Soph helps Knights reach CJ III semis
By: Justin Feil
Briana Taft played baseball through her eighth grade year, but it is the West Windsor-Plainsboro North softball team that has benefited from her sports switch in high school.
The sophomore is enjoying the switch after being a key part of the Knights team to advance to today’s Central Jersey Group III semifinals at No. 2 Monroe. The sixth-seeded Knights got there with a 2-1 upset of No. 3 Ocean Township on Thursday.
"Since we were known as the underdog, we were more intense," Taft said. "We wanted to prove everyone wrong. This is our first year in states and we didn’t want it to end too soon."
Taft helped ensure that ride continued into this week. At the plate in the first inning Thursday, she followed Lindsay Gargano’s double that drove in Danielle Parisi, who reached on a double of her own, with a safety squeeze. The squeeze scored Gargano, who had moved to third base on the throw to the plate to try for Parisi.
"I didn’t expect in the first inning to step over the team," said Taft, who finished 2-for-3. "Just from that one inning, our confidence built up."
Confidence and Liz Chudzik were too much for Ocean. Chudzik struck out seven and kept Ocean guessing all game. She surrendered a run in the seventh inning only when an illegal pitch was called. At catcher, Taft had the best view of Chudzik’s gem.
"She looked great," Taft said. "She was hitting all her spots. She had good speed and if she didn’t want to pitch something (signaled for), she knew exactly what to throw."
Chudzik didn’t disagree often with Taft on pitches. Taft caught Chudzik when both were in middle school. But as a freshman, Taft couldn’t play catcher due to a sprained lumbar muscle suffered in soccer. She began the year rotating primarily between third base and center field before an injury forced her back behind the plate. Getting up to speed after a year off hasn’t been easy, not with the likes of the fire-balling Chudzik.
"I used to catch her a couple years ago for travel," Taft said. "She was good, but she’s gotten so much better.
"Some of her pitches did hurt my hand. I think one of my fingers is kind of messed up. I have to wear a batting glove under my glove now."
Just getting up to speed behind the plate was a challenge at first. Part of her struggles resulted from switching from baseball to softball.
"I was kind of shaky in the beginning," Taft said. "I played baseball and catching softball and catching baseball are totally different. When Liz pitches, some of the spins, I have no idea where the ball’s going. I guess it takes time to get used to it."
The pain of bruising fastballs fades away a lot quicker after a big win. And while Tuesday’s extra-inning victory in their state tournament debut was one for the ages, Thursday’s upset of Ocean might go another step beyond it.
"Today’s game was one of the first when we stepped up and beat a real quality team," said Knights head coach Jason Petrone, whose team topped Nottingham, 12-9, on Friday to improve to 17-7 and clinch the CVC Valley Division title. "We’ve run into the Steinert’s, Notre Dame’s and Montgomery’s this year and lost to them all. We’ve lost to the upper echelon. I’d like to think we went down and played an upscale team (Thursday). Chudzik pitched her best game of the year. We beat a quality team which was great to see. You can beat a lot of mediocre teams which is fine, but today we beat a good team."
It’s all a bonus for the Knights, who are making their first trip to the state tournament. Even for a sophomore like Taft who will have two more seasons, it’s an exciting trip.
"It’s more than I expected but we take it each step at a time," she said. "It’s like, if we win this game, we can go here. That’s how I think about it. If I get too ahead of myself, something will go wrong."
Things have gone right in each of the first two Knight state tournament games. After falling behind by two runs in the eighth inning, they were able to win last Tuesday. WW-P North made things easier on itself by jumping out to a lead Thursday.
"We were lucky enough to get a couple hits in the first inning," Petrone said. "After that, she got stronger and stronger. She was a big girl, about 6-feet tall, and we were lucky enough to get a couple runs across the plate."
With a pair of hits, Taft had less trouble than some in getting her bat on the ball Thursday. Something as simple as a safety squeeze didn’t hurt.
"I’ve kind of been in a slump this season," Taft said. "The end of the season, I was worried. I would either hit it right to somebody every time or I would pop up. Today I got some hits. Hopefully they keep coming."
In her second year of playing just softball, Taft is starting to figure out the subtleties of the game. Hitting is just one thing she struggled with in adjusting to softball.
"It’s so much closer," she said of the pitcher. "It took a while to get used to. Hitting finally came around about a year after I started. It’s so weird.
"After I started playing, I thought, what am I getting myself into? There was one point where I played softball and baseball at the same time and I’d go from 90-foot bases to 60-foot bases and from overhand pitching to close-up underhand. That was a struggle."
But it doesn’t compare to the struggles the Knights might have had if they hadn’t been able to plug Taft in at catcher a month into the season. She has held her own at what is her third position.
"We turned to her in a little bit of desperation needing someone to play the position," Petrone said. "She runs like the wind. She was one of the best outfielders we had and could play shortstop or third base when we switched pitchers around.
"The catcher is probably the second-most important position on the field. She’s filled that hole for us nicely. She’s very quick and she’s thrown a couple runners out. That’s all you have to do and they’ll stop stealing."
Taft has figured that out as the Knights’ new catcher. She is getting accustomed to a new position in a new game for her. It’s all quite a change, but with each state tournament win for the Knights, Briana Taft gets a little more comfortable on the softball field.