March 29, 2010
Bruins ready for new challenges
Junior pitcher Carla Arismendi is one of eight returning starters for North Bergen.
Click Here for photos from River Dell at North Bergen scrimmage.
By Jason Bernstein
Editorial Director
NORTH BERGEN – For the Bruins softball team, this is an opportunity that rarely comes along. Returning eight starters is a luxury any coach would love to have. With eight starters coming back from a team which went 23-4 a year ago, head coach Tom Eagleson was hard-pressed to remember having a team with this combination of talent and experience.
“It’s been a long time since we only lost one (starter),” he said. “Usually we lose three or four. Only (losing) one starter this year, is going to be nice.”
At the forefront of North Bergen’s returning core group is pitcher Carla Arismendi. With six pitches in her arsenal, the junior hurler was nothing short of dominant in the circle as she won 23 games while allowing a miniscule 0.84 ERA.
Arismendi’s one-two combination of a rise ball and screwball are especially lethal to hitters as she recorded 215 strikeouts in just 155 innings. Eagleson believes that Arismendi will be helped even more by the rule change that moves the mound three feet further away from home plate due to her strength.
“My favorite thing to do is to jam a player,” Arismendi said. “They’ll be up there, ready to hit, and it will just come right into their stomachs and the umpire will call it a strike. That’s the best feeling, getting them inside.
“It’s a benefit to have a lot of pitches because if one pitch isn’t working one day, I have five other pitches that I can throw to the players.”
Hudson County wasn’t the only one to take notice of Arismendi’s exploits on the diamond as she recently tried out and earned a spot as the pitcher on the Puerto Rican Junior National team.
“That was the best experience ever,” said Arismendi, adding that the experience really made her mature as a player. “Just trying out and playing with that type of competition was amazing.”
More than just a pitcher, Arismendi led the team with a .456 batting average last season in the cleanup spot.
Arismendi is just one of a handful of powerful bats in the Bruins’ lineup
Centerfielder Ashley Heredia sets the tone from the leadoff spot. A sparkplug at the top of the lineup, the junior hit .437 with 19 stolen bases a year ago. Unlike many leadoff hitters, Heredia is a power threat as well, adding another dimension to the top of the order.
“She not only gives you power, she gives you speed and she hits for a good average,” said Eagleson. “It’s great having her at the top.”
Shortstop Jazmin Palma, who is currently sidelined by a broken hand suffered during basketball season, hits second. Palma was scheduled to have her cast removed recently, and when healthy also anchors the team’s defense at shortstop.
Looming behind Palma in the lineup are a quartet of power bats in Arismendi, infielder/designated player Shenade Rey, first baseman Tiffany Lorincz and catcher Jocelyn Hernandez. Lorincz and Hernandez are both four-year starters for the Bruins.
“We have a lot of power hitters,” Arismendi said. “They might not look that big, but we’ll get it out of the park.”
Crystal Torres and Ashley Vazzona flank Heredia in the outfield. Freshmen Sabrina Reyes and Natalie Rodriguez are competing for the third base job and time at shortstop in Palma’s absence to round out a lineup as deep as Eagleson can remember.
“We probably have 12 players that I would feel very confident in if I put them in the game and they started,” Eagleson said. “That’s pretty good. Usually we’re about eight strong.”
North Bergen’s depth will be test throughout the season with a schedule that is among the toughest they have played in recent memory. Realignment brings former Seglio powers High Tech and Hoboken into the division with the Bruins for the first time. North Bergen also ramped up the non-conference schedule, which is highlighted by a road trip to Florida in early April. The team raised more than $19,000 for the trip, their first since 1998, where they will play teams from Wisconsin and Ohio.
While the tougher schedule might result in some rough patches in April, Eagleson and the Bruins hope its rewarded with playoff success in late May.
“Hopefully a lot of these games that we’re going to be playing, especially the Florida trip will give them enough experience for them to realize what it’s going to take,” he said.
