Point Beach Softball Falls To Henry Hudson, 5-1

In Thursday afternoon’s softball tilt, Point Pleasant Beach ace Amy Piccicacco needed some offensive help and couldn’t get it, while her mound adversary helped herself.

Henry Hudson starter Bridget Rafter drove a missile off the wall in left-center field for a tie-breaking, two-run double in the bottom of the fifth as the Admirals defeated the Garnet Gulls, 5-1.  

“It was a riser that just didn’t rise enough,” Silvio DeCristofano, the Point Beach varsity softball coach, said. “[Piccicacco] knew what she was throwing, but it just didn’t get up there high enough.”

Rafter also tossed seven innings of three-hit ball, striking out nine to earn the victory.

“You know you’re not going to get a ton of runs,” DeCristofano said. “It’s when you get the hits. You’ve got to expect a low-scoring game.”

As a result of Henry Hudson’s win, Mater Dei wins the Shore Conference, Class B Central Division title, with Point Beach and Henry Hudson tying for second overall and first among public schools.

Piccicacco threw a complete game as well, at first helping her team weather a poor offensive effort, but Rafter’s double sealed it, dropping Piccicacco to 14-3 on the season.

“We just didn’t make some defensive plays that we should have, and then we got out of our comfort zone,” DeCristofano said. “Even Amy was missing pitches that she normally doesn’t. She was pressing a little bit, because I think she felt like, ‘I had to shut the team down.’”

Piccicacco gave up a run in the third after a two-strike single to right, two consecutive bunt singles and a bloop that fell in despite left fielder Mackenzie Donald’s shoestring effort.

She avoided further damage in the third by striking out the next two hitters on risers, giving her six strikeouts over the first three innings.

Point Beach immediately got the run back in the top of the fourth. Victoria Schliep singled and reached second on an error by the centerfielder and Grace McGuigan reached on an infield single off Rafter’s glove.

Catcher Brianne Barry then lined a single to center to score Schliep from second.

The usually dominant Piccicacco faltered again in the fifth, surrendering a leadoff walk and a single through the hole vacated by the first baseman holding the runner on.

Then, Rafter stepped up and, after she had held them down all day long on the mound, fittingly seized the offensive opportunity to bury the Garnet Gulls for good. 

Rafter came around to score on an error to make it 4-1, and Piccicacco would serve up another double in the sixth, as Henry Hudson tacked on an insurance run.

Point Beach won’t be able to dwell on the disappointment of the loss for long, as they play again on Friday afternoon, in an Ocean County Tournament game against Barnegat.

“Literally, tomorrow is our next day,” DeCristofano said. “So, my message to them was, ‘Let this go, I know you’re upset right now, let it go, and then tomorrow we still have to prove ourselves in Ocean County.’”