ROBBINSVILLE: Improved Piet is helping Ravens

Fischer tosses perfect game

By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
   Nicole Piet is a much improved player, and so is the Robbinsville High School softball team.
   It is not a coincidence.
   ”It’s my junior year, and I really want to start with a bang,” Piet said. “I don’t want to get too down or too up too quickly. I like to stay mellow. I’ve been working really hard on my personal game through my travel team and getting extra hitting. I’d like to improve my game to help the team out.
   ”As the years go on and you get older, you do get a little more comfortable,” she added. “It’s never going to be like starting the first game of freshman year. But I never want to get too comfortable. I always like to set personal goals and keep striving for the best I can do. I keep pushing myself.”
   Piet helped the Ravens improve to 4-0, though she admits it wasn’t a hard day at the office in their 10-0 four-inning win over Ewing on Monday. That’s because Lauren Fischer struck out 11 on her way to a perfect game.
   ”I had the last play of the game,” Piet said of the pop-up she caught to finish off the perfection. “Other than that, I don’t recall any other plays. She was just lights out today.
   ”She’s getting better every game. She’s improved so much since last year even. It’s really fun to watch her play.”
   Piet gets an ideal view of Fischer’s mastery from her shortstop position that she’s been manning since she was a freshman. Piet, though, is a much improved player from the one that started two years ago.
   ”She’s been starting at shortstop since she was a freshman,” said Robbinsville head coach Christine Cabarle. “She’s come into her own this year. She deserves to be there and every year she improves, but this year there’s a great sense of confidence.
   ”My two seniors are captains, but she is a junior captain. It’s her leadership on the field. It’s what she’s doing at practice, what she did in the offseason. She’s committed and she wants it.”
   The work that the Ravens have put in is paying off. Already they have an encouraging win over Steinert, in another shutout by Fischer, one in which she struck out 15 Spartans. Fischer has allowed just one run this season in her first four starts. The Ravens have found other ways to use her to help the team win.
   ”Fish has been throwing a bit of batting practice,” Cabarle said. “That is new. We’ve always just hit off the machine. I just felt like we were getting way too confident on the machine and then not producing in live situation.
   ”If you’re coming up against someone like Fischer, you have to focus. For a lot of them, hitting is mental. The girls that go up there and know they’re going to get a hit, they get a hit.”
   Piet loves the challenge.
   ”We’re a competitive team, and going against Fish, who’s an amazing pitcher, you want to go in and get a hit off her,” Piet said. “We’re very competitive. I think it’s good to hit off her, and if we can hit off her, we’re pretty set.
   ”When we have batting practice and Lauren pitches to us, it helps. I think our offense has started to come around. We’ve been hitting top to bottom, we’re hitting around the lineup. It’s really come together for us this week.”
   Fischer helped her own cause with a two-run single for all the runs that the Ravens needed against Steinert. Erin Wojton and Rebecca Freeman had singles in the inning while Christine Levering worked a walk. With the bases loaded again, Piet smacked a two-run single, a big hit from the bottom of the order. Piet can also hit at the top of the order.
   ”Whatever is needed for the team to produce runs is where I’m happy to be,” Piet said. “We’re clicking and hitting around. I’m fine at the bottom. It’s not important to me.”
   Every one was hitting against Ewing on Monday. Wojton had a pair of hits and three RBI. Levering was 2-for-2. Fischer went 3-for-3 with a pair of runs and pair of RBI. Lauren Hunter delivered two hits, including a double. Gabby Leach scored two runs and added an RBI. Piet got a hit, walked twice and scored twice.
   ”I haven’t seen them nervous yet,” Cabarle said. “They are commanding. I get a strong sense of confidence from all of them, and not cocky. They’re saying, ‘this is my position and I know what I’m doing.’”
   Robbinsville only had to replace one starter from a year ago. Though the first four games have gone well, the Ravens aren’t taking anything for granted. They have yet to play Nottingham, Allentown or West Windsor-Plainsboro North.
   ”We had some pretty high expectations with the group coming in,” Piet said. “We didn’t want to look too far ahead of ourselves. I have some really good expectations for us. We started out really strong and I’m excited to see what’s to come.
   ”I’m excited for those big games. Those are the games I love to play in. A lot of games that we lost last year, we’ll be in it all the way this year.”
   This is the first year that Robbinsville has fielded a junior varsity. It’s the next step as they continue to build their program.
   ”Every year, the expectations do get higher with the upcoming freshmen coming in,” Piet said. “This year we have the most depth we’ve had. We’ve always been a grounded team. We never like to get too far ahead of ourselves. We always take it a game at a time.
   ”Expectations come with building a program. Now that we’re fielding a JV team, it gets better every year.”
   Piet can still remember the potential for Robbinsville when she came into the program as a freshman. The standards have grown every year since then, and after a fast start, the Ravens are poised for a big season.
   ”My freshman year, we were starting the building of the program,” Piet said. “To see how far it’s come this year, it’s been amazing.”