Piccicacco Twirls No-Hitter to Carry Point Beach

The Point Beach varsity softball team will have to rely heavily on its ace pitcher, Amy Piccicacco, if it's going to go far in the NJSIAA tournament, and Piccicacco sent a loud and clear message with her first-round performance on Tuesday afternoon.

No runs, no hits, no problem.

Piccicacco over-matched No. 14 Perth Amboy Tech over seven innings, striking out 13 Patriots to lead No. 3 Point Beach to a 9-0 victory in the first-round of the Central Jersey, Group 1 tournament.

“I take each batter as the number four hitter,” Piccicacco said. “I don’t judge any of them differently. I throw different pitches to all of them. I don’t really go easy on any batter.”

Piccicacco allowed a base-runner on a bunt in the top of the seventh that appeared to break up the no-hitter, but it was officially scored an error, as third baseman Samantha Morcroft bobbled the ball with the runner only halfway to first.

The Garnet Gulls’ win coupled with Keyport’s 3-2 victory over South Hunterdon sets up a third match-up between the two teams; Point Beach bested Keyport in both of the previous meetings, including a 1-0, extra-inning win on May 10.

“Next round’s going to be tough,” Point Beach Coach Silvio DeCristofano said. “That’s going to be a tough game. Can we win it? Yeah, and if we do, we’ll see who we have next.”

“If we make it to the semifinals against (No. 2) New Egypt and win that, then I definitely think we can win it all,” Piccicacco said. “I think getting past New Egypt, well, probably New Egypt, then we have it set.”

Victoria Schliep had the big blow for Point Beach, a two-run triple in the bottom of the second to make it 4-0.

Caitie Sherbo drove Schliep in twice without getting a hit, first with an RBI groundout following Schliep’s triple, then with a sacrifice fly in the fourth.

“We can always manufacture,” DeCristofano said. “The idea is to be aggressive, to run and get some runs that way, and yeah, we could get our runners over, we did a good job with that.”

Piccicacco walked a batter in the top of the third, but she got a strikeout and a tapper back to the mound to get out of the inning.

Morcroft made it 6-0 with an RBI double in the bottom of the third, and then she drove in the final run for Point Beach in the bottom of the fifth with a sacrifice fly, after Piccicacco tripled.

Piccicacco was visibly frustrated when Perth Amboy Tech’s bunt resulted in a base-runner. But she said it wasn’t because she thought she just lost her no-hitter.

“It was just that, we had such a good game, we didn’t have any errors, and it’s just a shame to blow it like that in the last inning, to have an error-free game, which is a pretty big accomplishment for our team,” Piccicacco said.

DeCristofano didn’t even think the game should have gotten to that point, as Point Beach could have won via the mercy rule after five innings if it had scored one more run.

DeCristofano thought his team could have scored more runs, but struggled to time Perth Amboy Tech’s pitchers, none of whom threw relatively hard.

“It was slow to them,” DeCristofano said. “It took them a while (to time), and then they kept switching pitchers.”

Point Beach will host Keyport on Thursday at 4 p.m. in the second round of the NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group 1 tournament.