LAWRENCE: Young LHS softball showing potential

By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
   Shannon Treptow doesn’t see a lot of experience around her, but she sees a lot of promise in the Lawrence High School softball team.
   ”I feel like we’re almost there, but not quite yet,” Treptow said. “When it’s time to end the season, that’s when we’ll be coming out strong. I think everyone’s just coming in slow with what they’re doing.”
   Slowest to come have been the timely hits. Treptow is one of just two seniors who returned for the Cardinals this season along with Angela Parascando. They have tried to do their part to lead a young squad.
   ”I feel like a lot of the girls, they look up to me and Angela,” Treptow said. “A lot of the girls are young. We’re potentially building them up for the next couple years. We try to show them what we’ve learned since being on varsity.”
   Parascando is one of the top hitters for LHS, and Treptow has been steady at third base while hitting in the clean-up or five spot in her second year of varsity. She has tried to do all that’s asked of her, even recently laying down a sacrifice bunt to help the team.
   ”We’re only playing two seniors,” said LHS head coach Keith Fithen, whose team lost, 3-0, to Steinert on Mondday. “We have a lot of new people out there for us. They have some ability. We just haven’t seen that ability to pull out games.
   ”The conference is so good. If you make one or two mistakes, it costs you. Lindsey Mills throws a four-hitter but we only get three or four hits so the pressure is on our defense.”
   Lawrence needs to put everything together for a late run at the state tournament. The cutoff to be .500 is May 9, and the Cardinals were 2-6 heading into Wednesday’s scheduled game against Ewing. They open the Mercer County Tournament at Hopewell Valley on Friday.
   ”We’re hitting, but we’re not getting the hits when we need them,” Treptow said. “It’s really frustrating for everybody.
   ”Our pitching’s been fantastic,” she added. “We’ve been showing a lot of strengths. We have the potential to be a good team and beat the teams we’ve been playing.”
   Everyone of the Cardinals agrees. LHS has gone down to the wire with plenty of opponents. They lost just, 5-4, to still unbeaten Notre Dame. The game ended with the potential tying run on third base.
   ”I wish we could pull out these games,” Fithen said. “Right now, it’s frustrating. We’re close. We’re not making the plays. We’re not consistently hitting so we’re not taking the pressure off our pitching and defense.
   ”We’re competitive. We only lost, 5-4, to Notre Dame. We knocked out their first pitcher, Abby Lerner, but they have the ability to bring in Chelsea Dimon, and she shut us down. We were winning, 3-1, in the fourth and they came back. We’ve been competitive. The win-loss record is not strong though.”
   Sydney Lipskind is leading the Cardinals with a .529 batting average. Parascando is hitting .500, and Kim Ragazzo leads the team with 12 hits while batting .429. Mills and Ragazzo have been solid in the circle.
   ”We’ve got some positives,” Fithen said. “We’re playing into the seventh inning. We’re not getting blown out. We’re knocking on the door. We’ll eventually get that. We’re showing our youth on the varsity level. We have another week and a half to the state tournament. We have to be .500 by May 9. We have about five or six games left, so we have the ability to make it. We have to stay strong.”
   The county tournament provides a chance for the Cardinals to pick up momentum. LHS opens with the chance to avenge an earlier loss to Hopewell Valley.
   ”We played Hopewell not too long ago and we gave them the game,” Treptow said. “We’re looking forward to beating them and showing them we’re the better team and showing we can come together.”
   The pieces are there. The Cardinals just hope there’s enough time to put it together to extend their season.
   ”We definitely have to work on some defense and work on our hitting and we have the ability to pull out these games,” Fithen said. “The future looks bright. Right now, we’re trying to go out and hustle and play hard. Notre Dame is one of the best teams in the state and we only lost, 5-4. There’s a lot of positives in the games we played. Against Steinert, we only lost 3-0. We made some errors. They can be corrected.”