Steinert uses early push to advance past Brick Twp.
HAMILTON » Talk about a week where breathing doesn’t come easy.
The Steinert High softball team is having just such a stretch, as every game it plays is of tantamount importance. Or, in this case, tournament importance.
The latest came on Wednesday when the 4th-seeded Spartans took a 5-1 win over 12thseeded Brick Township in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III quarterfinals.
So far this week, Steinert won its state opener Monday and prepared for Tuesday’s Mercer County Tournament final against Robbinsville, only to have the game rained out. The Spartans re-focused on Wednesday to top Brick, and must now get fired up on Thursday to meet Robbinsville for the county crown. This will be the third attempt at playing the final.
No matter what happens in that one, it’s back to work on Friday as the Spartans travel to top-seeded Burlington Township for a CJ III semifinal.
“It’s really been like this all season,” said Spartans coach Jean Ruppert, whose team has won eight straight. “Because of how the weather has been, we’ve been playing four and five games a week and they all mean something. You just have to take it game by game.”
None have meant more than this week, as Steinert either plays to stay alive in one tournament or win another. The Spartans one blessing Thursday, is that Robbinsville is going through the same grind.
“You just have to really look at each game, one at a time,” said winning pitcher Kaylee Whittaker, who helped her cause with two hits and an RBI. “You can’t think about ‘We have to win this one and then we have to play again.’ You just can’t look ahead.”
Steinert (19-4) did a good job of that against Brick, scoring four two-out runs in the first and maintaining its lead throughout.
“That helps us a lot, to get the lead early,” said Grace Gaskill, who was key to the uprising. “That makes us more comfortable and we know we have a good pitcher and just have to play good defense.”
Carli Backlund ignited things with a one-out double. After a strikeout, Whittaker hit an RBI double and Nicole Cerasi followed with what can only be described as an infield double to put runners on second and third. Cora Bridgers walked, and Gaskill delivered a two-run single.
“That was big, and it was big for her,” Ruppert said. “She had a hot start but she had been struggling a little lately, so it was nice to see her get that hit.”
The final run came when Bridgers scored on a wild pitch.
Steinert tacked on a run in the second thanks to an amazing at-bat by Bridgers, who fouled off at least seven pitches with two strikes on her before drawing a bases-loaded walk.
Whittaker took it from there. She went from overpowering in the early innings — striking out six during that time — to pitching to contact in the second part of the game. Brick scored an unearned run in the fifth on Corinne Connelly’s RBI single.
Whittaker finished with a five-hitter, allowing three walks and striking out seven.
Brick Twp. (7-14) 000 010 0 — 1 5 2 Steinert (19-4) 410000X—581
WP: Whittaker (15-2). LP: Nahrwold. 2B: S-Backlund, Whittaker, Cerasi. RBI: B-Connelly. S-Whittaker, Gaskill 2, Clevenger.