NBC blanks West Windsor in first round
COLUMBUS >> It’s been a roller coaster type of year for the Northern Burlington High School softball team, but you have to think it has the potential to turn it on at the most important part of the season of all.
This point was on display Tuesday afternoon when Northern Burlington rolled past West Windsor United, 8-0, in a Central Jersey Group IV opener behind a monster game by sophomore Mikayla Fontana.
The fourth seed in the bracket, NBC will be back in action Friday in a home game against the winner of Tuesday’s game between fifth-season Freehold Township and Hamilton/ Nottingham.
Following a promising start that included the championship of the Rancocas Valley Elite Tournament, Northern Burlington’s season had kind of hit the wall.
Although NBC nearly beat state-ranked Robbinsville and Hunterdon Central, it came into this game having lost four in a row and eight of its last 11 games.
“It was a combination of a lot of little things,” said NBC coach Brian Wolverton of his team’s struggles down the stretch. “We’re young and one thing kind of led to another. We do feel if we play well we can be competitive with anyone in our bracket.”
NBC certainly played well against West Windsor United, especially Fontana with both her arm and her bat.
Pitching-wise, Fontana cranked up a three-hit shutout and struck out eight. Two of those West Windsor hits belonged to the team’s excellent freshman lead-off batter Deanna Hu, who came into the game leading the Colonial Valley Conference with 38 hits and a .535 average.
Fontana was equally as impressive with the bat. In the first and third innings she smacked hard RBI singles to center field. After belting a double in the fifth, Fontana singled in the sixth to finish a perfect 4-for-4 day.
It was in that sixth when NBC blew game the wide open with five runs and seven of its 16 total hits for the game.
After a single by Amelia Rebadavia, Kelci O’Dell smacked an RBI single and Abbey Valente singled home a run. From there, Abby Todd socked an RBI double, Fontana singled and Madelyn Szafran doubled home a run as well. In addition to Fontana’s four hits, NBC got two hits apiece from O’Dell, Alyssa Marchetti (RBI triple) in the fourth), Szafran and Riley Pieloch.
NBC finished with six extrabase hits, although it should be pointed out West Windsor starter Audrey Chen actually did a pretty good job. Much of the late NBC scoring was against a relief pitcher.
West Windsor United finished the year at 10-14, but did play some competitive ball at times and has an emerging star in Hu that it can build around.
Northern Burlington is also young with just two seniors starters, but for this team the future is now for what could be a nice state-tourney run.
West Windsor (10-14) 000 000 0 — 0 3 0
No. Burlington (13-10) 101 105 x — 8 16 0 WP-Fontana. LP-Chen. 2B-Szafran (NB), O’Dell (NB), Todd (NB), Fontana. 3B-O’Dell, Marchetti (NB).