The young Greyhounds lost to Steinert 1-0.
MANSFIELD — As Brian Wolverton left Northern Burlington’s postgame huddle, the first thing he did was shake the hand of Steinert pitcher Kaylee Whitaker.
Whitaker kept the Greyhounds off balance all night, as Steinert downed Northern 1-0 in the Central Jersey Group 3 softball championship game.
“We got beat by a better team tonight,″ said Wolverton, Northern’s coach. “We got a beat by a great pitcher that did everything she wanted to do with every pitch. That was masterful.”
Whitaker limited the Greyhounds to one hit, and even an adjustment to creep closer to the plate in the seventh didn’t throw off the Steinert pitcher.
″(We were) trying to adjust and she threw the ball where she needed to and it didn’t work,” Wolverton said.
Haylei Archer kept Northern in the contest with a terrific performance in the circle. She ended with 10 strikeouts.
A single by Carli Backlund the top of the seventh gave the visiting Spartans the slightest bit of offensive momentum. She moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and to third on a groundout to first base.
A wild pitch plated Backlund with two outs and it proved to be enough for the Spartans to leave the diamond as sectional champions.
For the Greyhounds, they experienced plenty of growth as the sophomore core advanced to a championship game. The goal now is to get better.
“It’s kind of bittersweet,” Wolverton said. “I told the sophomores half of their high school career is over and we have to get better and that’s gotta be the mentality. We can’t be satisfied with just improving this year. We have to get better if we want to be able to achieve their goals.”
For the seniors departing the program, they see the special talent the returning group contains and there’s confidence the improvements will be made to return to the sectional title game.
“I just told them come back strong,” Northern senior Jess Kimball said. “We’re super strong this year, and us three seniors are leaving, but we’re leaving behind this fantastic legacy. Steinert is losing girls, too. It’s going to be an even matchup when we come back and play them again, hopefully, in this game and, hopefully, this time next year we’ll come back on top.
“We’ve gone so far with such a young team. It was incredible. I honestly couldn’t imagine it happening because they’re so young. They’re so strong that they don’t act like their age. They act like they’re 17 or 18 years old and it’s incredible. They’re going to do amazing things and I’m excited to see what they do.”
