Bloomfield Softball Resurfacing
At Just The Right Time In ECT
By Steve Tober
For sidelinechatter.com

BLOOMFIELD- Senior co-captain Nicolina Veneziano has put on her catcher’s gear for many a splendid Bloomfield softball team, which made this season’s slow start a definite departure from what she has become accustomed to for a program that has produced 10 finalists in the first 30 years of the Essex County Tournament.

But, with a resurgence that now finds the 10th-seeded Bengals in this Saturday’s ECT semifinals vs. third-seeded Cedar Grove (5 p.m. at Ivy Hill Park in Newark), Bloomfield's veteran leader is most impressed with the way her teammates have maintained their dedicated attitude while remaining a cohesive unit on and of the field.

“We have had a few ups and downs along the way, but we’ve stuck together as a team, and we’ve played hard every single game,” said the Bengals’ All-Essex catcher. “We know that when we play defense and help our pitcher out there as much as we can, while continuing to hit the ball with authority, we can win our fair share of games, and right now we’re making a pretty good run in the ECT and heading to the Final Four!”

In Saturday's second ECT semifinal at 7 p.m., fourth-seeded Nutley meets top-seeded and tournament favorite Mount St. Dominic.

Bloomfield, which took an 11-8 record into Tuesday’s NNJIL game with Teaneck, was 26-3 last year and ranked 13th in the final Star-Ledger statewide Top 20, led by one of the state’s top pitchers, Cara Swerdlow, who is now playing for Susquehanna University. At one point last year, right around this point in May, and just prior to the 2007 ECT semis, the Bengals were ranked No. 1 in the state.

But, even with Swerdlow’s departure there were still a handful of top-flight position players back this spring, led by Veneziano, who hit a school-record nine home runs last year with 39 RBI, along with top-flight center fielder Ashley Martinez, consistent senior outfielder Lisa Orlando and talented sophomore shortstop Sarah Prezioso.

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