Sports
The Lady Bridgemen Advance to Second Round of State Tournament
The Fort Lee Softball Team Got a Comeback Win Against Hackettstown in the First Round of the State Tournament.
The first round of the New Jersey State Tournament took place on Tuesday afternoon in Fort Lee when the Lady Bridgemen took on the Lady Tigers of Hackettstown and defeated them by the score of 6-5.
The pitching of Amanda Maldonaldo, along with the clutch play of the #8 and #9 hitters, proved to be the turning point of this closely contested and important game.
The Lady Bridgemen entered the matchup as the #6 seed with a record of 14-6-1 and the Lady Tigers of Hackettstown entered as the #11 seed and with a record of 9-11.
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Fort Lee got off to a somewhat rocky start in the first inning when they trailed 3-0 after the first inning, but head coach Rob Aughey knew the team would not let it affect their psyche.
“This is a team that won’t quit all year long," said Aughey. "We’ve had some good comeback wins.”
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In the second inning, Megan Gimson scored for the Lady Bridgemen off of an error to get them on the board and narrow the lead to 3-1.
Things looked bleak again when Hackettstown scored two runs in the third to take a 5-1 lead over Fort Lee. Fort Lee bounced back in the bottom of the third with two runs of their own when Anthe Nikolaidos doubled to bring home Brianna Mattesich and Megan Gimson to cut the lead to 5-3.
The pressure was on as things stayed the same until the bottom of the 6th inning when the Lady Bridgemen came up big. Jillian Scrivanich, who hit eighth in the lineup, hit a triple that brought home Anthe Nikolaidos and Cece Idunonyi. A single by #9 hitter Renee Mattesich brought in Jillian Scrivanich for the go-ahead run and final run of the game as the Lady Bridgemen picked up a 6-5 comeback win.
Rutherford will be waiting for Fort Lee on Thursday when the Lady Bridgemen travel to their field, but the team was focused on the present after the game and is looking forward to the challenge.
"We’re happy we’re going to get an opportunity to go back to Rutherford because they knocked us out of the county tournament 10-0 and we want an opportunity to go back there and redeem ourselves somewhat,” said Aughey.
The second round promises to be a special matchup.
