By Mike Mack, Special Writer
Three local high schools are seeing a great deal of success on the softball diamond this season.
Florence Memorial High School is at the forefront with an undefeated 14-0 record. Behind that record is a great deal of statistics that explain it. Florence has allowed only 18 runs in their 14 games and has scored double digits in more than half of their games. In fact, they are averaging almost 10 runs per game.
”The team is batting very well,” said Florence Coach George Chwastyk. “Team batting average is .401 with 35 extra base hits.”
Florence defeated New Egypt at home on Monday by a score of 8-3, then followed that up with another home win against Maple Shade by a score of 2-0.
Florence is just five wins away from an undefeated regular season but that is the last thing on Chwastyk’s mind.
”I never think about an undefeated season,” Chwastyk said. “Just doing our best in every game.”
Florence will look for their 15th win on Thursday at Palmyra.
Bordentown Regional High School is also having an impressive season with a 10-4 record and a current six-game winning streak.
Like Florence, Bordentown’s success is due in large part to their offensive success. They have scored double digit runs in seven of their 14 games.
”I have always believed from the start that my batting lineup was solid,” said Bordentown Coach Melissa Hodge. “Now that the girls have seen more pitches and games, they have adapted well to the plate better than the first two weeks of play.”
Bordentown romped Holy Cross on Monday, taking the game by a score of 12-2. This game marked the fifth time in the team’s last six games that they were able to put up 10 or more runs. Hodge hopes to keep this hot streak going deep into the postseason.
”I look forward to my team staying focused and having fun at the same time,” Hodge said. “They are a great bunch of athletes who have told me their goal, way back in early April, was to go further in the state tournament than we did last year.”
Bordentown will look to take another step toward that goal next Monday when they head to Pemberton to take on a team that hey have already defeated by 10 runs once this season.
Northern Burlington County Regional High School has put together another impressive stat sheet that includes a 12-4 record.
With another extraordinary offense, NBC is scoring over seven runs per game and has only scored less than five runs in four of their 16 games.
The NBC pitching is nothing to laugh at either. The team’s earned run average, which is inflated by two poor games, is just over three runs per game. NBC’s pitching is obviously better than that though as they held both Florence’s and Bordentown’s offenses to two runs each in games back in April.
Northern Burlington still has a lot of season left to play and will travel to Burlington Township on today, May 9.
