Red Raiders won their opener and played giant killer against Blue Devils
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY – The Red Raider softball team got knocked out of the South Jersey Group III tournament Friday afternoon by top seed Central Regional, but the Ocean City girls had an impressive regular season.
They played giant-killer against unbeaten Hammonton (18-1) and kept another Cape-Atlantic League power, St. Joseph’s Academy (24-2), scoreless until the seventh inning in their first game and lost their second game to St. Joe’s 4-0.
Ocean City finished the season with a 12-8 record under new head coach Keri Fane, earned a home playoff game in the tournament and beat up on Lacey in that 10-0 game, which featured a pair of home runs by Natalie Cesari, who went 3 for 3 and had 5 RBI.
“We just came out aggressive,” Fane said about the Lacey game. “I told them I just wanted them to do three things right – give 100 percent effort, communicate 100 percent and have 100 percent energy and that’s what they did. It was definitely fun to watch.”
That fun included an explosion for 4 runs in the first inning, including the first home run in a regular season game by Cesari.
Fane said Cesari told her before the season she had never hit a home run. She got one in a scrimmage against Our Lady of Mercy Academy, but was bummed that it didn’t count in the official stats. “That’s the first one I ever hit. Too bad it doesn’t count,” the coach said, recalling Cesari’s comments to her. Fane told her that would come and she had been waiting for her to have a big breakout game. “I’ll take two home runs and her going 3 for 3 that day,” Fane laughed.
Cesari cleared the fence on both of her home runs, one to left field and the other to center field. “She packs a lot of power,” Fane said. “And in her third at-bat she hit a hard line drive. She was seeing the ball well.”
At the beginning of the season, Fane said the team’s goal was to make it to the state tournament. She was pleased the team’s record earned them a home game and that her Red Raiders advanced to the next round with that win over Lacey.
Pitcher Hailey Neville struck out 10 Lacey batters in the game shortened by the 10-run rule.
After scoring 4 runs in the first inning, the Red Raiders scored 1 in the second, 2 in the third and 3 in the fourth. Neville’s pitching and Ocean City’s defense kept Lacey off the board so the game ended after the top of the fifth inning.
Soph Cera and Cristina Barbella had 2 hits in the game and MacKenzee Segich, Neville and Brooke Groover-Illas had 1 hit each. Cesari, Segich, Cera and pinch-runner Aneecia Morales each scored 2 runs and Kailey Grimley and Barbella scored 1 each. Segich had 3 stolen bases in the game and Morales had 1.
After that high point on Tuesday, Central Regional (19-4) proved too much for the Red Raiders on Friday, winning 12-0 in five and a half innings and leading 7-0 after the first two.
Fane said she knew what her team was up against versus Central with its “quality hitters who can just crush the ball. And that’s exactly what they did.” For their part, the Red Raiders didn’t have good at-bats.
Beating Hammonton
Late in the season, Ocean City handed Hammonton its only loss of the season.
Fane said the Red Raiders have a little history with the Blue Devils, having knocked Hammonton out of the tournament in 2019. She said her players didn’t care that Hammonton came into the game undefeated. “They just wanted to beat them,” Fane said. “I think there was a little bit of that history fueling them, to know they could keep up with Hammonton. Hammonton is having a great year; they have great hitters on that team. We just went up there aggressive and to do the three things right and we just executed.”
She said it was a tough game to play because it was raining and cold. At one point she thought the umpire was going to call the game, but didn’t.
Ocean City won 8-3. Neville, the winning pitcher, had 3 hits, including a home run, and drove in 4 runs. Segich scored 2 runs and Barbella had 2 hits. Kara Hender, Grimley, Cera, Barbella, Neville and Illas each scored a run.
Ocean City trailed 1-0 through 3 innings, but scored 2 runs in the fourth, 3 in the fifth, 1 in the sixth and 2 in the seventh for the victory.
Solid season
“I’m very pleased with how the season turned out,” Fane said. “Granted, I would have loved it to end a different way with either a quality win or a quality loss, but I’m very pleased. My goal was to have this team work hard enough and to have them come together for states and that’s exactly what we did.” She said the other part was helping a team she knows has so much potential to realize that potential.
Looking back at the season, early on she said her players were feeling a little intimidated by some of the top teams, but by the end were asking her to add those teams to the schedule.
After the Central game, Fane said, “they started asking me how they can prepare for next year. To me, that means as a coaching staff we have done exactly what we set out to do.”
The Red Raiders will lose Neville, Cesari and Alexis Illas to graduation this year.
Fane said although she will lose Neville’s big arm in the circle, she knows she will be bringing back “a really strong middle,” a good catcher in Groover-Illas and other veterans in the infield and outfield. “Almost our entire defense is returning and we’ll only have to fill a couple holes,” she said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what that future team can produce …. They’re ready to work hard. They realize they have a ton of potential to work off of.”
Team statistics
Neville led the team in hits this season with 28 and tied Alexis Illas for RBI with 22. She also had 3 home runs and struck out 125 batters.
Segich scored the most runs and tied Barbella with 24 hits. Barbella and Cesari each scored 19 runs, followed by Cera with 17 (and 18 hits), Kara Hender with 12, Morgan Rocap with 11 and Morales with 9. Jessica Grandmaison scored 7 runs, Gab Bowen and Illas scored 5 each, Anna McCabe and Kailey Grimley scored 4 each and Groover-Illas scored 3.
Groover-Illas had 23 hits (and 14 RBI), Cera had 18 hits (and 13 RBI), Illas and Cesari had 17 hits each. Cesari had 13 RBI, Barbella had 12 and Segich 9. Barbella led the team in triples with 4 and had 1 home run. Cera, Illas and Groover-Illas had 2 homers each.