COLUMBUS: Veneziale’s slam lifts Greyhounds into softball semis

By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
   With the bases loaded and down two runs in the seventh inning of the Burlington County Scholastic League Tournament quarterfinals, Andi Veneziale was just hoping to put the ball in play.
   The Northern Burlington High junior’s grand slam delivered a 9-7 win over Rancocas Valley last Wednesday and a berth in the semifinals, where they will face Holy Cross.
   ”I’d have to say that’s my biggest hit ever,” said Veneziale, the Greyhounds first baseman who has been starting since she was a freshman. “The hit itself, and the game we’re in, and it was RV. It was a huge game.”
   Veneziale’s homer ended a spectacular comeback, but it was nothing compared to the comeback the Greyhounds are working on at the moment. They have won 10 of their last 11 games including the BCSL Tournament quarterfinal after starting the season 1-6.
   ”We just pretend that didn’t happen and just look forward,” Veneziale said. “It was a bad past. Even RV, we got 10-runned the first time we played them. So it was a huge game. It was a turnaround and it was in the tournament.”
   It was Rancocas Valley that handed them their sixth loss, and put them on notice that the season was slipping away.
   ”I think in the beginning, we thought we could be really good,” Veneziale said. “We started not playing well. It was kind of a reality check that we needed to get ourselves together if we wanted to live up to our potential and we started doing it.”
   The win started innocently enough with a 7-3 win over Moorestown. It was their first of five straight wins. A loss to Peddie is the only blemish in the turnaround stretch. They won their BCSL Tournament opener, 5-2, over Burlington City with Veneziale knocking in a run on a sacrifice fly and later doubling to score an insurance run.
   ”The bats are just coming around,” Veneziale said. “We’re starting to get big hits and key hits when we need them. We’re having confidence to put the ball in play.”
   The Greyhounds put together another comeback for a 4-3 win over Cinnaminson to head into the county tournament quarterfinal brimming with confidence.
   ”It’s just getting the hits when we needed to,” Veneziale said of the key for the Greyhounds. “We were down 3-0 and then came back to win, 4-3.”
   Even their only win in their first seven games — after five straight losses to open the year — came via comeback, and a special one. Northern Burlington beat Delsea, 3-2, with all three runs coming in the seventh inning.
   ”Our game at Delsea, we saw we could come back and win,” Veneziale said. “We started doing a lot of team bonding. We just weren’t playing together in the beginning. We are now. We’ve come together so well and we’re clicking.”
   Northern Burlington stayed hot with a 6-3 win over Moorestown on the heels of their emotional win over Rancocas Valley. At 11-7, they are a far cry from the start of the year.
   ”We thought right from the beginning we had the potential and had the skills,” Veneziale said. “We weren’t playing together. It started getting a little nerve-wracking.
   ”I think now when we’re down, we have the confidence we can come back and we can score runs.”
   The slow start could be explained, or at least excused, as the Greyhounds suffered some critical graduation losses. Learning to play together and who would fill some key spots took time. Meghin Stanton has become the everyday pitcher while developing into a steady hurler.
   ”We lost a lot of girls last year,” Veneziale said. “We lost our pitcher and catcher and a lot of key players. We’ve filled the spots pretty well and starting to work well together.
   ”We’re a young team,” she added. “We have four starting seniors. We’re young an inexperienced.”
   Dara Schroeder, Sam Bobbitt, Arlene Griffin and Kayla Pullen are the quartet of senior starters that have kept the Greyhounds focused through their rough start and helped them turn around the season. The season that seemed grim barely a month into it now has the promise of potential as the Greyhounds eye a chance at the county championship.
   ”Our chances have increased so much,” Veneziale said. “We have so much more confidence and we know we can be in these tournaments and win them potentially.
   ”We do have a lot of really good players on the team. We knew we had the potential. It was just putting it together.”