SOFTBALL: Morano's perfect throw advances Eastern

• Center fielder Madison Morano's throw to the plate halts defending state champs on final play
• Vikings got two runs in first inning and held on as Washington Township threatened
• Eastern now owns a 22-game win streak
• Morano, a senior, and catcher Rae D'Onofrio, a freshman, combined for the fantastic finish

VOORHEES - In a word - perfect.

Washington Township High School softball coach Tracy Burkhart knew it would take that type of play to end the game. Eastern coach Laura Paquette did, too. Vikings catcher Rae D’Onofrio stood at home, confident a toss of that ilk would find her mitt.

Perfect is what second-seeded Eastern needed. Perfect is what Madison Morano delivered.

With a throw terrifically suited for that expression, the Vikings’ senior center fielder sent her club to the South Jersey Group 4 semifinals.

REPEAT: Eastern beat Twp. last week

“Things have to go perfectly in that situation,” Paquette said. “They don’t usually. Luckily for us, this time they did.”

Lucky or not, the fantastic finish came with seventh-seeded Township down 2-1 in the top of the seventh and one out. Minutemaids’ second baseman Kasie McNichol stood on third. Rachel Edwards’ lifted a fly ball to the middle of the outfield.

McNichol tagged. Morano took a first step in. She caught it with ease and some forward momentum. Off her fingers it flew, those fingers with bright blue-painted nails left over from senior prom just two weeks prior.

D’Onofrio secured the ball, made the tag and sent the defending state champs home.

GROUP OF DEATH: South Jersey 4 is tough

“It’s kind of a blur now that I’m looking back at it,” Morano said. “I caught it and threw it as hard as I could. It felt like it was accurate.

“I was freaking out. The ball was going so slow. It literally felt like so long. I think I was more afraid for my catch than I was for Rae. I found my nearest teammate, jumped in the air and hugged her.”

Left fielder Emily Serata received the embrace. Her two-run double in the first inning was the lone run producer for the Vikings (24-2).

“She was playing deep,” Serata said of her celebration partner’s spot before the final pitch. “For that play to happen, she had to make a perfect throw, Rae had to hold on and block the plate.

“I’m thinking, ‘We beat Township!’”

True, for the second time in nine days. After a one-run loss to the Minutemaids (15-8) in early April, Eastern got revenge by a single marker.

EARLY WIN: Twp. topped Eastern in April

That victory came on a walk-off hit. This one on a walk-off throw. Next, the victors will host 11th-seeded Cherokee – 3-2 winners over No. 3 Millville – in the semifinals.

It had to come down to a run, these two foes separated by a mere foot or so at the plate.

“I talked to the coaches and I think I made the right choice,” Burkhart said. “That girl has to throw a strike home. I had to try something. ... I would do it again.”

A four-year starter for the Vikings and a field hockey star headed to Penn State on full scholarship, that girl came through like she has all year.

PLAYOFF ACTION: Triton moves on

Morano’s presence on the club is invaluable. Range in the outfield, a cannon of an arm and the ability to situationally hit in the two-hole, all big parts of Eastern’s 22-game win streak.

“She tracks the ball better than anybody,” Paquette said. “I wouldn’t want anyone else in that situation.”

Those words sounded like a byte right out of Morano’s comments when she spoke of the girl who caught her sterling rope.

D’Onofrio, a freshman, came in with little fanfare. Paquette didn’t know much about her. The team didn’t know much about her. Quickly, everyone learned.

Q&A: Eastern's Rachel Wood

She immediately impressed. In one of the team’s first scrimmages, D’Onofrio earned the right to call her own pitches – something Paquette had never relinquished before.

“You would never think she was a freshman,” Morano remarked. “The ways she’s stepped up this year are incredible.

“From the beginning of the season, I was completely impressed with her. Like, ‘Whoa, where did she come from?’”

HAMMONTON CHAMPS: Eastern takes invitational 

That support meant much to the young Voorhees native. It built confidence, the type the Vikings have felt more each day as the season moved onward. The type the backstop had in the center fielder’s bullet. The type the senior had in the catcher as her ball sizzled to the plate.

The defense didn’t play its best on Wednesday. The offense couldn’t manufacture much, either. Still, that type of conviction remained.

“I got her,” D’Onofrio said of her tag with a bravado that beamed that same assurance. “Maddie put it in the perfect spot, the perfect throw. I just needed to get her out.”

Perfect.

Mark Trible; (856) 486-2424; mtrible@gannettnj.com

EASTERN 2

WASHINGTON TWP. 1

Play of the game: Vikings’ center fielder Madison Morano threw out the potential game-tying run at home to end the game.

Players of the game: Morano and catcher Rae D’Onofrio, who executed the final out to perfection.

Well said: “I wouldn’t want anyone else in that situation.” – Eastern coach Laura Paquette on Morano’s catch and throw