WW-PN still looking for breakthrough after a close loss to Robbinsville
ROBBINSVILLE » Although coach Jason Petrone is right when he points out a lot of it has to do with the quality of the opposition, it’s got to be getting a little frustrating for his West Windsor North softball team.
West Windsor North, you see, is a good team itself and has so far compiled a record of 8-3. But what’s still not happening for the Knights are signature wins against the better teams on their schedule.
The latest example of this occurred Wednesday afternoon when West Windsor North fell to top-ranked and defending state champion Robbinsville (12-0) by the score of 2-0.
With McKenna Carpenter scattering nine hits and striking out five, North was right in this game and might have made things even more interesting if not for a base-running mistake in the first inning.
But much like last year when it fell to Robbinsville, 1-0, and had an extrainning sectional loss to state finalist Steinert, West Windsor North is still just not getting over the hump.
“That’s a very good team we lost to; they are very solid,” said Petrone about the Ravens. “(Thursday) we have Hun and they have given us trouble. Hopefully, we can start winning some of these games.”
West Windsor North nearly scored in the first against Kate Hunter, who is now sharing the pitching duties with Mackenzie Medders. After Carpenter singled and a stolen base, Emily Garron singled to left and North probably would have scored if the runner on second had taken off on contact with two outs.
Robbinsville, meanwhile, scored the only run it would need in the first when Chelsea Manto singled and raced home on an RBI double in the left-center gap by Shea Walsh. It was the start of a big day for Manto, who went 3-for-4 and played her usual stellar shortstop.
Manto, of course, is well on track to possibly catch former Nottingham star Kristin Hallam for the most career hits in Mercer County history. And like Hallam, Manto will be playing for Hofstra after she graduates next year.
Robbinsville actually collected eight hits in the first three innings, but Carpenter was able to get out of most of the trouble and yielded just one more run. The second run came in the third on singles by Allie Taylor and Olivia Moser, and an RBI bloop single to right by Sophie Billings.
Carpenter allowed only one more hit after the third, but West Windsor North had only two hits off Hunter over the last five innings.
“I thought we made pretty good contact today (six strikeouts),” said Petrone. “We just need to do a better job of stringing things together.”
It seems almost inevitable that one of these times the Knights are going to break through. The way they can pitch and play defense, West Windsor North is not someone teams will look forward to playing in the upcoming county and state tournaments.
WW-PN ((8-3) Robbinsville (12-0) 0000000—050 101 000 x — 2 9 1
WP-Hunter. LP-Carpenter. 2B-Walsh (R). RBIs: Walsh, Billings.