Burlington Twp. edges Bordentown in 10 innings
BORDENTOWN » Burlington Township softball coach Nicolette Cannizzaro says her team “has been kind of under the radar,” but that blip on the Central Jersey Group III bracket is dinging louder all the time.
Ranked an all-time high sixth in The Trentonian’s Area Ratings, Burlington Township upped its impressive record to 11-1 with a 2-1 victory over Bordentown in 10 innings on Tuesday.
As you might easily surmise by looking at the score, it was a tremendous pitchers’ dual between two of the best in the entire area.
Burlington Township sophomore Bailey Enoch fired a seven-hitter with 10 strikeouts to up her total on the year to 98. Bordentown sophomore Bella Pisapia threw a seven-hitter of her own and whiffed 11 to raise her strikeout total to an area-leading 113.
As it turned out it all down to the international tiebreaker in the 10th in which the difference proved to be Township was able to score on a sac fly and Bordentown did not because of a baserunning mistake.
Township’s excellent shortstop Gracyn Banks led off the 10th with a single to left to move the runner to third. Pisapia came back to get an out on a pop up, but then Enoch got the run home with a sac fly.
In Bordentown’s home half of the 10th, following a strikeout Michaela Luyber advanced the runner with a single. After Township failed to get an out on a fielder’s choice, Pisapia smashed a line drive to right that went straight to Anaya Hunte.
In hindsight, Pisapia actually hit this ball too hard because when the runner on third didn’t immediately make the correct read it was too late to go back and tag up.
While it was a tough loss for Bordentown (10-6), the team did make pretty good contact against a very tough pitcher in Enoch. Township, meanwhile, is continuing to ride high after its big win over Northern Burlington the previous week.
“I think Bailey is pitching with a lot more confidence,” said Canizzarro when asked about Enoch’s improvement from her freshman year. “She knows what she is capable of and she knows she can have a lot of confidence in her fielders.”
For a long time it didn’t look like the game would go extra innings at all. Township took the lead in the fourth on a single by Mattison Palentchar and a hit up the middle by Hunte that rolled all the way to the fence.
With the way Enoch was pitching it looked like it would be enough. Enough, that is, until Annabella Marino from seemingly out of nowhere launched a high fly ball that just cleared the left field fence to start the seventh.
This eventually led to the developments in the 10th in a game in which neither pitcher deserved to walk away with a loss.
Burl. Twp. (11-1) 000 100 000 1 — 2 7 0 Bordntwn (10-6) 000 000 100 0 — 1 7 0
WP-Enoch. LP-Pisapia. 2B-Hunte (BT). HR-Marino (B). RBIs: BT-Enoch, Hunte. B-Marino.