Newsday: Fisher helps Post softball team advance
By Steve Marcus
C.W. Post's Kerry Fisher swung and hit a high fly toward the gap in right-center. When it hit near the top of the fence, former Post power hitter Jill Fisher yelled to her light-eating little sister, "Eat a cheeseburger!''
For the second straight day, Fisher just missed a homer but played a key role for Post's softball team. Her two-out double in the fifth inning drove in the first two runs of a 4-0 win over Caldwell (N.J.) in the Northeast Regional. Post (40-14) advanced to the super regional and will host Merrimack (31-21) in a best-of-three series starting Friday.
Kerry, a junior centerfielder, is the third straight member of the Fisher family of Barto, Pa., to play for Post. "I came here with Jill [in 2003] on her recruiting visit,'' said Kerry, who was entering seventh grade. "I saw Jill play, I was like, 'I wish I could do that someday.' Now I'm here.''
Jill hit 34 home runs, Katie 13 and Kerry has three, all as a freshman. "Kerry is a mixture of both [older sisters],'' coach Jamie Apicella said. "She can lay down the bunt, drive the ball in gaps. She's very athletic in centerfield. She can do a little bit of everything.''
Fisher is hitting .306 with 12 doubles and 35 RBIs.
Jill, who works in the school's sports information office, good-naturedly blames Kerry's decision to eat only salads and fish -- no meat -- for her lack of home runs. But Kerry did a changeup for dinner Saturday night. "My mom made me eat chicken,'' she said. "Maybe that's why the ball traveled a little farther.''
With two outs in the fifth, Carly Chamberlain and Kaci Hopkins singled off Kourtney Wilson (St. Anthony's). Wilson could not pitch around Fisher, who had an RBI double Saturday, because Nicole Hagenah (.468, 13 homers) was on deck.
Kendall Bright hit a two-run homer in the sixth to help back Christina Berardi's two-hitter.
Post rebounded from the East Coast Conference Tournament, where it lost the first two games. "We recognized that we're really lucky that we had another chance to come back here and play,'' Bright said. "We kind of brushed the conference off. We'd much rather be winning this than winning a conference championship.''