Softball Team Overcomes Adversity to Earn Highest Playoff Seed in 37 Years

After getting off to a 9-0 start, Fair Lawn’s softball team has lost four of its last six and, following a 5-4 setback against division-rival Lakeland on Wednesday, now need some help to earn a share of their third straight division title.

Despite the team’s recent struggles, head coach Sue Benjamin is confident that her veteran-laden squad can bounce back and make extended county and state playoff runs because when faced with adversity this season, they’ve consistently risen to meet the challenge.

“The kids have really jelled together as players,” she said of this year’s squad. “In the past, it’s been a little bit more individuals just put together to make a team, but these kids seem to really support each other and pick each other up, and that’s really helped us get through some tough spots that we’ve had this season so far, in a lot of ways.” 

In addition to battling back in dramatic fashion on the field a number of times this year, the team has also dealt with adversity off of it. Beloved parent supporter Lisa Sudol, the mother of senior shortstop Ashley Sudol, died in March after a brief battle with lung cancer. She was 48.

“The kids just really stood up for each other, they took it like it was part of their family that was taken away and that was hurting and they did everything and anything and then some in order to help support our player, Ashley, as well as the wonderful family that she has,” Benjamin said.

Lisa Sudol, a fixture at games and a long-time supporter of Fair Lawn athletics, was honored on Monday with a “Strike Out Lung Cancer” night at the Dobrow Complex that raised money for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Looking ahead

Fair Lawn (11-4) faces Passaic Valley Friday in their final divisional game before embarking Saturday on the Bergen County Tournament against the play-in winner of Lodi and Bergenfield. 

The Cutters, slated sixth in this year’s 39-team tournament field, haven’t been seeded this high since 1976. Barring an early-round upset, they won’t face a team seeded higher than them until at least the third-round quarterfinals. 

“I think we’ll be competitive,” Benjamin said of her team’s chances in the county tournament. “And if our bats come back, I think we could go pretty far, certainly past the first or second round."

Although their bats have gone silent during the team's recent losing stretch, Benjamin said overall team hitting is much improved from last year.

At the beginning of the week, sophomore left fielder Emily Klion, senior third baseman Jen Calabrase and sophomore right fielder Brittany Meerholz owned the team's top three batting averages.

Four-year varsity starters Marissa Spinuzzi and Alexis Bush, who form the Cutters' battery, ranked fourth and fifth in average and have driven in runs in key situations this year, Benjamin said.

Klion, the team’s only player who didn’t log significant varsity innings last year, has been its most pleasant surprise.

After missing out on a varsity opportunity last year while recovering from an ACL injury, Klion has made the most of her sophomore campaign.

“I was pretty confident that she’d be a contributor for us this year, but I just didn’t realize that she was going to be as strong as she was,” Benjamin said. “She’s left-handed. She can bunt, she can hit, she can run, so she’s got a lot of tools for us.”

Spinuzzi, the team’s all-county pitcher, has taken strides on the mound this year in terms of her control.

"Her walks have been down," Benjamin said. "Last year her walks were too high. She’s had better control and that’s been really a big key for us for this season."

Spinuzzi, who will play next year at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, has a solid fastball that she mixes in with a tailing curve, screwball, drop ball and changeup that make her one of the toughest pitchers to hit in Bergen County. 

As Hudson County champion North Bergen learned last year when she no-hit them in the first round of the state playoffs, anything is possible when Spinuzzi is in the circle.

With an improved offense to provide run support and the demonstrated ability to stick together through tough times, this year's group of girls has the potential to take Fair Lawn deeper into the county and state playoffs than any team in recent memory.

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