Another season of dominance for Lady Lancers And more to come as SJV returns plenty of talent BY WARREN RAPPLEYEA Staff Writer ERIC SUCAR staff St. John Vianney will have to learn to win without Diana Sansevera, who graduates this year after putting together a brilliant career at the Holmdel school, and helped lead the Lady Lancers to yet another Shore Conference crown this spring. The St. John Vianney High School softball team continued its dominance in the Shore Conference this spring by easily winning the A Central division and going on to bring home its fourth straight conference championship. Overall, the Lancers posted a 27-2 mark and were a perfect 12-0 in divisional play. The lone losses came against Toms River East and RBC, the latter in the NJSIAA Non-Public South A tourney semifinal. The old adage that its difficult to beat the same team three times in a row didn't quite hold true for the Lancers. SJV downed RBC three times prior to its meeting in the state tournament, where RBC took a 3-2 victory but went on to lose in the finale to Notre Dame, 2-1. "It was a tough loss for us and we were disappointed," SJV coach Kim Lombardi said. "Still, it was a close game and it could have gone either way." As for Toms River East, the Raiders bested SJV early in the campaign behind Lyndsey PeQueen's four-hit, 16-strikeout performance on the mound. The teams met again in the Shore Conference finals and the Lancers turned the tables, pounding out 10 hits, while striking out just four times, en route to a 3-1 success. "The girls remembered what happened the first time and they learned from it," Lombardi explained. "They knew they had to put the ball in play and they got the job done." The Lancers generally found ways to get the job done. Having an ace pitcher in Diana Sansevera certainly helps. The senior went 27-2, pitched 214 innings and allowed just 12 earned runs for an ERA of 0.39. In addition, Sansevera struck out 368 hitters, while issuing just 61 base on balls and allowing 61 hits. If getting to Sansevera wasn't hard enough, the Lancers played excellent defense throughout the campaign, committing just eight errors. Sophomore center fielder Ashley Fasano, junior catcher Kristin Kaelin, who threw out an amazing 26 of 30 would-be base thieves, and second baseman Katie DeBlasio all shone in the field. Lombardi, however, noted that the entire team displayed good glove work, including freshman outfielders Kasey Bulman and Nicole Saggiomo. At the plate, SJV was not always the dominant team it had been in the past, but the Lancers got the job done. DeBlasio led the team with a .450 batting average and 43 hits, and also drove home 20 runs and scored 22 times herself, to top the team in both categories. Kaelin did the job at the plate as well as behind it. She hit .420 with 39 hits and 19 RBIs. Sophomore shortstop Jamie Petraglia batted over .300, but always seemed to be on base to set the table for DeBlasio and Kaelin. Third baseman Britanni Rivera was solid as well, hitting .350. "This is a group of girls who fit perfectly together," Lombardi said. "They believed in their coaches, they believed in the seniors, and most of all, they believed in themselves. I had a lot of fun working with them." Next spring, SJV returns the bulk of its roster, but the Lancers will have to contemplate life after Sansevera, as well as DeBlasio and Rivera, who have also graduated. "We're young and we have a lot of talented players coming back," Lombardi said. "We'll be all right."