Story by Jake Aferiat of NJ.com
This time, Scotch Plains-Fanwood made sure the homer held up.
Last year, the Raiders — who were playing in their first Union County Tournament final in years — got a big game-tying home run from Emily Roof late in the game before Dayton’s Angela Gatto hit a walk off homer as the Bulldogs captured their first county title and Roof’s homer proved to be for nought.
“Last year, it kind of sucked. I’m not going to lie,” Scotch Plains pitcher and first baseman Olivia DiSalvo said. “We knew coming in that we had all the experience. So you know, the freshmen who might have been nervous were a lot less nervous coming into this game.”
Fast forward a year later and with the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the third inning with Scotch Plains back in the Union County Tournament final, Roof cranked a two-run homer to left field to put Scotch Plains-Fanwood up for good, 4-2, as the second-seeded Raiders downed eighth-seeded Summit for their first Union County title since 1977.
But those at-bats proved instructive and just what Roof needed to do damage when her second plate appearance came around.
“I mean, honestly, striking out my first at bat, my goal was just make contact with the ball,” Roof said. “I saw what she had, and I knew what to lay off. So I saw that first pitch was right there, so I went and swung as hard as I can and made barrel and it just went.”
And there was perhaps no happier family in all of Union County — or at least all of Scotch Plains — than the Roof’s
Just a few hundred yards away and just mere minutes earlier, Emily’s father Chris — who helms the state’s No. 1 ranked baseball team in Gov. Livingston — won its own Union County title, no-hitting Union Catholic, 5-0 for that program’s fifth county title.
Emily’s homer was a historic one 48 years in the making and will live on for years to come, bringing a softball county title back to a soccer town like Scotch Plains-Fanwood.
And Scotch-Plains Fanwood head coach Matt Giannacio, who took over one game into the 2023 season has won plenty of county titles as an assistant on the boys’ soccer team and knows what it takes to come out on top.
So, that it was Roof who dealt the decisive blow wasn’t at all a surprise.
“That’s what big time players do,” Giannacio said. “They come up in big spots and they get big hits. That kid has the potential to play at the next level if she wants to, and we treat keep trying to urge her to do so, because all everybody in here will probably love to watch her play five more years of softball.”
As important and impressive as Roof’s efforts were to Scotch Plains’ win, so too were sophomore pitcher Maddie Bogart’s 5 1/3 innings in the circle.
Bogart, who gave up a two-run homer to Yarnall in the top of the first, settled in after that, especially in the top of the fourth when Summit had bases loaded and no outs and came away with zero runs thanks to Bogart striking out the next two batters and then a 4-3 groundout to end the inning.
But her night was cut short with one out in the top of the sixth inning when Chloe Jacobson ripped a ball up the middle that hit Bogart right in the mask, forcing her out of the game.
But, still she showed why as a sophomore who hadn’t been in a game as big as that before, she deserved to get the ball in the county final on a team with three bonafid aces in Bogart, Roof and Olivia DiSalvo who relieved Bogart and K’ed two in the final 1 2/3 innings.
“She’s an amazing kid,” DiSalvo said. “She makes light of tough situations, and that’s what she did today. Unfortunately, she got hit today and had to come out of the game, but we were then able to play for her, which was great.”
“That kid [Bogart] is one tough kid inside and out,” Giannacio. “I ran a sophomore out there today and she really gave us everything she had. I have the utmost confidence in my three kids. I’m sure there’s a lot of coaches in New Jersey that wishes they had the pitching staff that we have, and we wanted to throw somebody that that got on the hitters with speed.”
The Raiders are currently projected as the No. 3 seed in a tough North 2, Group 4 section when the state tournament opens next week. So Giannacio and his team know the job isn’t done yet and the best could be on the horizon for this already historic Raider team.
“It’s a very streaky game,” he said. “But a big thing is the culture of the program and every single day, these girls come with energy. They come willing to work and put in the time to get progressively better as individuals, which then ultimately flows into the team.”