Track Log: Friars Send Annual Sprinkling To NCAAs, Each With An Extra Rung To Grasp

Something mystical -or, if nothing else, years of simple building upon building- worked tangibly for Ahmed Haji at the climactic turn of his fourth and final PC track season.

By sheer grace, or a hefty dollop of drive, or an exponentially escalating package of proficiency, or all of the above, the track spirits finally gleamed in approval at an all-seasons runner of an endless cross-country trophy case but an inverse shortage of equivocal track and field accomplishments.

After he had snuffed out on his first three stabs at a ticket to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Haji made a charm out of the fourth attempt and is set to take one last hustle in PC attire a good month after he was handed his degree. Together with female associates and outdoor championship veterans Katie DiCamillo and Danette Doetzel, he will represent the Friars in Des Moines, Iowa, on the campus of host Drake University (yesterday's home of PC's new men's basketball skipper, Keno Davis).

Haji and DiCamillo will each run through their respective 5,000 meter semifinals Wednesday evening, the ladies going first at 8:10, the men to follow at 8:50. Doetzel will carry out her one-shot deal in the 10,000 meter dash Thursday night, the cue-gun going off for her group at 8:10.

Should either Haji or DiCamillo advance, they will hang about for Friday's meter finals, the women to go at 9:15 p.m. and the men immediately following at 9:35.

Haji, a four-time veteran of the NCAA cross country championships, earned his passport here on April 24 with a nip-and-tuck finish at the Penn Relays, where he hadn't earned any glamour since he went there in 2004 as a senior with Conard High School. Coming back in the form of a ripe collegian, he finished sixth among 31 5,000m dashers, logging a flashy 13:57.01 running time.

Between PC's four student-athletes of the year (Haji was distinguished under the male individual sport heading), Doetzel is the only one with still another year to work with in Friartown. And between this year's trinity of track elites, she's the one branding the progressive archetype.

In the not-too-distant past, Doetzel has made 5,000 meters her specialty. She went 12th overall in the final round of that very event a year ago in Sacramento with a 16:27.67 finish. Three months ago, accompanied by the Friars' mile-run connossieur Hayden McLaren, she clocked in at 16:36.04 to finish 13th in a final pool of 16 at the Arkansas-hosted indoor championships.

She has, more or less, "graduated" in the short time since. In Arkansas, she was one of the final 16 standing in the 5,000m event, where she finished 13th overall within 16:36.04.

Since then, during this outdoor season, she has laid claim to the Big East throne for 10,000m competitors. Doetzel completed that venture in a matter of 33:27.64 for first place in the conference final May 3, plenty to fulfill the NCAA qualification criteria.

Earning the option of a double-dip in both the 5,000 and 10,000 runs this week, Doetzel chose the latter option by itself. And so, she leaves the 5,000 legacy solely in the hands of DiCamillo, who fell a few gusts short of joining her in last year's finals.

DiCamillo, who at the 2007 indoor bonanza logged an identical 13th-place finish in the indoor 5,000 meter run (16:23.28 time), stamped her passport to Des Moines less than two weeks ago in the East Regionals. She claimed fourth-place by means of a 16:48, only fifteen seconds ahead of a fifth-place, shortcoming Friar friend in Krystal Douglas.

DiCamillo, Doetzel's fellow junior and a cross-country ace like Doetzel and Haji both, will look to better last year's semi-final run of 16:26.13, which placed her 12th in that tour and on the sidelines to watch her teammate, who finished twelve seconds and a slim three slots ahead of her.

Softball Splits With Notre Dame, Retains Playoff Hopes

Report based on CSTV’s Gametracker

Notre Dame, Ind.- In a matter of 79 minutes, the potent Notre Dame Fighting Irish docked Providence College back to conventional reality through a hastened 10-1 shellacking in Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader at Melissa Cook Stadium. At the interim portion of the day, PC was 0-11 all time on this particular field.

But the refined Friars pounced on the resultant jumpstart to Game 2 (first pitch thrown at 1:44, a good 16 minutes ahead of the listed start time), conjuring a 4-0 lead on a set of doubles by Gina Rossi and Teresa Bertels and kneading that edge to an eventual 5-3 triumph.

With that, only one year and 12 days removed from halting their franchise-old futility against the Irish through a split at Raymond Field, PC extracted its first ever victory on the fabled Indiana campus, where in 2006 they were promptly abolished from their only appearance in the Big East quarterfinals.

Incidentally, Saturday’s resilience also propped up the Friars’ hopes for a return trip to the playoffs as they kept their .500 transcript (8-8) and grip on the eighth seed stable. They will seek to finally step up a few rungs in their Sunday visit to DePaul, who at 10-5 stood fourth in the conference midway through their Saturday series with Connecticut.

Nothing was stable about Saturday’s venture, though. Even as the Friars sculpted their early edge, the Irish nibbled at starter Jennifer Maccio from within, accepting four walks in the first three innings and barely stranding two runners in each of those frames.

After Bertels had guided Rossi and Justin Stratton home on a distant double to left center, Notre Dame hurler Jody Valdivia finally gave way to Brittney Bargar, who came into Saturday No. 2 in overall Big East pitching and #1 in terms of strikeouts with 188. In a practical fingersnap, the wound was compressed and the Irish finally hatched their run-scoring egg on Maccio in their half of the inning.

A two-out triple courtesy Katie Fleury brought Erin Marrone home before Sarah Smith plopped a soapy bunt that third baseman Katelyn Revens couldn’t handle, allowing Fleury to tap the dish and reduce matters to a 4-2 deficit.

By the time the Irish had again let two runners dissolve in the fifth (right after PC had stranded three in their half) Maccio had thrust the ball 88 times. She lasted merely four more in the sixth, eventually authorizing a single Brianna Jorgensborg before the Friars’ called upon their own ace, Danielle Bertollette.

Bertollette, who took the two-cheek slapper earlier in the day, started her second shift with a draining, seven-pitch walk to Fleury. The Irish proceeded to inch Jorgensborg all the way home on a pair of worthwhile sac grounders.

But Christy Becker drove home an insurance tally in the Friars’ half of the seventh, whacking a two-out, straightaway single far enough to let Revens complete the tour from second base, which she had wisely stolen after her leadoff single. (Revens expanded her league lead in the SB column to 25).

Bertollette needed to squeeze out 20 more tosses en route to her first save of the year, but ended up stamping it on Marronne’s full-count fly to Rossi out in left.

Game 1: Bargar explicitly out-aced Bertollette in the early fixture, wherein PC submitted to a mercy rule after a mere four-and-a-half innings.

Discounting to the Friars’ redressing Game 2 victory, four of the last five get-togethers between these two schools have not through the standard seven inning schema.

Bertollette (3.1 IP, 9 H, 5 ER) was uprooted in favor of Kathryn Sullivan upon Samantha Pittmann’s one-out error at second base which let Katie Laing hustle home from third and stationed Jorgensborg and Sarah Smith on first and second. Sullivan let Christine Lux into the equation through a five-pitch walk before Ashley Ellis leveled a grand slam over left field.

The Irish massacre strung its 10 runs on as many hits whereas the Friars spilled the bulk of their opportunities, affording only one run on seven hits and stranding five runners between the second and fifth innings.

In the second, with Notre Dame already up 3-0, Pittmann nailed a first-pitch, one-out single to push home Christy Becker and Gina Rossi –the lone Friar to muster two hits on winning hurler Brittney Bargar- to second. Both runners snuck into scoring position on Bertels’ sac bunt but saw their chance to knot the game zapped on Julie Fowler’s subsequent strikeout.

In the bottom of the third, the Irish stretched their edge to 5-1 only after Bertollette had singlehandedly retired her first two challengers, putting out both Laing and Lux on grounders. Linda Kohan –who had stolen home for her team’s third run in the opening frame- and later gave way to pinch runner Christin Farrell after Ellis (5 RBIs on the day) walked on four straight pitches. Designated hitter Beth Northway belted a distant double to bring both runners home.

Softball Sweeps DH At Rutgers, Improves To 6-6

Report based on CSTV's Gametracker

Piscataway, N.J.- The former was statistically authoritative and ultimately breezy. The latter was cringe-inducing and mythically epic.

Both of the installments of Saturday’s visit to the Rutgers Softball Complex involved the Friars veiling a quaky defense. First, top hurler Danielle Bertollette stuffed up three unstable innings while her teammates proceeded to shower on the hits towards a 7-1 victory.

The second game had an ominous start as Jennifer Maccio found herself in a 3-1 deficit through one inning, part of it attributable to two PC errors (by day’s end, the Friars had a two-game total of five blunders). But like Bertollette before her, Maccio recompensed. Heavily helping her own cause with two credited put-outs and five assists, she held the Scarlet Knights scoreless even as they snuck in at least one hit for every inning but the seventh.

By that point, Providence had inched its way back against the unyielding Rutgers starter Crissy Yard. Trailing 3-2 with three outs to work with, they launched a decisive offensive towards a 6-3 victory, sweeping the set and improving to 6-6 in conference action.

Yard, who had only allowed one run in the first and fourth while stamping 1-2-3 ventures in the second, third, and fifth, went all roly-poly when it came time to wrap things up. Julie Fowler brought Samantha Pittmann home from third to knot things up and hustled to second when Katelyn Revens bunted her way to first.

Yard’s crumbling process explicitly surfaced when a wild pitch to Jen Garcia put both runners in scoring position. And by the time Garcia had hit a productive fly to Amanda Heller in right and PC’s top slugger Mary Rose Sheehy cleared things up with a home run, the score was solidified and Yard’s once-fail-safe complete game was cut off by 1/3 of an inning.

Nicole Lindley, who took the bulk of PC’s punishment in Game 1, finished the top half of the inning before Maccio wrapped up her less likely CG, even after leadoff Malory Miller tiptoed to third on an error, a sac grounder, and a wild pitch. She would be stranded when Mandy Craig, already 2-for-2 with two RBI on the game, flew out to Gina Rossi in left.

To start their go-around with Maccio (now 8-5 overall this season), the Knights made a burning point of doing what they couldn’t do in Game 1 to her cut-above colleague Bertollette: cash in when the ball got buttery.

Maccio issued a leadoff walk to Amanda Shaw , who completed the tour home on a Mallory Miller single to left and an error on the part of Revens at third, which put Kate Valiante on first and Miller at second. Both of those runners inched into scoring position on a wild pitch against Craig who knocked them both home and then took a free ride to second on Justine Stratton’s misfire out of right, officially branded the Friars’ second error of the inning.

In the next two innings, Maccio virtually laid out and singlehandedly escaped from her own muddle. With two on and one away in the second, she zapped a liner by Heller and thrust it to first for a spontaneous double-play. In the third, she cut down Miller by handing a Craig grounder over to Revens before Kim Hodges grounded to third, pacifying another red scare.

Meanwhile, PC’s bat rack –which, Jen Garcia’s first inning bomber aside, took the first three innings to recuperate from its indulgent Game 1 scoring spree- thawed out in the fourth for its first legitimate threat against Yard. Leading off, Sheehy –who at day’s end was tops in the Big East with a .404 batting average- doubled to right center and Christy Becker singled to place runners at the corners. Stratton’s sac fly to left field brought Sheehy home to cut the deficit to 3-2, but Pittmann grounded out to end the round.

The Friars spilled a glowing opportunity to pull ahead in the sixth when Yard, in regular Maccio fashion, snared Rossi’s grounder and turned to first for the second out, placing the likes of Sheehy and Becker in scoring position. But Stratton flew out to left for the third out, forcing PC to save its epic juice for the final inning, wherein Yard would double her hit count from four to eight and bloat her batters-faced total from 23 to 31.

Game 1: Through the completion of Game 1, the Friars had stamped the first half of their Big East schedule and replenished the strength of their record with a fourth straight intra-league triumph.

Bertollette, who bulked up her record to 11-8 in her team-leading ninth complete game on the year, breezed through the fifth and sixth innings after Rutgers put her through a flustering tangle in the previous three frames. Over the second, third, and fourth, Bertollette admitted half of 18 faced batters to the bags, two of them hit batsmen, five on singles, and another a run-scoring double by Craig in the second, which halved the Friar lead to 2-1.

Otherwise, the Providence defense had their unflagging hurler’s back, restricting the salivating Knights to that single run. Two batters after Craig, with the sacks juiced, Bertollette foiled Kim Hodges’ scoring attempt from third by tossing a grounder right back to catcher Teresa Bertels.

In the third, Rutgers threatened with the same royal flush laid out with one out before Hodges chopped on to shortstop Jenna Garcia. Garcia likewise cut down aspirant scorer Amanda Heller –the only Knight who hit Bertollette twice on the game.

The Friars –who in the first had sculpted the initial 2-0 lead on a two-out passed ball break and Justine Stratton’s follow-up single- similarly tormented the Knights fielding, but left their next four potential scorers stranded, even whilst chunking the Rutgers starter Lindley on six hits.

But PC perked back up in the fourth after a throwing error and a sacrifice bunt by Fowler inched both Samantha Pittmann and Bertels to scoring position, a savory setup for Revens’ single and Garcia’s two-run double after Reven took the liberty to steal second.

By her day’s end, briefly paused in the fourth in favor of Katye Hamlin, Lindley had allowed all seven Friar runs (two of them unearned) on 14 hits, three of them two-baggers.

Bertollette stabbed the scarlet tempest for the final three innings, save for a leadoff single in the seventh by Shaw. Shaw would shuffle to second on Miller’s sacrifice effort but was left stranded when Revens stamped the final out on a line drive to third.