A Step into Sports Broadcasting; Spartan Softball Finds Groove

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Barbara Vano, longtime softball coach at St. Thomas Aquinas College, knew the hits would come—especially timely hits—and kept preaching that the Lady Spartans were playing hard despite a 9-15 record.

“Sometimes, no matter what we do, it doesn’t work. But that’s softball,” Vano said early Thursday. “Our starting pitchers [Maura Power of Pearl River, and Megan Sweezy of East Islip] are getting stronger every game, learning from their mistakes.”

The learning process resulted in a doubleheader sweep of visiting New York Institute of Technology later that afternoon and evening, with the sophomore southpaw Power—a graduate of Albertus Magnus—punctuating a perfect day with a near-perfect 1-hit, 2-0 gem in the nightcap.

The Lady Spartans had scored a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to win the opener 9-8 in a game featuring a 14-hit attack led by Sharis Ruiz of Greenwood Lake and Joy Ferriello of Nanuet, with three hits apiece.

STAC, like most schools in the area, have been forced to juggle the schedule due to the weather, and Thursday’s doubleheader was pushed back in an effort to allow the home field more time to dry out.

“It’s been crazy, it’s unbelievable,” Vano said. “I always want to play, but it has to be safe to play. I feel bad for our baseball team—at least we have a field of our own; they’re at the mercy of where they play.”

Power and Sweezy both play in the outfield when not in the circle. They’ll probably pitch again over the weekend, weather permitting, as STAC is scheduled to host Mercy College at 1 p.m. on Saturday, and C.W. Post at noon on Sunday.

“Basically, we have two weeks left,” said Vano, whose Lady Spartans raised their record to 11-15 to keep their eyes on the East Coast Conference playoffs. “We still have a chance.”

Power’s effort that clinched the sweep included five strikeouts, and was supported by RBI from Sweezy and third-year first baseman Heather Clausen, a graduate of Hendrick Hudson HS.

“She (Heather) was strong as a freshman, had a little downturn as a sophomore, but as a junior she’s coming back, and batting around .400,” Vano said of the team’s No. 3 hitter.

Usually batting cleanup is the senior backstop Ferriello, a leader on the field.“Joy came out of Nanuet as a catcher; then played a bit of infield for us the previous few years,” said Vano. “She’s doing a good job behind the plate; she gets her point across.”

Ruiz, a graduate of Tuxedo HS, sparks the offense from the leadoff position. The junior second baseman, notes Vano, “really plays the game well. When she gets on base, it’s not unusual for her to take a base, and plays real good defense.”

Another steady defensive performer has been senior third baseman Alyssa Cataldo of Suffern.

Plugging along

Like most teams in the Northeast, the softball team at Dominican College has been juggling the schedule due to inclement weather. The Lady Chargers have been doing it to the extent they now face six doubleheaders (count ’em) in seven days.

The stretch starts today against visiting Chestnut Hill College at 3 p.m. There are twinbills set on Saturday at Georgian Court, and Sunday at Wilmington, and then a home twinbill on Monday against Felician (3 p.m.).

“Well, we’re doing as well as we can,” offered fourth-year coach Joe Burbridge of Suffern, whose teams won conference titles the last two seasons, twice appearing in the national tournament.

This year, however, has been a bit different.

“We’re doing OK, all right, we’re hanging in there,” Burbridge said, judging the team’s 18-10 mark (8-2 in the CACC) not as solid as it appears on paper.

“We’re fourth in the region, but no one is really standing out. Last year we hit .340 as a team, the highest ever in the conference. We’ve had play-station numbers in past years,” the coach continued. “This year we’re hitting .290 (actually .286).”

Asked whether this makes for a tougher coaching job, Burbridge agreed you could make that argument.

“But you could also make the argument that it’s more fun, more interesting,” he added. “It’s different now; it’s different playing from the front.”

The Lady Chargers are led by all-conference sophomore returnees Julie Plante of Swansea, MA, a shortstop; catcher Ashley Corrao of Staten Island, and pitcher Delaney Childers of Johnstown, OH, who was last year’s rookie of the year.

“On paper, it looks like we’re a powerhouse, but not really. We had a good run, but we’re grinders, just a small school; we grind it out,” Burbridge says. “We don’t have that big-city attitude coming into games, but we make it work.”

In the end, however, Burbridge is well aware that the vagaries of collegiate ball can change your outlook very quickly.

“One week you can play well, and the next week the roof can cave in,” said Burbridge. “Success today could be failure tomorrow. I think one thing we do is take one day at a time. I know it’s a cliché, but it really does apply in this business.”

Say hey, Shea

One day after being named as ECAC player of the week for the second time this season, Mike Shea of Congers set the single-season points record for the College of Mount Saint Vincent men’s lacrosse team in a 13-8 loss to Richard Stockton in Pomona, NJ.

Shea, a senior attack who was graduated from Clarkstown North, scored three goals in the setback, and added an assist to lift his points record to 54.

Shea has 44 goals this season, and a career-record 96 for the Dolphins, who are scheduled to visit Montclair State on Saturday for a 1 p.m. start.           

Hired

Sophomore Matt Bonomolo of Pearl River, who is majoring in sports management at Mount Ida College in Newton, MA., found out on Monday that he will be spending part of the summer close to home.

“I’m surprised a bit because so many people applied for the job,” said Bonomolo, the starting center on the Mustangs’ football team, who was hired as an intern at 1050 ESPN Radio in Manhattan.

Bonomolo, who is taking part in non-contact spring practice and is already looking forward to actual workouts in August, starts the 12-credit internship position on May 5. The position ends on Aug. 12, just in time for football practice.

A big fan of the football Giants, Bonomolo said getting the internship represents  “a major accomplishment,” and was definitely helped by his work in the school’s sports information office under director Greg Antonelli.

“I’ve been impressed with how easily Matthew has grasped the aspects of sports information I’ve taught him through the past two years,” Antonelli was quoted as saying. “He is driven to succeed in the sports world … this is an opportunity not many sophomore college kids get to experience. He’s the type of student that will take this chance and make the best of it.”

Bonomolo, in the honors program at Mount Ida, kidded that if he couldn’t be a center for his beloved Giants, “then maybe some day I’ll work for the Giants.”

As ESPN, where Yankees announcer Michael Kay is a stalwart, along with Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg, Bonomolo’s duties will include marketing and planning, and doing research for the on-air personalities.

“Hopefully, it leads to bigger and better things,” said the Nanuet High graduate, who helped the Mustangs to a 6-4 record last season. “I’m really excited.”

Fairly successful underachievers

Rick Giannetti, the longtime baseball coach at Dominican College, has a lifetime mark that would be the envy of most of his peers. In 22 years at the Chargers helm, the New City resident has piled up 614 victories, a multitude of championships, and a postseason appearance in every year but one.

On the face of it, the Chargers are doing quite well this year, too, despite a horrid stretch of spring weather that the coach said, with emphasis, should never be used as an excuse for unacceptable play.

Going into today’s twinbill at the College of St. Rose in Albany, Dominican is 16-10 overall, and 9-1 in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC). The Chargers will play two games on Saturday at Bloomfield, and then visit Nyack College on Monday at 7:15 p.m.

Giannetti, whose winning background includes a highly successful four-year career as a pitcher at Ramapo College, and which almost demands a high standard of excellence, feels the team should be doing better.

“We’re like (Dr.) Jekyll and (Mr.) Hyde; we’re as unpredictable as the weather,” he said. “Some days we show up, and some days we don’t. Some days we pitch, and don’t hit; some days we hit, and don’t pitch; some days we pitch and don’t play defense. You have to have all three aspects to do well.”

Stay tuned.

Mortarboard musings

• Manhattan College sophomore goalie Julia DiBernardo of Loudonville was named Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference defensive player of the week in women’s lacrosse. The Lady Jaspers conclude their MAAC schedule this weekend with games on Friday night (7 p.m.) and Sunday night a(8 p.m.) at Gaelic Park in Riverdale. Manhattan is coming off a 17-11 loss to Bucknell in which junior attack Chrissy Gutenberger of Stony Point had four goals.
• The Manhattan College softball team (13-17, 2-2 MAAC) hosts conference rivals Siena (13-18, 2-4 MAAC) and Marist (21-14, 6-0 MAAC) at Gaelic Park over the weekend.  A doubleheader against Siena on Saturday gets under way at noon, while a twinbill against Marist starts at 10 a.m. on Sunday.
• Suffern’s Scott McClennan, a freshman right-hander at Manhattan College, is 0-1 with a 3.24 ERA (two walks, two strikeouts) in limited duty for the Jaspers. Manhattan, which had won 10 straight games until losing 6-5 to Columbia, hopes to rebound today at 3 p.m. when it hosts Marist at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. The Jaspers are asking all fans to support the Wounded Warrior Project at this game, and at Sunday’s scheduled doubleheader beginning at noon. Support can be shown by pledging $1, $3 or $5 per run scored against the Red Foxes. The Wounded Warrior Project donation table will be set up behind the backstop for all three games. For more information on the organization access www.WoundedWarriorProject.org.
• Kristen LeGeyt of Stony Point and Jessie Mitchell of Suffern helped power the College of Mount Saint Vincent past Wesley 17-16, snapping a three-game slide in women’s lacrosse. Mitchell, a senior midfielder, had three goals, three assists, and a team-high six groundballs and seven draw controls. LeGeyt, a senior attack, added two goals. The Dolphins host Montclair State on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Riverdale Country Day School. The seniors will be honored on Monday night when the Dolphins meet Bard at 8 o’clock at Tibbetts Brook Park in Yonkers.
• Westchester Community College basketball standout Jessica Biggs, a 5-foot-7 sophomore from Nanuet, was named honorable mention NJCAA Division III all-American. Biggs, whose brother Tyrell Biggs is playing professionally in Israel, hopes to continue her basketball career after transferring to a four-year college. “I’d like to keep it going, but I’m not sure where just yet,” Biggs, a Paramus Catholic graduate, said. “I’d go anywhere; I just want to go somewhere and play.”