Chatham Softball Bests Parsippany in Dramatic Matchup

PARSIPPANY— Chatham pitcher Amanda Fazio’s ten strikeouts coupled with several home runs from Alex St. Romain and Caroline Murphy lifted the Chatham girls' softball team to a 5-4 victory over the Parsippany Redhawks on Wednesday afternoon in Parsippany. Chatham served Parsippany with its first loss of the season.

After the first two innings of play, Chatham looked near perfect defensively, holding Parsippany scoreless and registering a one-two-three inning in each. However, what was more noteworthy was how offensively charged the Cougars were from the start.

St. Romain recorded her first of two home runs over the Parsippany right fielder in the first inning, giving Chatham an early 1-0 lead.

"Alex can set the tempo for the whole team," said Head Coach Alexis Davies.

She wasn't the only one setting the tone. In the second inning, Caroline Murphy hit the ball over the Redhawks’ center fielder on the fenceless field and hustled around the bases to score Chatham’s second run.

After the Murphy home run and excitement, Cara Delsandro singled; soon afterward, St. Romain hit a line drive double that advanced Delsandro to third. Kendall Davies then connected a line drive double which cleared the bases and drove in two of the team’s five runs.

Chatham led 4-0 after only two innings of play.

In the bottom of the fourth, though, the Redhawks rallied to score three of their four runs, mostly at the expense of Chatham miscommunications on routine fly balls. Fazio struck out the last two batters to end the inning.

With the game entering the sixth inning, Coach Davies knew she had to get through to her team.

“[We needed to] go back to what we did in the beginning of the game—we weren’t being selective enough [with pitches],” she said.

While the Cougars were able to piece together a few singles in the sixth, they remained ahead by only one run when Parsippany came to the plate. Scrapping together a few singles of its own, Parsippany capitalized on a two-out double and tied the score at 4-4 heading into the final inning of play.

Lucky for Chatham the leadoff bat was in the hands of St. Romain, and she ended the game with a bang—just as she started it.

“I was just seeing the ball very well. It came down to picking the right pitch,” St. Romain said.

She nailed the ball deep into center field and Coach Davies waved her home as a throw came to the plate. After Parsippany’s catcher missed the tag and St. Romain missed the plate, St. Romain dramatically slammed her hand on the plate. In seconds that seemed like hours, the umpires paused before declaring St. Romain safe and giving the Cougars a 5-4 lead.

Fazio took Parsippany out of the game almost singlehandedly in the bottom of the seventh. Fazio struck out one and then caught a line drive at the mound before passing it off to first baseman Kelly Winans for a game-ending double play.

Chatham will play Jefferson High School at 4 p.m. on Friday in Chatham.