Revere Celebrates Successful Season

The Division 1 North champion Revere High softball team celebrated the program’s most successful season at its awards banquet Tuesday night at Casa Lucia.

Head coach Joe Ciccarello presented individual awards to Sabrina Palermo (Most Valuable Player),  Cassandra DiBella (Unsung Hero), Noelle MacDonald (Coaches Award), and Logan DiCarlo (Patriot Softball Award).

Palermo, who recorded her 500th career strikeout this season and was a force on the mound all season, has been named to the Boston Herald All-Scholastic Team. DiCarlo accepted the award that honors “an outstanding athlete who commits four years to the RHS softball program.”

Revere captured the Northeastern Conference championship for the first time and then carried that momentum into the State Tournament, winning the Division 1 North title and advancing to the state semifinals.

A tough 3-1 loss to Bridgewater-Raynham ended the Patriots’ season last Wednesday night at Martin Field in Lowell. As many observers had predicted, the winner of the BR-Revere game was destined to be the state champion as the Trojans routed Holy Name of Worcester, 9-0, in the state title game Saturday.

“We were two runs away from a state title,” Ciccarello said in an interview this week.

Revere gave Bridgewater-Raynham its toughest test of the tournament and in fact scored the only run allowed by pitcher Sarah Dawson in the postseason. That tally came in the first inning when Juliana Cecere singled and cleanup batter Kristina Stella doubled sharply to left field, bringing home pinch runner Gabrielle Cammarata.

Bridgewater-Raynham scored three runs in the fourth inning to take a 3-1 lead. Ally Hinojosa ripped a triple to left in the sixth inning but B-R pitcher Sarah Dawson quelled the threat. Victoria Russo closed out a superb postseason with some excellent defense in left field.

Ciccarello told reporters he was immensely proud of his team’s accomplishments.

“We woke up a sleeping city from a 35-year nap,” said Ciccarello. “We’re going to infiltrate other teams in other areas of the school and let them know how to win and we did that. That’s monumental. It’s beyond them – it’s bigger than them. They don’t even know it yet but what we did and the teams we had to go through and the name we made for ourselves, and the publicity they got – they woke up a sleeping city. We shook it from its core that’s been sleeping for over 35 years since those championships in the 1980s for the [girls] tennis program. I couldn’t be any prouder or happier with a group of girls that did that.”

Ciccarello, who has been named the Boston Globe Division 1 Coach of the Year, will be coaching in the Agganis All-Star Classic for the second year in row.

Revere seniors Cassandra DiBella, Logan DiCarlo, Lauren Hayes, and Noelle MacDonald have been selected to play in the Agganis Classic that will be played June 22 at Fraser Field in Lynn.