Elite team falls to 2-4
By: John E. Powers
HILLSBOROUGH Manville’s squad in the Hillsborough Elite Softball League has struggled with scoring runs. What has made it tougher is that the team hasn’t been able to get any real batting practice between games.
Monday night, Manville had an even more daunting task facing Hillsborough High ace Megan McInaw.
McInaw, who led Hillsborough to the Somerset County Tournament final in the spring, was in command. She struck out 13 of 16 batters and no-hit Manville 10-0 at Ann Van Middlesworth Park in a game that ended after the top of the fifth because of the mercy rule. Manville, which lost to Ridge 10-5 last week, entered Tuesday’s night game with a 2-4 record.
Manville was scheduled to play host to Dunellen Tuesday night, then play at Flemington Wednesday. The league playoffs are scheduled to begin Monday at Ann Van Middlesworth Park. All 12 teams make the field.
Michelina Aichele was the only Manville batter to reach base Monday. She reached first on an infield error to lead off the fifth. Her sister, Samantha, was the only other player to make contact. She bunted in the fourth, but was thrown out when McInaw fielded the ball and threw to second baseman Monique Verastegui, who was covering for first baseman Katelyn Derewecki. Amanda Bron was called out in the fifth when the ball hit her in fair territory after a bunt attempt.
"If you don’t score a run you can’t win," Manville coach Butch Jones said. "We just haven’t been hitting."
Jones said he recalled beating former Hillsborough High star Chrissy Yard during a summer game a few years ago by bunting on the same field the two teams played on Monday night. It worked when Hillsborough made several errors, he said. But that wasn’t the case this time.
"Some of the girls really don’t know how to bunt that well," Jones said.
"We see pitchers like her during the regular season, but we haven’t practiced and it really killed us," Amanda Furka said. "We haven’t really practiced batting since the school season."
Manville worked into deep counts several times against McInaw. In the third inning, Erin Lipot and Bri Blackman both worked full counts, but Lipot struck out looking and Blackman went down swinging. In the fourth, McInaw fell behind eighth grader Katie Pornovetz 3-0, but came back to strike her out.
"She’s (McInaw) is one of the best in the (Skyland) conference," Jones said. "But we still should have hit her. I really think we could have done better than we did."
Manville did make two outstanding defensive plays. Furka, who’ll be a junior, playing shortstop, threw home to Michelina Aichele to nail a would-be run scorer in the second. Furka played the first two innings at shortstop.
"We were really relaxed, because I don’t think we take this league as seriously as we do in the regular high school season, but that kind of kills us sometimes because we don’t take it so seriously," Furka said.
In the fourth, first baseman Kathleen Hardgrove threw out a base runner trying to take third base by making a strong throw to third baseman Bron.
Manville lost to Ridge last week as Samantha Aichele, Erin Lipot and Furka had two hits apiece and Micehelina Aichele scored twice. Jones’ daughter Kim didn’t pitch. Jones used Blackman and Hardgrove.
"We really had one bad inning; they got seven in one inning," Butch Jones said. "Our pitchers did a good job for not pitching. Bri hasn’t pitched that much and I don’t think Kathleen pitched at all this year, but she gave us a couple of strong innings."

