By: Carolyn M. Hartko
With a record of 10-6, it can finally be said, definitely and for sure, that the South Brunswick High School softball team has clinched a berth in this year’s NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV tournament. The cutoff date to qualify is this Friday and although coach Danielle Matlack is hoping to pick up a game or two for the end of this week, the four game cushion will allow the Vikings to maintain their positive record regardless of what happens.
South Brunswick played its last conference game of the regular season this past Monday, defeating Red Division rival Piscataway 3-1. Junior pitcher Sara Steepy (7-3) tossed a three-hitter and struck out two.
The Vikings only recorded four hits of their own. The first two runs came in the first inning. With the bases loaded, Stefanie Sframeli took one for the team, allowing Jess Mastronardi to score. Next up was Sam Littlejohn, who reached first on an infield error, giving Jackie Abdalla the chance to scamper home. The Chiefs cut the deficit in half with a run scored in the bottom of the fourth inning.
"The hits were scattered," Matlack said. "Actually, it wasn’t a lot of hits. It was a lot of errors on their part. But Courtney (Breese) had a triple in the top of the seventh, and then she scored on a wild pitch."
Breese was hot on defense as well, fielding several balls up the middle, and throwing the batters out at first.
Leading up to Monday’s game, the Vikings suffered their worst defeat of the season, a 10-0 loss to J.P. Stevens in five innings at home last Friday.
"It was embarrassing," Matlack said. "It was just a combination of things, like maybe there was a walk, and then there was an error, and then there was a mental error. They scored 10 runs on eight hits. That’s not good."
The shutout was Stevens’ 13th of the season. After Monday’s games, the Lady Hawks were 17-2 overall, and had already clinched the Red title with a division record of 14-0. This year’s Greater Middlesex Conference tournament won’t be seeded until the beginning of next week, but it’s not too far fetched to assume that Stevens will get the top spot.
South Brunswick is currently 8-6 in the division, tied for fourth. Matlack thinks that the Vikings are looking at a seed in the top third of the field, somewhere between 9-12. That would mean a preliminary round game for SB, and those games will be played at the home of the higher seed next Wednesday.
The Vikings have one more game left on the regular schedule, a non-conference home game with Hunterdon Central Monday. With the tournaments just around the corner, Matlack was concerned that her squad was not playing as well as they had been earlier this spring.
"We’re not playing good enough ball right now," the coach said. "We have to try and fix a lot of the mistakes we’re making, and just get the girls to shoot for their goals.

