Northern Burlington softball topples Ewing in CJ Group III semifinals
COLUMBUS >> A year ago the Ewing High softball team won this exact same game against Northern Burlington to advance to the Central Jersey Group III finals.
As they say, that was then and this is now.
On a night with no surprises other than perhaps it took the home team a while to get going, Northern Burlington (23-2) beat Ewing, 7-1, behind a two-hitter and 13 strikeouts by sophomore Haylei Archer.
The victory advanced Northern Burlington into the sectional title game. That will be played on Tuesday when defending champion Steinert comes to town. During the regular season, NBC beat Steinert, 3-0, in a game that was scoreless into the sixth inning.
“We just couldn’t get that third out in that one inning (the fourth,’’ said legendary Ewing coach Dan “The Man’’ Bernoski. “We knew this would be a tough game, but I don’t think we were a pushover.’’
Ewing (13-10) actually took a 1-0 lead into the fourth after scoring in the first inning. The Blue Devils’ run came when Devon Kueny led off with a walk, Julianna Nisen had an infield single, Deanna Hedrick put down a sac and Kueny scored when she was able to successfully get out of a run down play on a failed squeeze.
Other than a single by Hedrick in the sixth, that was it for the Ewing offense as Archer set the Blue Devils down in order in the other five innings.
Ewing’s Lauren Christensen was able to get through the first three innings when NBC had trouble with her change-up, but this all changed the second time through the order.
With two outs in the fourth, Ewing committed an error. This led to a single by Archer, a smoked two-run double in the gap by Hanna Alexander and an RBI single by Jessica Kimball.
It was a special moment for Kimball, a senior who was filling in for NBC’s normal lead-off batter Cameron Cassidy. The reason Cassidy was not in the line-up was she rolled an ankle the night before while jogging.
“Cam will be fine (for Steinert Tuesday),’’ said Northern coach Brian Wolverton. “I felt really good for Kimball. She got her chance and she made the most of it.’’
Now up 3-1, Northern Burlington blew it wide open with four more runs in the fifth. Once again, all the damage came with two outs after an error again opened the door for the top-ranked team in the area.
From there, Northern scored on a wild pitch, a bases-loaded walk by Archer and a two-run single by Alexander, who finished with four RBIs and two hits along with Archer.
“Alexander got off to a cold start for the first third of the season, but she has really come on,’’ said Wolverton. “We worked with her on her swing, but what we were really doing was building up her confidence.’’
Although she ended up giving up seven runs, Christensen did do a pretty good job against a potent lineup with an eight-hitter. Without the errors, she very well might have done even better.
“She did pitch a nice game,’’ agreed Wolverton. “That change-up she throws just lays up there and it’s hard to lay off it.’’
What Christensen could not do, of course, was match what Archer was doing to Ewing.
“She’s fast,’’ said Bernoski. “We did put the ball in play a little bit, but not nearly enough.’’
If it’s any consolation to Ewing, it has now joined an ever-growing number of teams that have had very little success against Archer.
Ewing (13-9) 100 000 0 — 1 2 2
No. Burl. (22-2) 000 340 x — 7 8 0
WP-Archer. LP-Christensen. 2B-Alexander (NB). RBI-Alexander 4, Archer (NB).
