Enoch, Township take care of business in quarters
BURLINGTON >> The stage is now set for one of the most anticipated games of the area high school softball season with Steinert set to travel to Burlington Township on Thursday afternoon in a Central Jersey Group III semifinal.
Burlington Township did its part Monday afternoon in rather routine fashion as it coasted past Ewing, 8-0, behind a whopping 16 strikeouts by hard-throwing junior Bailey Enoch.
New Jersey’s defending Group III state champion and Tournament of Champions winner, Steinert (24-4) also cruised in its quarterfinal round game by beating Jackson Liberty, 9-0.
Steinert beat Burlington Township (15-5) in the semifinals, 5-2, last year and it will be interesting to see how this plays out because the Fordham University-bound Enoch is pitching on a high level.
Relying a lot on a riser in the early going against Ewing, Enoch struck out the first six batters. As the game went along she started mixing in a very effective change-up en route to a three-hit shutout.
“Anything she wanted,” said Ewing coach Dan Bernoski when asked what pitches Enoch was throwing that gave his team the most trouble. “We saw them during a scrimmage this year. We knew what we were up against.”
Ewing did end up getting singles from Brianna Jones, Katelyn McConnell and Jentle Sheridan, but it wasn’t nearly enough against a Township team that more or less won the game in the first inning.
After Enoch was hit by a pitch to start the home half of the inning, Anaya Hunte put down a sac against Ewing senior righty Devon Kueny. Enoch scored all the way from first on the play when she kept on going to third on the bunt and Ewing threw the ball away.
After another hit batter and RBI single by Hunte in the third produced another run, Township then really went to work with two runs in the fourth, fifth and six innings.
In the fourth, Caitlyn Henry blasted a long triple to left, Megan Wiesniewski smacked an RBI double and Maya Patel stroked an RBI single.
The fifth inning found Henry crunching another triple to drive in a run and Taylor Fitzpatrck knocking in a run with a single. Hunte had a tworun single in the sixth after Cassie Hesson and Enoch had reached on singles.
While it was totally expected win, Township did do a good job of taking care of business as it got ready for a rematch on its home field against Steinert.
“I agree,” said Township coach Nicolette Cannizzaro when it was pointed out with Northern Burlington and Middletown North also in the fold along with Steinert that her team is part of arguably the toughest public school bracket in the state. “Bailey was really on today and we just need to keep going from here.”
Ewing (15-11) Burl. Twp. (15-5) 0000000—033 101 222 x — 8 10 0
WP-Enoch. LP-Kueny 2B-Wiesniewski (BT). 3B-Henry (BT) 2. RBIs: Hunte 3, Henry, T. Fitzpatrick, Wiesnewski, Patel.