Meier Delivers Game Winner For Spartan Softball

Spartan softball head coach Brian Hay needed someone on his team to step up in a tied ballgame and Kristina Meier answered the call.

“That’s exactly what I was trying to do,” said the shortstop, who delivered the game-winning hit—an RBI double to left center in the bottom of the sixth inning—to give No. 1 Paramus a 3-2 win over Bergenfield in the opening round of the North 1, Group 3 state tournament. 

“Come up, be a leader and get the job done, because we really needed it at that point.”

Hay isn’t sure if his team was still hung over from a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to Indian Hills in the semifinals of the Bergen County Tournament on Saturday.

“We’re an old enough team to not have a hang over,” the skipper said. “But maybe we’re just exhausted from trying to win the County tournament and we came out flat today.”

First baseman Victoria Vergona delivered an RBI single in the third to give Paramus a 1-0 lead. A sacrifice fly to right by center fielder Stephanie Huang in the fifth gave the Spartans (24-3) a 2-0 advantage, but the 16^th seeded Bears (8-14) would level the score the next inning.

Bergenfield designated player Kelsey Remata led the inning off with a single. Catcher Stephanie Miranda grounded to Paramus pitcher Tori Feorenzo, who turned and fired to second. Meier, who was covering the bag, couldn’t come up with the ball cleanly, giving Bergenfield runners on first and second with no outs. Bears second baseman Jill Hanley bunted the runners over before back-to-back singles by shortstop Jackie Schultz—a blooper that dropped between Paramus second baseman Shayna Brock and right fielder Taylor Boffalo—and a base hit to shallow left by center fielder Melanie Eskin.

Feorenzo would work out of further trouble by getting the No.5 hitter Nicole Steccato to pop out to second, and—after having three straight pitches fouled off on a 1-2 count—retired opposing pitcher Vicky Miranda  on strikes.

A single by Vergona and a sacrifice bunt by Boffalo set up Meier’s game winner, which streaked past Eskin’s outstretched glove.

Feorenzo, who flirted with a no-hitter through five innings, closed out the final frame with her 10^th and 11^th strikeouts of the afternoon, and Vergona made a diving catch in foul territory to seal the victory.  

“It was not a good game for us at all,” said Hay, who is in his ninth year at the helm. “I was expecting a different attitude today . I thought we’d come out hungry and we just didn’t.

"I told them it’s one-and-done from here on out and we’re lucky we got out of here today [with a win].”