NORTH HAVEN HS SOFTBALL COACH VIN CRETELLA

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
And the CIC State baseball and softballtournaments begin on Tuesday, and right now,
one of those guys getting ready forthat opening game will be Vinkritella.
He's the softball coach at North Haven. He joins me, Now morning,
Vin, big morning, George.Pleasure. Appreciate you having me on.
I'm glad you could do it.Give us a few minutes here and you

(00:22):
are getting ready. You are thenumber. You get to buy the first
or you're the number one seed.So first of all, congratulations on a
fantastic season twenty and ozero in theregular season, and it not the way
you wanted it the other night,obviously, but one twenty two in a

(00:45):
row, you lost the tough one, damnity eight. You know what,
tip your cap that came back inone, seven to six. But you
know what, you head into thisthe number one seed. You'll play the
winner of the Berlin fourn game thatwould be on Wednesday. So I know
you know about Foreign because you playedthem twice during the year. Will you
take this game and will someone seeBerlin as well for him? Yeah,

(01:10):
we're gonna try to get out thereand look at them. Obviously to Foreign,
the two Foreign games we were bothfor phenomenal games. It went either
it could have went either way.I think you were there for the first
one. It was well, youwere down to nothing and a girl by
the name of Kayla Bellissiano right offthe punk it does three run, home

(01:32):
run. You won the game threeto two. I think the next one
was what was the next eight twosomething like that. Well, basically I
was an eight game man. Thatcould have went either way also, and
yeah, they're a good team.You know, they are a good team,
and they're pictures there have a freshmanpitcher. It was phenomenal. So
you know, when you get tothis time of the year, you know

(01:53):
you're gonna get the best. Sowe're looking forward to whoever we play now.
You actually I should met in ourco coach with Sarah Baryl and Barton
Party. Who's this a sweetheart,but boy, what a job she does.
I mean she's there moving around itdoes the infield. I mean she's

(02:14):
a tight charge kind of girl.Huh, she really is. Actually we
did this to get we're doing thistogether, and you know, she played
for us. She knows the programand we obviously without her, you know,
we wouldn't be twenty you know,she calls the pitches also, she
does. She did, oh,she did a phenomenal job the other night

(02:36):
against Amity, which you know againthey did every hit her in their lineup.
There's no hold, no, wejust try to look at me,
you know. I mean you knowthat so we you know what, north
Aman's the same way I said iton the air. Both these teams and
swing the back. They swing theback. Both teams are good hitting teams.
I appreciate that. Yeah, weyou know, we come out and

(02:59):
we you know, we play hardor a scrappy team. Everybody puts the
bat on the ball, and ifsomeone's not doing it one day, we
have another girl picking him up thatyou know that day. You've been to
a few of our games, andyou know, if they don't quit.
You know, it sounds I soundredundant every time I fuck the talk about

(03:19):
them, But they're just a resilientgroup and they played a great They really
played together well as a team,and they're close to the team on and
off the field. So I'm proudof them. Should no question. How
many seniors on the team. Thenwe have four seniors. Two captains are
Kayla and Maria Lockery, and wehave Alyssa and I'm sorry, we have

(03:44):
Ava Furiola and Mia O'Brien and I'msorry, my my bad. How can
I forget Jules Glosso. I don'tthink you want to do that. I
don't want to do that. Believeit, do that? Oh my god,
Yes he missed those two balls incenter field. He's still kicking herself
for that, right, But itwasn't like they were easy catches. I

(04:10):
mean we weren't when the ball isright at you, especially when it came
right at her, but the onesright at you sometimes either lower heights.
I mean it's tough. It reallywas two two bullets. But question,
she's had a great year. Shewas the first team also SDC thing with
Kayla and deserve at least, youknow. I mean again, our team

(04:33):
is again they there's no superstars.They will just played collectively as a group
and they played again, they playedreally well. And we have you know,
our sophomore class and junior class.They're they're tremendous. Also we have
the Blancher girls. Oh my god, I mean they're beasts. They just

(04:59):
come out. They just played agame really hard and uh and receive our
other pitcher. We's had a phenomenalyear. She really did, you know.
Our game plan was to basically haveher pitch first, give me three
or four and then bring Gabby.And Gabby pitched a good game. She
just slipped a few bulls up,you know, and Amity will take advantage

(05:21):
of it. So you know,it was good that we Again, we've
been on the other side and you'veseen the other side. So watching Amity
comeback against us, you know,it was tough, but you know we're
gonna just rebound, decompressed, andhopefully start this whole thing again next week.

(05:43):
Were the girls after that game?The next thing we actually at the
bus ride home was obviously not good. We did not practice yesterday. We
you know, to get everyone totake the day off, and we're really
actually gonna start this thing tomorrow andI'm you know, probably Monday. We'll

(06:03):
see what happens Monday night. Maybehave a night practice. But which is
gonna start to stay press? Ohno, I knew. Yeah, you
gotta get ready because you'll be playingwhat Wednesday will be your first game in
the tournament again. You'll play thewinner of the four in Berlin game both
teams. That's a good game.Uh, delth teams twelve and eight and
they're both. Uh. You'll playthe winner of that on Wednesday. That'll

(06:25):
be at the North Haven Athletic Complexat four o'clock. Okay, listen,
there was you had some just twogames we broadcast for North Haven. Maybe
two of the games. I don'tthink we'll ever forget one. You're one
strike away from losing teast Haven.Uh a foul pop up, looks like

(06:46):
the game is over. Girl dropsthe ball and Alyssa d giovanna only sophomore.
Oh by the way, and ohby the way, and what does
she do? She laces the nextpitch to left center. Two runs,
score, and you leave Eastaven onthe field. Okay, that's fine.
That's a Friday. We come backjust three days later Monday, and Mercy's

(07:09):
there, and let me tell you, they're rolling. It's six two Mercy
and their picture is just all right, you know what doing all right?
Hold holds North Aven to like onehit over the first five, and he's
gonna saying, well, you knowwhat, it's their game, six two.
But north they even scratches at sixtwo, bottom of the seventh,
and here's a run. Okay,they got one run in six three about

(07:31):
their base at six four, upsteps elicit d Giovannah and she propably it's
a walk off three run home runand you win the game seven to six.
So it's been in that kind ofan unbeaten season. You need,
you need wins like this so you'llget plays like this. It's a little
bit of everything I would think.But boy, you've got some interesting wins.

(07:53):
And Henry goes on in the yearafter the game and says, I
have to say this, coach,go ahead. I was praying for North.
I love Henry. I know,yeah he was over. I don't
know he was standing. But youwent on one knee before the game.
You do that every game. Igo specially check out. Okay, yeah,

(08:15):
I knew we were in for it. I know, I knew that
Tony's up picture. He had anotherpicture and I was watching her warm up
and I'm watching, you know,we played them before, and He's trying
to look at the defense and like, who's got an arm in the outfield?
You know, And I'm like,Okay, we're definitely up against it
tonight, and especially coming off thatEast staved and went. But one thing

(08:35):
about our girls once the game isover, they you know, they celebrate,
but they move on and they wantthey knew what was at stage,
especially after the second half, andI'm like, this is gonna be a
really tough game for us, andand Henry picked up on him, and
you know that a list us dGiovanna is he's an incredible talent. Okay,

(09:00):
I mean actually yeah, I know. I mean, I know you
uster for you to after the game. And again, we have two other
girls. I actually call them theTriplet, the furial A Girling, the
Ankle Larry Girl. They hang outtogether there. They don't get they played.
They're incredible and they're only stop more. I know. That's the beautiful

(09:20):
thing. Yeah, you're pretty reallyyou're pretty well set it next year years
that that's great. Yeah, itwas a great game. That's one of
the best. Like it was thebeam of the year in I mean,
it was incredible, it was.Is there any part I mean, it's

(09:41):
tough to do anything different at thispoint, but are you more concerned maybe
now with offense or defense? Well, here's the thing. We're not going
to reinvent the wheel. You know, We're gonna do the same thing.
We're gonna do the same thing everygame. So horses, that took us
there week, you know, andI told them we're going to see better

(10:03):
pitching like the other night. WhenI know amandom phenomenal coach, he's gonna
it's the head game at the plate. You gotta go to the go to
the plate with an approach. Othercoaches will look for your weaknesses and get
you out. So the approach tothe plate, that's what we're going to
emphasize, especially against better pitching.Deeper you go to the turn. No,

(10:24):
I'm with you, I'm with you. I mean we catch the ball.
We do catch the ball. Wevery seldom beat ourselves, so but
you never know what's going to happen. No, yeah, I trust me.
Every game is you know, everygame is different than Every game is
different. But I'll tell you whatyou showed why I was a great championship
game win or Louis was a greatchampionship game the other night. You really

(10:48):
are two good teams, well matched, and I think if you played them
ten times, they'd be ten greatgames. It'd be unbelievable. It really
was. You know, they justsay one thing about her good before before
on before the tournament started, youknow, obviously there's buzzed on this,

(11:09):
you know, if you want tocall it the streets, because that our
competition was what it was, andI'm glad that we proved everybody wrong.
That's correct, and not only thatit wasn't like Yakos. You've been a
good west Aven team. You madea good Cheshire team, that's for darn
shure, and you know, soto get there was no fluke. I

(11:31):
think you proved and you're right.Did you play the toughest schedule, No,
but you know what, you stillhave to play every game. You
wont all twenty and you know what, that's how it goes. But you
know you showed well. You showedwell, and I think you have nothing
to be ashamed of. The girlshold their heads up and get ready.
There's there's no you can't dwell onit because you have a game on Wednesday.

(11:52):
Show, you know, is theway it goes anyway, you know,
doing a great job. I appreciatea phenomenal you know, it is
just fantastic. Yeah, yes,I'm on the coaching ranks. Yes,
anyway, I appreciate the few minutesI really do. Uh oh no,

(12:13):
that's I'd love to have you onand please keep in touch and UH appreciate.
We will will be following North Havenand hopefully we'll see it down at
Beyond the Field for a semi finalgame our next broadcast. Love to do
it. I love to see it. Thank you George, Holy fear for
you. Have a good weekend.