Northeast finishes job against Glenelg
Matulonis leads Eagles to 13-1 victory for title
GLENELG — When the thunder started in the middle of the fourth inning Friday, forcing a suspension of the Class 3A East Region championship game between Glenelg and No. 14 Northeast to Saturday, Eagles coach Joe Hart was afraid his team wouldn’t bring the same intensity that got them a 5-1 lead.
“It’s hard,” Hart said. “I asked them when we left here yesterday to get a good nights sleep because we’ve got a mission we’ve got to go on, and they all did what we asked of them when they showed up today. We had that intensity yesterday and I was worried, was that going to come back today? And it was here. They brought it.”
Northeast didn’t miss a beat, as it took about 40 minutes to add eight more runs in the next two innings to close out a 13-1 victory over the Gladiators.
“I am just proud of them,” Hart said. “Jenna [Matulonis] pitched a great game.”
Matulonis went a full five innings and allowed seven hits and a walk, while striking out two to earn the win for the Eagles.
Northeast’s defense was also a difference in the game. In the second inning, the Eagles picked a Glenelg runner off at second base and then made another play at home to throw out a runner to preserve a seven-run lead heading into the top of the fourth inning.
“We work on throwing the ball around all the time,” Hart said. “They play catch in the infield and I’ll scream out a base and they’ve got to throw it. We just work on it all the time and it pays off. They’re not shocked by anything. They work hard. We work on defense a lot.”
Trailing 1-0, Northeast got on the board in the top of the second after an RBI double by Melanie Kral platted Christina Jordan, who led off the inning with a walk.
Sarah Gordon then gave the Eagles the lead after knocking a base hit through the infield to score Kral.
They added on in the third inning after Maria Weddle and Matulonis led off with back-to-back hits to get on with no outs. Veronica Hampton and knocked them both in with a single. Jordan and Alex Brengle each had a hit to load the bases for Kral, who drove in Hampton with a sacrifice ground out, bringing the lead to 5-1.