MHS softball team stumbles in Sky Division

Girls might have to share title

By: Rudy Brandl
   
   The Manville High softball team couldn’t come all the way back from a bad first inning in last week’s crucial Sky Division game vs. David Brearley and might have to pay the consequences.
   Although the Lady Mustangs shouldn’t stumble in any of their remaining divisional games, they’ll likely be forced to share the Sky title with Brearley after last week’s 3-2 home loss. Manville blanked Brearley by a 5-0 score in the first meeting in Kenilworth back on April 16.
   MHS head coach Ed Knapp felt his team’s troubles may have started before the game when catcher Kristin Jones was injured during warm-ups. Jones needed some extra time to recover from being hit in the shin, which prevented standout pitcher Amy Ortman from getting loose enough to begin the game.
   Ortman allowed a triple to Tamara Glasco on the first pitch of the game and the visitors were off and running. Brearley scored three runs in the inning and never looked back.
   "I don’t think Amy warmed up enough," Knapp said. "I’ll take some of the hit for that but we had Kristin down for a good 10 minutes before the game. That was a bad omen for us right there. When do you see Amy give up a triple on the first pitch of the game?"
   Ortman fanned Ali Shields and started her way to working out of the jam, but Jessica Marko drove in the run with a ground ball to shortstop. Marko was safe and sprinted to second when Lisa Lavenia’s low throw squirted away from Becky Borawski. Daria Glynos smacked an RBI single and later scored on a ground ball to make it 3-0.
   Armed with a 3-0 lead, the visitors played a solid game behind pitcher Christina Chonko, who had limited the Lady Mustangs to five hits in the April meeting. Manville managed only three hits this time, but never gained any real momentum against the Brearley pitcher.
   "We could’ve been more patient and used the whole field," Knapp said. "I don’t think the girls are comfortable coming from behind. We had to do it with the bats and we didn’t do it."
   Two of the team’s hits came in the bottom of the third when Manville cut the deficit to 3-2. Jones led off with a walk and moved to third on a hit-and-run single by Alicia Weaver. Dana Delesky’s ground ball out plated Jones and sent Weaver into scoring position at second base. Lavenia came up with a clutch two-out RBI single and it looked like the MHS girls were on their way back.
   Manville nearly tied the game with a one-out rally in the fourth. Borawski walked and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jenna Breslow. She was stranded there when Jones struck out the end the inning.
   Ortman gained some rhythm throughout the game and held the Bears to five hits. The MHS senior struck out three and walked two and kept the visitors off the board for the final six frames to give her team a chance.
   The Lady Mustangs saw a potential rally disappear when Breslow opened the bottom of the seventh with a base hit to left field. Breslow tried to stretch it into a double but Brearley left fielder Gigi Pallitto gunned her down for the first out. Chonko retired Jones and Weaver to end the game.
   "They played a solid game against us," Knapp said. "You could tell by their reactions and celebrating that they were playing above their heads. It might have been their best game of the year."
   Manville still has Sky Division games remaining at Hillside and Dayton this week and a makeup road contest at St. Mary’s on May 20. The MHS girls have drilled all three opponents, but they’ll need somebody to knock off Brearley in order to win sole possession of the division crown.
   "They still have a long way to go in the conference, but the probability that they’ll slip up against New Providence or Dayton isn’t very good," Knapp said. "But then again, I didn’t think we’d slip up, so you never know."
   The loss also probably cost Manville a notch or two in the seedings for the Central Jersey Group 1 playoffs, which will be released late this week. More importantly, it was the team’s third one-run loss in eight days, a fact that Knapp is hoping doesn’t play too heavily on the psyche.
   "We’ve competed in all of those games but we’ve lost all three by one run," he said, also referring to the 1-0 loss to Montgomery and 4-3 setback to Pingry. "If we want to go somewhere in the states, we have to find a way to come through and win those games."