Ewing mashes 17 hits in road win at WW-P South
PRINCETON JCT » Never invite the Ewing High School softball players to a party. If you do, they will eat all the food, drink all the refreshment and take off with the presents.
Coming off a big week in which it beat Steinert, West Windsor South had the balloons out Monday afternoon to celebrate its Senior Day.
Let’s just say those balloons got popped big time as Ewing crushed West Windsor South by the score of 12-2 to completely ruin the Pirate party with a 17-hit attack.
“Absolutely,’’ replied Ewing coach Dan “The Man’’ Bernoski when it was pointed out this had to be one of his team’s better games of the season. “You know how hitting is. It’s contagious.’’
West Windsor South’s Britt Taylor had shut out Steinert the previous week, but it was a much different story against Ewing (11-7), which took a while to get going with single runs in the second, third and fourth innings before pouring it on at the end.
Jentle Sheridan, who previously was more well known as a member of Ewing’s state finalist basketball team, got the first run home with a smoked triple to right field.
The second scored on a squeeze by Lauren Christensen and then Devon Kueny singled home the fourth-inning run after Sheridan had singled and stole second base.
While all of this was going on, West Windsor South did have a couple of chances to break through against Christensen, but after working her way out of a couple of minor jams she went on to finish with an eight-hitter and didn’t surrender a run until the game was already well decided.
“And I thought our defense was pretty good too,’’ said Bernoski, whose team is seeded eighth in the Mercer County Tournament and will open at home against a Lawrence team it split with this year.
“Jentle Sheridan made two nice running catches for us in right field. Basketball is her No. 1 spot, but who knows, maybe it will become softball. She’s an athlete. And she’s only a sophomore.’’
Sheridan ended up with two RBIs and three hits. Her last hit was actually another shot over the right fielder’s head, but she was forced to settle for a single because of a jam up on the bases.
Julianna Nisen, Deanna Hedrick and Amena Ahmed had three hits as well with Nisen upping her area-leading double total to 11. Hedrick and Christensen both finished with two RBIs.
The Ewing assault didn’t end there, however. Anne Debosky crushed a two-run homer over the center field fence in the fifth inning and Caleigh Otto came off the bench to smack a two-run double in Ewing’s five-run seventh inning.
The sparse highlights for West Windsor South were a sac fly by Leah Churinskas in the fifth and an RBI single by Sam Hastings in the sixth.
West Windsor South ended up as the No. 4 seed and will host Hopewell Valley in a preliminary-round game.
Unlike the last few years when Ewing was one of the top teams in the county, this year it can go into the Mercer County and state tournaments pressure-free with really nothing to lose.
Bernoski has been known to work some magic in the past, so there just might be some more of that in store before the season is finished.
Ewing (11-7) 011 131 5 — 12 17 1 South (12-6) 000 011 0 — 2 8 2 WW-P WP-Christensen. LP-Taylor. 2B-Otto (E), Nisen (E). 3B-Sheridan (E). HR-Deboskey (E). RBIs: E-Kueny, Hedrick 2, Christensen 2, Ahmed, Deboskey 2, Sheridan 2. WWSHastings, Churinskas.