County Final Brings Memories of Marathon Win

The Somerset County Softball Tournament has provided some of the greatest games played on the local varsity softball scene over the years, and the championship game has featured some of the absolute classics. But through all the late-inning heroics, unlikely rallies, dominating performances and extra-inning thrillers, the 2004 final sticks out in the mind of most, whether fan or participant.

When and Watchung Hills meet at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Nap Torpey Field in Bridgewater in this year’s county final, it will mark the first time these teams have met for the title since those two nights eight years ago when they faced off at Bridgewater’s North Branch Park. It was the second straight year those teams had met in the final, after Hillsborough had snapped Watchung Hills’ two-year championship streak the previous season.

The Raiders had a repeat on their minds, while the Warriors were focused on reclaiming the crown, and what ensued was a 19-inning classic played over two days, featuring a dominant pitching performance and ending on a clutch hit to give Hillsborough a 1-0 victory.

“I remember thinking every inning I can’t believe I’m putting my gear back on and going back out there,” said Kristen D’Alessandro, who, as a senior, caught all 19 innings for Watchung Hills before playing four years at Fairfield University. “I know I’m an extremely competitive person, and I left that night feeling very good, and that wasn’t like me. Normally, if I lose a county game, I was going to be hurting. You can be disappointed, but you can’t feel hurt–it was a 19-inning game. I’ve played so many softball games in my life and I’ve never been part of a better game.”

The game, which was played before the international tiebreaking rule was added to high school softball, started on a Saturday night and got odd fairly early. Hillsborough senior starting pitcher Marisa Van Cleef, who hadn’t allowed a hit, but whose control was lacking, was replaced in the second inning by junior lefty Chrissy Yard. But things only got weirder, as Yard and Watchung Hills pitcher Sarah Fenstemaker matched zeros.

In the top of the sixth, with Watchung Hills batting, streaks of lightning began to flash in the distant sky, causing a mandatory stoppage. Soon, as the lightning continued and drew closer, the umpires conferred with the tournament’s officials and decided to suspend the contest until the following evening.

To make matters more difficult, Hillsborough’s senior prom had been held the night before the final began, and many of the Raiders had plans to go down the shore and celebrate after Saturday’s game–plans they were forced to abandon because of the delay. Perhaps they used that lost weekend as extra motivation.

“We wanted to continue the game, but due to nature we were postponed,” said Yard, who followed her Hillsborough career with four standout seasons at Rutgers, before being hired as an assistant softball coach at Kean University. “We came out hungry the next night and we wanted to take care of business and have the seniors enjoy what was left of prom weekend. It’s the sacrifice of softball–and baseball–that prom is always in there somewhere.”

When the teams returned to North Branch the following evening, it was more of the same, as Fenstemaker and Watchung Hills continued to dodge bullets–Hillsborough finished with 15 hits–while Yard dominated, finishing having allowed just three hits, no walks and striking out 22 over 17 2/3 innings.

“When the storm that came though, I remember sitting on the bus and laughing how ridiculous the game was,” said D’Alessandro, who teaches seventh-grade math at Warren Middle School, is an assistant field hockey and JV basketball coach at Watchung Hills and serves as scorekeeper for her father, Mike D’Alessandro, who is now the head coach of the Warriors varsity softball team. “I remember laughing during warmups the next day how they could possibly score one run and it’d be over after one inning.”

But it didn’t end after one inning; instead the game went another 13 frames, until Christine Rash played hero in the bottom of the 19th.

Candy Palumbo led off and singled to left field, and went to second when Yard laid down a bunt and couldn’t be thrown out at first. The Raiders then loaded the bases on an infield single by Kristen Derwecki, and after a force out at home, Christine Rash came up and lined an RBI single to right-center field to win it.

“It was definitely a team effort,” Yard said. “Given the circumstances of the weekend (with prom), people could have looked at it negatively, but we kept hungry and were looking to attack and go back to back."

"I remember Chrissy being really dominant,” said Hillsborough coach Cheryl Iaione, who will lead the Raiders into its ninth county final in the past 10 years Saturday. “And I remember saying to my coaches that we weren’t going to lose the game, it was just a matter of when we were going to win it.”

Eight years later, who won and who lost is secondary for those involved. Both squads had played marathon contests 10 days prior to that county final, with Hillsborough winning a 22-inning regular-season game over North Hunterdon the same day Watchung Hills beat Warren Hills in 17 innings. Players and coaches on both teams agreed that county final was among the best games they were ever involved in and they are proud to have been a part of it.

Kristen George, who played first base for Watchung Hills as a senior that season, has not played organized softball since. She is now living in New York City and working as a project planner for Bloomingdales.com. She said that while she remembers being very tense and anxious, she looks back fondly at the game.

“Honestly, both teams played so hard and put so much effort into that game, probably more than any other game that entire season,” said George, who was Watchung Hills’ other pitcher that season, but didn’t pitch in that final. “I wasn’t disappointed at the end, I was definitely proud of Sarah Fenstemaker that she lasted that long, and proud of the team as a whole.”

“It’s just one of those things that it stands out so much in your mind,” Yard said. “You can always reflect back onto it as a great memory playing in high school.”