In-depth: Kellenberg's state championship

On the very same day, Kellenberg won a second straight state title and Sabrina DeAngelis threw a no-hitter in the semifinals.

Not even Shakespeare himself could fit all of the details from two major storylines into the 350 words that made it into Thursday's newspaper.  Details such as…

DeAngelis facing the minimum 21 batters in what was the most important start of her career (Until the next game, of course).

Or Amy Quinn showing why she’s the best nine-hitter in Long Island (Kellenberg had us all fooled, she’s a nine-hitter in title only).

Or Krista King dropping a bunt double. (Yes, a double…that’s no typo).

Or even the owl that perched itself on the backstop for half an inning before soaring down into centerfield, sending the second base umpire and Fontbonne center fielder running for cover (Comical but also frightening when you’ve seen too many of those “When Good Animals Go Bad” television specials).   

Or the countless other noteworthy tidbits that deserve mentioning. So we’ll post them here, along with plenty of postgame reaction from players and coach Ken Conrade. Clear your schedule because we are about to go 2,000 words deep.

Where better to start than with DeAngelis’ no-hitter?

Entering the season, DeAngelis was faced with the responsibility of shifting from first base to the circle full time. There she would succeed the two-time defending CHSAA Pitcher of the Year, Susan Pardo, who had just guided the Firebirds to an unbeaten season and the program’s first state title.

DeAngelis carried the Firebirds to the state tournament from the loser’s bracket - where Kellenberg had to defeat St. Anthony’s in the semifinal and then win two straight over St. John the Baptist, a team that defeated Kellenberg three times this season, breaking the Firebirds’ 50-game league winning streak.

In the 3-0 semifinal win over St. Joseph-by-the-Sea, the only runner to reach base against DeAngelis was just barely hit on the forearm by a pitch in the second inning. Though it cost DeAngelis a perfect game, the runner was negated during the next at-bat when Krista King, Amanda Crimarco and Cristen Whigham turned a 4-6-3 double play.

Stephanie Staiano drilled a double over the left fielders’ head in the first inning to score Lindsey Wiese in the bottom of the first inning. Kellenberg then used some trickery to tack on another run. With Staiano on third and Gianna Razza on first with two outs in the fourth, Razza took off for second base then retreated. But not before the catcher took the bait and threw down to second, allowing Staiano to steal home. The throw home was late and when it was all said and done, Kellenberg had a 2-0 lead and Razza ended up on third base. Amanda Coletta then followed with an RBI single to bring home Razza to make it 3-0.

Staiano went 2-for-3 with an RBI and Nikki DiTizio was 1-for-1 with a pair of walks. 

DeAngelis struck out five batters, rarely worked from behind in the count, and gave her outfielders the game off by not allowing a ball to leave the infield. She said she wasn’t hitting her spots with her curve, one of her better pitches, so she went to her screw ball and drop, which helped induce 12 ground ball outs that her infielders retrieved flawlessly.   

Here’s some postgame reaction from DeAngelis after the no-no:

Now lets hear from her coach and teammates:

Now onto the state championship game, an 8-2 win over Fontbonne.

Even with the game starting a mere hour and a half or so after the final pitch of her no-hitter, DeAngelis carried another no-hitter into the fifth inning. Natalia Sroga led off the fifth with what seemed like a 20-pitch at-bat that included a near double over the third base bag and a foul pop down the right field line that Amy Quinn sacrificed her body for in an attempt to make the catch, taking a hard dive into the tarp. But with the count full, Sroga lifted a bloop single into shallow center field, bringing DeAngelis’ streak of 11 hitless innings to an end.

“I was a little disappointed,” she said of finally allowing a hit, “but I was looking forward to the win.”

DeAngelis allowed another single and a walk to load the bases with one out, before escaping with a pair of strikeouts to secure Kellenberg’s 1-0 lead.

Just as she did in the semifinal, Staiano opened the scoring in the first with an RBI single to score King. The Firebirds scored four runs in the fifth inning, highlighted by Quinn’s RBI single and a bases clearing single by the Rider-bound Amanda Crimarco in her final Kellenberg at-bat.  

During the rally, King hit what was essentially a slow rolling, 15-foot double. She dropped a bunt down the third base line, and as the fielders waited for it to roll foul, which it never did, King never stopped running.  By the time anyone noticed, she was already on second base for what may be the first bunt double in the history of organized softball.

 “I’ve never seen a play like that,” Conrade said.  “Krista is unique because of her small stature but her natural speed actually intimidates opponents. It’s great to have her lead off a game and run down that line because, even if she gets thrown out, it plants a seed in the opposition's mind that it’s going to be a problem the whole game.”

After Fontbonne scored two runs to pull with 5-2 in the sixth, Kellenberg answered with three more runs in the bottom of the inning. King - who finished 3-for-4 with an RBI, two runs scored and a stolen base – singled to drive in DiTizio. DeAngelis followed with an RBI single off the pitcher and Staiano added an RBI groundout to make it 8-2.

Quinn, who essentially serves as a second leadoff hitter in the nine-hole with King batting behind her,  finished 3-for-3 and was a home run a shy of hitting for the cycle.

“We moved her to the nine spot because we felt it was a comfort zone for her,” Conrade said of Quinn.  “She was very happy to go there, she wanted to work out of the slump she was in. We said this will give you a simple role and it seemed to alleviate the stress of hitting second. It gave us that nine-one combination. She has an awful lot of power for a nine hitter. So it helped her out which in turn helped the team out.”

Added Quinn of the double leadoff combination of her and King: “I’d like to think it’s dangerous.”

DeAngelis - who allowed two runs, five hits and three walks with five strikeouts in the final - worked a perfect seventh inning, capped with a grounder to second base that King tossed to Whigham for the final out to seal Kellenberg’s second straight state title.

So, the question was asked, both as a group and to some individually, which state title was sweeter, the first or the second?

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Here are some additional quotes from Kellenberg coach Ken Conrade:

“Winning two straight state titles is surreal, it doesn’t happen too often. I give them a lot of credit. This one is extremely special because we came out of the loser’s bracket. This is the toughest group of kids I’ve ever coached.”