Cougars advance to CJ II semifinals
By: Justin Feil
The Montgomery High softball team has never hosted more than one game in the state tournament.
Thanks to a 4-1 win over Hopewell Valley on Thursday, the second-seeded Cougars will have a chance to play host once more when they take on Carteret, the No. 3 seed, 3:45 today.
"Group II is loaded," said MHS head coach Doug Ruhlman, whose team improved to 14-6 with Thursday’s win. "Carteret is the defending champion. The only thing in our favor is we’re playing at home. We’ll be here until the finals. It’s nice to have two straight games at home. We’ve never had that before."
It’s an advantage which the Cougars hope will pay off as they look to reach the CJ II finals. Against Hopewell, MHS had plenty of advantages outside of a soggy home field.
The two teams had met last Monday, and the Bulldogs prevailed, 3-2. But while Hopewell faced Kim Dougherty in place of MHS ace left-hander Amanda Heller, the Cougars were taking their swings against Stephanie Miller.
"I did it intentionally. I didn’t want them to see the lefty," Ruhlman said. "You don’t see (the ball) sometimes. It’s hidden by her hip. It takes a while to figure it out.
"Against the same pitcher, the more at bats you see, the better you’ll be. We were just worried we weren’t going to get this in. It’s a good win for the girls."
Thursday, Heller was up to her usual tricks, making it difficult for Hopewell to score, while Miller was on the mound again for the Bulldogs and the Cougar hitters teed off.
"It was a big advantage for us," said MHS’ Tori Sensi. "It gave us a chance to see their pitcher. They didn’t see ours. We had the advantage there."
Heller scattered five hits and didn’t allow a run until the sixth inning while MHS came out swinging from the start. Renee Totaro homered in the second inning as part of a 2-for-3 day and the Cougars added three more runs, capped by Sensi’s solo home run in the fifth inning to build a 4-0 lead.
"I was just hoping I was fast enough," said Sensi, who had the added hitter’s advantage of playing on the same New Jersey Nightmare summer team as Miller. "When I hit it, it felt good."
"We knew we’d have to play really hard and get every run we could," she added. "We knew we couldn’t win off one run and we were able to stay up."
Staying ahead certainly helped the Cougars confidence as much as seeing how close they’d come to winning on Monday.
"We knew we could play with them," Sensi said. "They have a good team. We had the confidence this game. We were pumped up to play."
It wasn’t hard to get riled up for the Cougars. Sensi and the Cougars had been on hand when the Hopewell boys’ soccer team ended MHS’ state tournament run in the fall. Thursday’s win was payback for that, and also for Monday’s loss.
"They should have been ready, especially after they beat you Monday," Ruhlman said. "Playing them then, it’s a no-lose situation. If you beat them, you get the confidence. They nip you, and you can say that we need to get them."
MHS was able to avenge one of its six losses to move into the CJ II semifinals, where they’ll face Carteret. Last year, Carteret defeated Manasquan, 9-0, which knocked the Cougars out in the semifinals with a 2-1 win. Though MHS remains young, it believes it has the making of a championship team.
"We have a lot of potential," Sensi said. "If we come with our game, we have the potential to beat every team we face."
Sensi brings more confidence to her role this year. Last season, she was thrown into the lead-off hitter spot while playing second base. This year, she’s more comfortable at both.
"It’s been a really good year," the sophomore said. "I’m a lot more comfortable. I started batting leadoff last year and that’s a comfortable position for me."
It also makes Ruhlman more comfortable with a strong hitter like Sensi up early and often.
"She’s the leadoff to get her more at bats," Ruhlman said. "When you sit down and figure it out, your leadoff is going to get a lot more at bats over the course of a season. Tori has power too. She’s going to drive in some runs. That’s why sometimes I’ll bat Natalie (Franzi) down at nine, so she can get on. I like the way our lineup has unfolded."
It’s unusual, but Sensi leads the team with 10 RBIs out of her lead-off position. Ruhlman is hoping that she can continue to set the pace at bat, where the Cougars have had the most difficulty this year. But when one MHS player hits, they all seem to follow. That was the case last week against Hopewell.
"We hit the ball pretty hard Monday," Ruhlman said. "We didn’t have the runs that we got today, but we had confidence at the plate."
And that gave Montgomery all the advantage it needed to knock off Hopewell Valley and secure another home game in the CJ II state tournament.

