There is something about the one-anddone format of tournament play that can bring out the best in a team.
After a so-so regular season, the Howell High School softball team has turned its game up a notch for the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV state sectional tournament.
On May 26, the Rebels defeated Steinert High School of Hamilton Township, Mercer County, 4-3, to advance to the sectional semifinals for the first time in program history.
Nicole Daukshus’ single through the left side of the infield in the bottom of the fifth inning scored Carsin Conner, who had led off the inning with a single. Conner’s run broke a 3-3 tie.
Conner, who relieved starter Stephanie Gilbert in the fifth, made the one-run lead stand up and the Rebels were headed to uncharted state tournament waters.
“We knew when the state tournament started that we had to buckle down, be a team and work as hard as we could,” Conner said. “It’s time to shine. You win or go home, and we definitely don’t want to go home.”
Howell, the No. 12 seed in Central Jersey Group IV, began its tournament run with a 2-1 victory over the No. 5 seed, West Windsor-Plainsboro North, on May 24. Lauren Saal smacked two doubles and scored the winning run in the fifth inning.
Saal’s RBI-double in the third tied the game, 1-1, and in the fifth inning she doubled and scored on Lauren Van Wie’s single.
Saal was 3-4 at the plate, Kelly Hardiman and Christina Polihrom each had two hits for Howell, which improved to 12-8. West Windsor-Plainsboro North ended its season at 16-7.
Conner went the distance to earn her seventh win of the season, striking out eight batters and allowing seven hits.
As a result of No. 13 seed Steinert’s 3-1 upset of No. 4-seed Brick Memorial, Howell got play its state sectional tournament quarterfinal game at home. The visiting Knights hit the Rebels for two runs in the top of the first inning, but, unfazed, Howell chipped away at the visitors’ lead.
Cassidy Brzozowski’s run-scoring single in the second inning brought the Rebels within one, 2-1. In the third inning, Conner smacked a ground-rule double that brought home a run and tied the game, 2-2.
Howell took a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning when Saal walked with the bases loaded.
Conner relieved Gilbert, who had settled down after Steinert’s two-run first inning, in the fifth and walked the first batter she faced (“Just nerves,” she said). That walk came back to bite the Rebels, as a sacrifice fly tied the game at 3-3.
The tie did not last long. Conner (3 hits) led off the bottom of the fifth with a single. Polihrom bunted Conner to second, and then, with a some daring base running, Conner advanced to third on an infield out. Daukshus brought her home by slapping a single between third base and shortstop.
After striking out the final Steinert hitter in the fifth inning, Connor struck out the side in the sixth and the first two hitters in the seventh.
“My screwball was working,” she said. “That was a confidence booster.” With two out in the seventh, Conner allowed her first hit, but she recorded the final out of the game on a pop up to Hardiman at first base and Howell had lived to play another day.
That day was May 31 when Howell was scheduled to face the No. 1 seed East Brunswick (22-1) in the Central Jersey Group IV semifinals. The game between the Rebels and the Bears was played after the deadline for this newspaper.