Credit: DARIUS AMOS

The Record