Montgomery, WW-P North also advance
By Connor Widenmayer, Special Writer
The fourth-seeded West Windsor-Plainsboro High South softball team faced off against No. 13 Toms River North in the opening round of the Central Jersey Group IV tournament on Wednesday, emerging victorious with a 2-1 win in what ended up being a nail-biter.
Pirates’ pitcher Liz Mendez was the star of the game, giving up only one run and four hits, while striking out seven.
”Liz Mendez pitched a great game, she mowed down batters when she needed to,” said Pirates coach Nikki Arias, whose team was scheduled to host Jackson Memorial, an upset winner over South Brunswick, on Thursday. “She put down a walk, hit a batter, but struck out the last two. It was great play by her and I’m really proud of her.”
Elsewhere, Montgomery and WW-P North also advanced with wins on Wednesday, while Princeton had its game at Wall postponed to Thursday. Top-seeded Montgomery advanced in the CJ IV tournament with an 11-1 win over Sayreville. Casey Niper and Carly Hering had three hits apiece for the Cougars. WW-P North advanced in CJ III with an 11-1 win over Holmdel. Kaitlin Perrine tossed a one-hitter and Sydney Tuchin drove in three runs for the Knights. Both Montgomery and WW-P North were scheduled to play quarterfinal games on Thursday.
WW-P South and Toms River North were in a scoreless deadlock through the first three innings. Mendez was throwing some serious heat, with three strikeouts and six straight outs to start the game. Her teammates were getting hits, but were not able to capitalize by driving those runners in.
”We have to tune more into getting people around, timely hitting,” said Arias of her team’s failure to advance runners to the plate.
Mendez finished the top of the third inning by snagging a ball driven to the mound and throwing it over to first base for the final out of the inning. When the Pirates got up to bat, it looked as though they may finally get something going as a walk and a double led to girls on second and third, but again the Pirates were not able to capitalize on it.
In the top of the fourth inning the Mariners were able to get two singles off Mendez (two of the miniscule four she gave up on the day), but she got out of it with two pop flies and a ground out. Then the Pirates finally got going, with Hye-Jin Kim getting a walk and advancing to second on a important sacrifice-bunt from Allison Pungello. Kim stole third to get in good scoring position and Darian Lanzetta scored Kim with a much-needed single to put the Pirates up 1-0 and give Mendez some support.
Mendez went back to work in the fifth inning, allowing only one hit and earning her fourth strike out to preserve the one-run lead. The Pirates returned to the plate with Mendez getting a single. Anna Schnitter grounded out to first, but advanced Mendez to second. A clutch single by Kim drove home Mendez who hustled from second to home to help her own cause and make the score 2-0.
In the sixth inning, the Pirates got a double from Johanna Schutzer, but nothing developed.
The final inning is when it got uncomfortably close for Mendez and the Pirates as the Mariners tried to make a comeback. The Mariners got a single and a Mendez-walk (her only walk of the day), resulting in an RBI single to cut the score to 2-1. A hit batter loaded the bases for the Mariners. With the support of her teammates and the Pirates’ parents in the crowd, Mendez did not panic and struck out the Mariners batter for her seventh strikeout of the day (third of the inning), sealing the 2-1 victory for the Pirates.
”Like every team, we definitely have to get the bats going a bit more,” Arias said. “We made some solid contact today, but we have to get balls between players and in the gaps.”