Vikings claim big win over Edison

By: Carolyn M. Hartko
   Edison, a town with a strong softball tradition, always fields a top-notch high school team, and opponents in the Greater Middlesex Conference’s Red Division never take the Lady Eagles lightly. So a 3-2 victory by visiting South Brunswick in Tuesday’s game was a boost to the Lady Vikings’ confidence, as well as their record (3-1).
   This was a nip-and-tuck game with the score tied 2-2 after three innings of play. With two outs in the top of the fifth, Courtney Breese and Alicia Langone both smacked singles, and a pair of errors by the home team allowed the winning run across the plate. Langone went 2-for-3 with an RBI while Breese scored twice for the Vikings. Jess Mastronardi had a double and Sara Steepy pitched a two-hitter for the win.
   South Brunswick went into Tuesday’s game on a high from a 5-0 victory over Sayreville at home on Monday. As with Tuesday’s game, Breese and Langone got things going in a two-out situation, this time in the first inning. Breese hit a grounder past first to get on base, and Langone cleaned up with a homer out to center-right field. Mastronardi made it 4-0 in the second with a two-run double hit to left field.
   The worst threat from the Lady Bombers came with two outs in the top of the fifth when a pair of Viking errors and a single combined to load the bases. With everyone in motion on an infield grounder, Mastronardi tagged a runner out at third to get South out of the inning. But even with things that tense, Viking head coach Danielle Matlack was not worried.
   "I like how we’re playing," the coach said after the Sayreville game. "We have the confidence this year that when we get into those kinds of situations, we can get out of it. We had a couple of errors in (the East Brunswick) game, and we had a couple today, but we’ll take care of it. They’re fixable."
   Steepy was the winning pitcher, striking out six and scattering five hits with no walks.
   While last year the Vikings were all about defense, this year the offense seems to be catching up.
   "I like our aggressiveness," Matlack said. "I like how we’re putting the bat to the ball. We’re hitting the ball hard."
   The South Brunswick-Bishop Ahr game scheduled for last Friday was postponed due to the funeral of Pope John Paul II. That, plus the Florida trip have the Vikings a little behind the other teams in the conference as far as the number of games played. But this is a four-game week with a trip to Old Bridge today (Thursday), and a visit from West Windsor-Plainsboro South on Saturday at 11 a.m. Tuesday brings another key division match at JP Stevens.