Clevenger pitches gem for Nottingham
HAMILTON TWP. » If Monday afternoon’s effort was any indication, Nottingham High’s Heather Clevenger is not yet ready to think about next year when she will pitch for the rising Mercer County Community College program.
Cranking up easily one of her best games of the year, Clevenger was utterly dominant as Nottingham cruised past Jackson Liberty, 3-0, in the opening round of the Central Jersey Group III Tournament.
The Northstars (11-9) will return to tournament action on Wednesday when they will travel to topseeded Burlington Township, which advanced with a 10-2 victory over Hamilton.
Although Nottingham probably should have done a little bit more with the 10 hits it collected off Jackson Liberty’s AJ Diotato, it didn’t matter because Clevenger was in command.
The senior righty allowed just three hits and retired the Shore team in order in four of the innings.
Liberty’s only only threat came in the fourth when a bunt single and a blown run-down play put runners on first and third with one out, but Clevenger came back with one of her 10 strikeouts and got a nice fielding play by second baseman Stella Spatola.
“We’v had some time off; I felt good,’’ said Clevenger. “Everyone was ready to play today.’’
And just what was she doing to be able to strike out 10 Jackson Liberty players.
“There were a few of my pitches that were working,’’ Clevenger coyly answered.
Nottingham opened the score in the second when Jordyn Varone singled, stole second base and came home on a throwing error in which the ball rolled out of play past third.
In the fourth inning, a Clevenger single and a Varone sac led to an RBI single to right by Brianna Dunmeyer.
The last run came in the sixth when Spatola singled, moved to second on a sacrifice by Sophie DeFrank and scored on a single to right by Jayden Glazewski. Gabby Estrada, Clevenger and Spatola all had two hits as th Northstars outhit Liberty, 10-3. “Heather looked sharp with just 95 pitches and 10 strikeouts,’’ said Nottingham coach Danielle Wilson. “We also made the plays (no errors). That (fielding) has been a problem at times, but not today. “It was a total team effort.’’ Nottingham will need a lot more of that on Wednesday against Burlington Township, which is 18-1 and ranked third in the area by The Trentonian.
Jackson Liberty (8-12) 000 000 0 — 0 3 1 Nottingham (11-9) 010 101 x — 3 10 0 WP-Clevenger. L-Diotato. RBIs: Dunmeyer, Glazewski.