Brooke Clark isn’t ready for her career to end.
And because of some of her own dramatics – not to mention Gianna Dougherty’s guts and speed and a bad-hop grounder – Clark and the Delsea Regional High School softball team have extended their season at least another three days.
Fourth-seeded Delsea pushed across a run in the top of the eighth inning and held on in a hair-raising bottom of the frame to knock off top-seeded Hammonton, 2-1, in a thrilling NJSIAA South Jersey Group 3 semifinal Tuesday.
The Crusaders will travel to second-seeded Burlington Township, a 1-0, eight-inning winner over Toms River South, for the sectional final.
Clark, the senior shortstop, made the final out with Hammonton runners on the corners and Delsea holding a one-run lead. She handled a tricky grounder and dove for the second base bag, tagging it with her glove for the final out just before the runner arrived.
“Honestly in my brain I was thinking bad hop and I know sometimes I psyche myself out,” said Clark. “I tried to stay calm, heard my second baseman say you, you. It came at me at a weird angle, I saw the hop, got a little nervous and figured going to second was the best bet.”
Clark gave Delsea its first run with a solo homer - her 11th of the year - in the fourth. The third-team all-state selection will attend the University of Delaware next year but will not play softball.
“I wasn’t expecting a home run, but they’re always nice,” said Clark. “I felt confident all day we were going to win and I wasn’t that nervous.
“But I got cleated during the game - I have a hole in my leg right now - and at that point it all hit me that this can be my last game and I got super emotional. But you have to play every game like it’s your last.”
Gutelius said he has tried to convince Clark to give college softball a try.
“She has a gift,” said Gutelius. “I’ve tried a couple times, but I’m afraid her parents will e-mail me to stop harassing her. We’re going to miss her, for sure.”
Delsea took the lead in the top of the eighth with a little speed and a little luck. With two outs and two on, pitcher Gianna Dougherty hit a grounder to short and busted it down the line.
The throw caused the first baseman to lift off the bag slightly, allowing Dougherty to hit the bag and reach on the bang-bang play.
“I think I always have a chance to beat it out, but I was a little surprised because I really don’t beat out infield hits,” said Dougherty. “That was really big to not make the last out.”
Alyssa Dare then hit what looked like an inning-ending routine grounder to third before the ball appeared to hit a rock and caromed straight up on third baseman Alexa Panagopoylos. The Blue Devil junior had no play but recovered to catch the runner coming around third for the final out after the go-ahead run scored.
“Dare just put the ball in play and good things happened,” said Gutelius. “It literally hit a rock.”
Panagopoylos almost won the game in the bottom of the eighth with a deep drive to center with one on and one out, but it was caught at the wall. Krista Tzaferos followed with a single, but Clark fielded a grounder for the final out.
Clark’s solo home run with two outs in the fourth inning snapped a scoreless deadlock and ended April Lewandowski’s streak of 11 straight batters retired to start the game. It looked like it was going to be the only run until Sophia Vento singled to start the bottom of the sixth for Hammonton and April Lancaster tripled down the line.
But after hitting Panagoloypos with a pitch to put runners on the corners, Dougherty escaped the jam with a fielder’s choice, strikeout and popup. Her strikeout of Ava Divello came after a long at-bat in which the Blue Devil fouled off about a half-dozen two-strike pitches.
“I was scared but you have to keep the confidence for what happened to happened,” said Dougherty. “It’s all in your head. You have to keep a calm mindset all the way through.”
Hammonton coach Eric Shulman said it just wasn’t the Blue Devils’ day.
“Nothing (Panagopoylos) could have done, the ball hits a rock and hits you in the face, it’s one of the things that happen in this sport,” said Shulman. “In the sixth inning we have to be able to punch something through, hit something hard enough and make the action happen. We couldn’t finish that inning out.
“It always hurts to lose a game like this, but they can’t beat themselves up. They gave everything they had, did everything we asked them to do. Delsea’s a good team, and today just wasn’t our day. Sometimes you do everything right and you don’t come out on top.”
Delsea last won the sectional title in 2019 and Clark was a starter as a freshman on the team.
If she has anything to do with it, she will finish the way she started.
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Bill Evans can be reached at bevans@njadvancemedia.com. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.
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