Hurricanes Win Rec League Championship
Submitted by Carolyn Sayre
During the regular season, the Berkeley Heights Hurricanes left Chisholm Park in Springfield on May 10 knowing they wanted another shot at the number one seeded Tornadoes in the playoffs. And they got it on Friday, June 4. The two top-rated teams met again in the MSBL Rec League Championship Game, but this time the Hurricanes refused to be defeated. After a severe thunderstorm almost washed out the game, the team went on the road and upset the favored Tornadoes 3-2 with rock solid defense, a phenomenal pitching duo and timely hits at the plate.
It has been a storybook season for the Hurricanes. The little team that could was the second seed out of twelve teams in a league from towns throughout the surrounding area. They boasted an impressive 9-1 record during the regular season. Together, the players who ranged from grades three to five scored one hundred eleven runs during the spring season. Their impressive scorecard includes three playoff victories, one walk-off home run, four regular season wins in forty-degree weather, three brand new pitchers and two brand new catchers.
The roster featured seven fierce rookie softball players in the program: Ella Barnhurst, Samantha Chew, Victoria Dyachenko, Ryan Joseph, Katherine Klacik, Livy Newman and Makayla Shea. Each of them hit the diamond for the first time this spring and contributed to the team’s success in countless ways. Their collective energy and spirit was contagious all season long. In practices, the coaches, Carolyn Sayre and Liliana Bussin, often had to rely on a lack of daylight to get them off the field.
The team’s veteran players were cool and collected all season, whether they were on the mound, in the field or at bat. Aly Sayre anchored the pitching staff throughout the spring with a 1.50 ERA and 70 percent strike rate during the regular season. The bulldog took it up a notch throughout the playoffs, tossing 11 postseason innings without allowing an earned run and striking out 20. Mia Bussin, the team’s relentless leadoff hitter, got on base at a .742 clip as a Hurricane and made her softball debut on the mound, working her way into the key reliable relief role in the playoffs. Nora Ramos was an on-base machine for the Hurricanes with her sharp eye to read pitches at the plate. During the playoffs, she was an iron wall at second base stopping countless hard-hit balls peppering the right side of the field. With her incredible speed and defense, Emily Sorge played a huge role in keeping opposing teams off the scoreboard throughout the season, spending most of her time making running stops at shortstop or flagging down well-hit balls in center field to hold opposing hitters to singles. Lucia Xhelo held down the fort behind the plate for much of the season both helping to solidify the developing pitching staff, which also featured new pitchers Ramos and Sorge, and scare off opposing baserunners from stealing. Sure-handed Alexandra Duryee was also a steady presence at shortstop and the plate.
The Championship Game
The sky that had been riddled with storms a few hours earlier led way to a beautiful sunset that illuminated the field under the bright championship game lights. The Hurricanes fed off the energy of the night and came out of the gate hot, scoring two runs in the top of the first inning off the Tornadoes starter. Bussin led off with a walk before three consecutive hits by Sayre, Duryee and Xhelo plated the runs that would give them the lead they would hold for much of the game. Sayre shut down the top of the lineup in the first inning with three impressive strikeouts. In the bottom of the second, Klacik who also helped hold down the catcher position during the regular season, roped a double down the right field line firing up the Hurricanes bats once again.
Springfield’s Tornadoes fought back for a run in the second inning and another in the fourth to tie the game up at two. But the Hurricanes never lost their fight, and the pitching staff was unrattled. Their impressive defense, cultivated at all those late-night practices, also was showcased in the third inning. After Sayre struck out the first batter of the inning, Xhelo popped up from behind the plate to catch a tough pop-up for the second out. Then, the Tornadoes’ leadoff hitter singled into right field and Dyachenko made a great running stop before turning and firing to Duryee at shortstop, who tagged the runner for the third out of the inning. This was the second time the Hurricanes had thrown out a runner advancing to second on a ball to the outfield, as Chew and Sorge accomplished the same feat in the quarterfinals.
In the bottom of the fifth, Bussin squashed a bases-loaded rally by the Tornadoes in her second inning of the game, giving the Hurricanes extra momentum headed into the final inning. The inning started with Ramos preventing multiple hits at second base, recording assists on both of the first two outs. The final out came on a roller down the first base line that Sayre stopped and beat the runner to the bag, shutting down the Tornadoes chances to get on the board once more.
The Hurricanes capitalized on that when their turn at the plate came up in the top of the sixth inning with a double by Sayre, who promptly stole third base on the next pitch. The Tornadoes’ hurler threw another pitch that caught too much of the plate next and Duryee pulled it for a single, her third hit of the day, scoring Sayre from third base and putting the Hurricanes ahead 3-2. Sayre went back onto the mound in the bottom of the sixth inning and used her fiercely placed whip to induce three straight ground balls to her at pitcher, which she stopped and fired promptly to a steady Bussin at first base. The third out brought the players and coaches between the lines for a hard-earned celebration that was the culmination of those practices, drills and well-thought out “smart-softball” strategies.
The season would also not have been possible without the hard work of the many coaches who dedicated their time to help at games and practices. Head coach Carolyn Sayre, and assistant coaches Liliana Bussin, Todd Klacik, Ryan Newman, Emily Ramos, Bret Sayre and Ed Sorge.
After seven weeks of games, more than a dozen long practices, and countless trips to Zitas, they emerged the champions. Before they took the field for the last time to clinch their victory, the Hurricanes huddled together one last time on the sideline. The coaches gave them all one instruction: go have fun. And that is exactly what they did.
