BEST IN BERGEN: BRAVES WIN COUNTY TITLE

It took extra innings to get it done, but when Danielle Brogan crossed the plate in the eighth, Indian Hills became Bergen County champions.

With Brogan on third with one out, Kara Pepper hit a ground ball to the second baseman that scored Brogan for the winning run.

Brogan was at a loss for words after the game. "It feels great.. It's amazing,"  said the senior shortstop.

After the win, players doused Coach Joe Leicht with the Gatorade bucket in celebration. When asked how his surprise shower was, Leicht stated, "Great! Best one I ever had."  

The win gave the Braves their first-ever county championship, something the team has been thinking about since last season.  Leicht said his team had set "big-time goals" with so many players coming back from last year's team.

"It's great when you set goals a year ahead of time, and the kids work for it, and then they are fortunate enough for it to come through," said Leicht.

The Braves got a tough game from Ridgewood; a team which Leicht said has been flying in under the radar. After knocking off the number-one team in North Jersey, Pascack Valley, on Saturday, the Maroons came just inches short of capturing the county title.

The game started off with some early fireworks, provided by Perri Goldberg of Indian Hills and Claire Dennis of Ridgewood. With one out in the first for IH, Goldberg cracked a home run to center for the first run of the game. Leading off the second, Dennis went deep to tie the score at one.

Ridgewood tacked on another run in the second after stringing together a couple of hits off one of arguably the best pitchers in North Jersey, Katie Enright. The Maroons put the ball in play all game long, but the Braves' defense played great behind Enright.

"I told the kids that 95 percent of the time the pitcher is going to carry you, but there's always two or three games during the season that you got to help her," said Leicht.  "This is one of those games where we had to field, and we had to chip away to finally get the game even and to win."

The Braves chipped away at the 2-1 deficit in the fourth when Nicole Paiotti got things going with a leadoff double. The freshman then advanced to third on an error then scored on a passed ball a few pitches later.

The game remained tied for the next three innings with good pitching from both Enright and Nicole Hroncich. The Braves threatened just about every inning, but they just could not get the big hit they needed. They loaded the bases in both the sixth and seventh, but came out without a run on both occasions. 

Going into the extra frame, the Braves had stranded 10 runners, including leaving the bases loaded in the previous two innings. Brogan reversed that trend in the eighth after leading off the inning with a single. Chelsea Graber followed, and laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to get Brogan into scoring position. After Brogan advanced to third on a passed ball, Kara Pepper supplied the heroics, grounding one to second base to get Brogan home for the winning run.

With the 3-2 win, the Braves have accomplished one of their goals for the season, but now they will look ahead as they try and accomplish another feat: winning the state championship.

"We could celebrate all we want here, but we want more.  It's not the end, we want to win states," said Brogan.

Leicht is sure to have his team refocused and ready to go on another tournament run when they play Walkill Valley in the first round of the state tournament at home this afternoon.

Game Notes:

• Brogan reached base three times and scored the winning run;
• Nicole Paiotti went 2-4 with a run scored;
• Carey Houston was 2-3 with two bunt base hits.