NBC hands R’ville first loss in clash of titans
COLUMBUS » It was one game that lived up to its advance billing and more.
In a heavyweight showdown for the No. 1 spot in The Trentonian’s Area Ratings, the Northern Burlington softball team topped Robbinsville, 4-3, in nine innings Friday night in front of a large crowd.
As expected, there was very little to choose between the two top-rated teams in the area with Robbinsville coming within one pitch of winning the game with two outs in the bottom of the seventh before NBC tied it on a bloop single by Madison Sisz just over the glove of Raven shortstop Chelsea Manto.
With the game seemingly headed for the international tiebreaker, Northern Burlington then won it in the bottom of the ninth when a shot by Alexis Blue ticked off the glove of an outfielder. On the play, speedster Nicole Bondoc was able to race all the way home from first after she had kept the inning alive with a two-out single.
It was the first loss of the year for defending state champion Robbinsville (17-1). Northern Burlington is now 19-2 and has taken over the top spot in the ratings.
It was a game filled with great defensive plays and big hits.
Northern Burlington struck first when Blue blasted a two-run bomb over the center field fence in the first inning after Cameron Cassidy had led off the inning with a single to center.
Blue’s home run did not seem to bother Robbinsville pitcher Kate Hunter, who came back to allow no runs on just five more hits until there were two outs in the seventh.
Robbinsville, meanwhile, kept chipping away against Northern’s hard-throwing sophomore Haylei Archer and took a 3-2 lead with single runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings. Archer finished with 10 strikeouts, including fanning Manto three times.
When she was not striking out, Manto caused havoc on the bases. In the third inning she walked, stole second and scored from second on an infield error. Manto then put her team ahead in the fifth with an infield single, stole second and trotted home on a smoked double to left field by Devon Witt.
Robbinsville’s second run came on a live drive home run that grazed off the top of the right field fence by Hunter in the third inning.
Northern Burlington out hit Robbinsville, 10-5, with Bondoc collecting three of those hits. Defensively, Robbinsivlle got a couple of nice running catches from Manto to thwart scoring opportunities and Sisz made a leaping catch as well to deny Robbinsville a second run in the fifth.
Robbinsville (17-1) No. Burl. (19-2) 001 110 000 - 3 5 1 200 000 101 - 4 10 1
WP-Archer. LP-Hunter. 2B-Witt (R), Blue (NB). HR-Hunter (R), Blue (NB). RBIs: Witt, Hunter (R). Blue 2, Sisz (NB).