Softball: Szeirer continues power surge, helps Immaculata past Bernards in county semis
BRIDGEWATER – Marli Szeirer is certainly making up for lost time.
After spending the first three-plus weeks on the sidelines watching her Immaculata High School softball teammates in action, the senior finally joined the lineup April 23 after sitting out her obligatory time after transferring from Timothy Christian, and she has done nothing but hit since, and hit for power
Wednesday’s blast in the Somerset County Tournament semifinals – a fifth-inning grand slam – was not only her fifth round-tripper in the past four games, but it helped lift Immaculata to a height it hadn’t seen in 16 years.
Szeirer, who had homered twice in her previous outing, Tuesday, finished 2-for-3, with her only out of the day coming on a screaming liner to right field, and senior Caroline Colitti allowed just two seventh-inning runs on nine hits, walked none and struck out four to make six fifth-inning runs hold up. The second-seeded Spartans advanced to the county final for the first time since 2008, scoring a 6-2 win over third-seeded Bernards at Torpey Field.
“Sitting out watching the team the whole season was kind of hard, so I was ready to get out there and I’m just pumped up,” said Szeirer, who came into the season with 24 career home runs against a Greater Middlesex Conference Gold Division schedule featuring nowhere near the kind of elite pitching Immaculata sees on a daily basis. “I’m just feeling it and so happy to be out here with these girls. It’s such a positive community. So, knowing (as a senior) it’s my last go, I’m just putting it all out there.”
“To her credit, she (Szeirer) came to practice every day and worked hard and she didn’t sulk,” said Immaculata coach Gary Bury, whose team will be looking for its first SCT title since 2008 when it takes on top-seeded defending champ Watchung Hills here at 7 p.m. Friday for the title. “But you can tell she was champing at the bit, and she makes a major difference in our lineup.”
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Both teams hit the ball hard consistently for most of the game, with balls either finding gloves, or the gloves finding the ball, as both clubs also put forth tremendous defensive performances. Bernards left field Marley Beers, especially, made eyes pop, turning in three absolute gems, gunning a runner down at the plate to end the bottom of the first inning, fully laying out to make a diving catch of a would-be extra-base hit in the gap to record a much-needed out in the fifth, and then going over the fence to rob Rebecca Airel of a would-be homer in the bottom of the sixth inning.
For Immaculata, the defensive star was second baseman Ava Giglio, who made several key snags of hard-hit grounders to short-circuit rallies, including a couple of force plays at second base.
The game was scoreless headed to the bottom of the fifth inning, despite both teams getting their hits and consistently hitting ball hard. Bernards left seven runners on over the first five frames, including four in scoring position, while Mountaineers ace Maddie Lardieri was able to strand four runners over her first four innings, including leaving the bases loaded in the third. In all, 13 of Immaculata’s 18 outs were recorded via flyball, but the Bernards outfield played flawless defense to keep their club in striking distance.
Lardieri was not at 100 percent, physically, Bernards coach Leslie O’Connor said, as she was feeling ill, but the veteran fought through it in her team’s biggest game of the year, and kept the scoreboard clear until running out of gas in the fifth inning. Airel doubled with one out to get it started, before Molly Ferreira singled to center to send courtesy runner Ariana Brea to third, bringing up Heather Ryden, who had singled in each of her first two at-bats. The junior hit a grounder to shortstop, with Gina Mahlik looking the runner back to second, as Brea crossed the plate to make it 1-0.
Caitlin Maychrich followed with a walk, brining up Szeirer, who unloaded a towering drive to right-center field, just out of the reach of leaping center fielder Silje Emery to make it 5-0. Julia Gallo followed, crunching a solo home run to right field, and Immaculata took the six-run advantage it would not relinquish.
“From the moment we got here today, the energy was up, so I knew it would break for us eventually,” said Szeirer, who is 10-for-25 with two doubles, five home runs and 14 RBIs in eight games played. “It was just a matter of time.”
“It seems like we’re grinders – second or third time through our lineup we definitely score more runs,” Bury said. “We hit the ball hard, but we grind and we grind, and like we told the team, games aren’t won in the first inning.”
Bernards finally got on the board in the seventh inning, getting a double from Taylor Monica, an RBI double from Mahlik, and an RBI single from Risa Rivetti, but it wasn’t enough, denying the Mountaineers what would have been their first trip to the SCT final since 1981. Still, for a squad that will begin defense of its North 2 Group 2 state sectional title in two weeks, Wednesday’s performance showed its coach they’re ready to go.
“Maddie didn’t have her best stuff. She was fighting some illness. We needed her to have a ‘Jordan flu game,’ and it just didn’t happen,” Mountaineers skipper Leslie O’Conor said. “She was battling through it, but at the end she couldn’t battle anymore.
“I’m very proud of them. We were right there. We hit the whole game and threatened the whole game, but they made some great plays. It’s just that one inning that we couldn’t get it done. That stinks. But my girls were hitting the ball really hard, I’m happy we’re they’re at, and I think this kind of game gets us ready for the state tournament.”
For Immaculata, the win Wednesday was another big step for a program that’s been rebuilt, an effort that started when Bury took over the helm six years ago. The team has improved every season since, with last year’s 20-7 campaign the first time the Spartans had broken the elusive 20-win mark since 2000, and now they’ll vie for their first county crown since 2007.
“I’m so happy for the seniors.” Bury said. “The first year they got here we won eight games, and now they’re in the county championship.”
BOX SCORE
BERNARDS (11-5) 000-000-2 – 2-9-0
IMMACULATA (14-3) 000-060-x—6-8-1
WP: Colitti (14-3). LP: Lardieri (9-5).
2B: B—Mahlik; I--Airel. HR: I—Szeirer, Gallo.
Staff writer Simeon Pincus has been covering NJ sports since 1997, and has been on the softball beat since 1999. He can be reached at CourierSoftball@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter/X @SimeonPincus
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Softball: Szeirer's power surge, helps Immaculata into SCT final
