Haylei Archer struck out 12 in a one-hitter and singled in the first two runs for the Greyhounds in the Central Jersey Group 3 softball playoffs.
MANSFIELD — A lot of things can happen and only some of them are good.
You begin every game with that understanding, and every playoff game with the knowledge that the stakes have been raised.
“The kids were nervous,” Northern Burlington softball coach Brian Wolverton said. “You spend the whole offseason in the weight room, you plan a tough schedule, you talk about winning the league, and this and that, and now it’s, you lose and you go home, and the reality of that makes them a little nervous in the beginning.”
Fortunately, there’s a tonic for that and it’s a very simple one: get some good innings behind you. Haylei Archer set down the first nine Ocean Township batters in order Thursday night, which meant she had a lead before she had to deal with a baserunner.
Archer struck out 12 in a one-hitter and singled in the first two runs for the Greyhounds, who started their Central Jersey Group 3 playoff bid with an 8-0 win over the Spartans. Northern will face the winner of Saturday’s game between Moorestown and Colts Neck in the quarterfinal round.
Archer fanned six in those three perfect innings. Madison Sisz led off the Northern second with a double and Julia Mayernik followed with a one-out walk, then stole second, to set the table for Archer’s base hit up the middle.
It was still 2-0 when Emma Vasen led off the Ocean fourth with a base hit to right field. She moved to second on Alex Ardizzone’s groundout, and it looked like she might score on Alexandra Ankiewicz’s comebacker, but the ball hit Archer on the leg. The sophomore pitcher, in obvious pain, still collected the ball and threw Ankiewicz out to end the inning.
“I thought we hung for a little bit,” Ocean coach Ryan Pringle said. “We had a couple of breaks not go our way. That line drive up the middle goes off Archer’s foot. If that gets through, it’s 2-1 and we’ve got something going, but credit them, they made every play.”
The Greyhounds benefited from the same kind of play to start the fifth, when Cameron Cassidy hit a comebacker that bounced off Ocean pitcher Giana Graziano. Cassidy was at first before the Spartans could collect it. She stole second and moved to third when the Spartans couldn’t handle a third strike on Nicole Bondoc.
Northern’s Alexa Blue followed with a drive that quickly and easily cleared the left-field fence for a three-run home run.
“Right off the bat I knew it was gone and it felt good,” Blue said. “I looked for a pitch and I looked to drive it, right where it came at me. Wherever the pitcher gives it to me, I’m looking to hit it hard to the outfield.”
Archer added an RBI double that gave the Greyhounds a 6-0 lead. It grew to 8-0 in the sixth, when Blue hit a two-run double to center.
“She struggled the first half of the season,” Wolverton said. “And in the second half of the year, she’ started to come around. She hit over .500 for us last year, and she’s gotten hot in the last four or five games. That will obviously be big for us in the middle of the lineup.”
Vasen’s single was the only hit off Archer, who struck out the side in the second and fifth innings. She issued a leadoff walk to Brianna Roskey but all that did was set the stage for a defensive highlight. Vasen hit a ball hard down the line that Blue leaped to bring down at first base. She turned and outsprinted Roskey back to the bag.
There was an even bigger highlight to come at that point: Kimberly Schmidt sent what was probably the Spartans’ hardest-hit ball of the night toward the gap in right center in the seventh but Cassidy chased it down and made a diving catch, followed by a long belly slide in the wet grass.
“Having the lead like that gives her confidence to make that catch, and not worry,” Archer said. “If she misses it, we’re OK, we’ll get the next out. Plus, she just has confidence in herself. She’s an awesome player.”
She doesn’t get tested much, when Archer is on like she was in this game.
“It’s definitely speed,” she said. “And just learning what the umpire likes and pounding the zone as much as I can to keep the batters on their toes.”
