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PISCATAWAY — Prior to meeting on the field Tuesday, the Perth Amboy and Piscataway high school softball teams met in the pitching circle where they jointly took a knee in memory of Piscataway senior Cassie Feliciano, who tragically lost her life in a car accident in January.
It was a touching display of sportsmanship and compassion from two programs that have supported each other and understand there is more going on than just the final score.
What followed was irrelevant under the circumstances, although one can hope that the start of the season can ease Piscataway’s return to normalcy, such as normalcy can be.
Perth Amboy won the contest 15-4, scoring in every inning and only requiring 10 hits, just one more than the Chiefs could muster in what was the opener for both clubs.
Ashlee Duran had three, run-scoring singles to spark a Perth Amboy attack that benefitted from 10 errors by Piscataway’s inexperienced squad.
“When it comes to a softball you have to know your strengths and weaknesses,” Perth Amboy coach Patty Bennett said. “You have to take every opportunity; any open door is a possibility for a mistake.”
More:Softball: No. 2 Hillsborough blasts No. 1 Watchung Hills in opener
Piscataway’s one shining moment came in the fifth inning, when it rallied for three runs to reduce a 7-1 deficit to 7-4 and put the outcome in doubt. Marlo DeSimone keyed that splurge with a two-run single.
“It was huge because that takes us into Thursday when we play at Middlesex,” Piscataway coach Laurent Scinto noted. “Today, even though it was a loss, there were a lot of little wins.”
So where does that leave Piscataway? The mood on its bench was light and silly and even a little goofy at times, but one has to wonder how a bunch of teenage young ladies are coping with such unimaginable grief that the adults in her life are still struggling with.
“It’s nothing I’ve experienced before,” said Scinto, entering her eighth season coaching the Chiefs. “I haven’t processed her loss yet. I come here to be their rock, it’s hard to process it myself. They have a lot of different personalities and they all grieve differently. I don’t know that I would handle it with such composure the way they do when I was in high school.”
Perth Amboy’s staff sent flowers to Cassie’s funeral and have been checking in with their Piscataway counterparts, gestures that truly resonated with Scinto and her staff.
“At the end of the day we may be rivals because we go against each other but we’re family,” Bennett explained. “We all play the same sport and we all share the same emotions.”
Following the shared moment in the pitching circle Cassie’s family graced the field and her father, Jimmy Rodriguez, threw out the first pitch.
“It was amazing to have her family throw out the first pitch,” Scinto said. “You could feel her presence.”
Amen.
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