R’ville rallies to down Allentown, reach semifinal

ROBBINSVILLE » When in doubt, never bet against the Robbinsville High softball team in the NJSIAA state tournament.

Trailing 1-0 after three innings Monday afternoon and having already lost twice to Allentown, it would have been easy to count out the Ravens — especially considering it was not the greatest of regular seasons by the program’s elite standards.

But fourth-seeded Robbinsville dug deep on its home field in the Central Jersey Group III quarterfinals, rallying with four runs in the fourth inning and two more in the sixth before closing out a 6-2 win against fifth-seeded Allentown.

The two driving forces were a collection of clutch hitting along with the sharp pitching of senior Shea Krebs.

Krebs hurled all seven innings while striking out seven batters, walking two and scattering seven hits. Both walks came in the first inning, and Allentown tacked on three singles in the seventh when the game was essentially out of reach.

After allowing an RBI single by Allentown’s Emily Lohkamp in the third inning, Krebs stranded runners on second and third with consecutive swinging strikeouts. She retired eight in a row after that as her team finally broke out on offense.

Senior Kailey Pacifico got the scoring started by drawing a walk with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth. The ball skipped away from the catcher, and a throwing error allowed another run to score on the play and give Robbinsville a 2-1 lead.

Sophomore Katie Ziliani followed with a RBI groundout and senior Ava Goodman drove in the fourth run with an RBI line-drive single to right field.

In in the sixth, freshman Ariana Tomlinson walked, stole second base, advanced to third on an infield single by sophomore Haley Krebs and then scored on a wild pitch.

Pacifico, who also had two singles, added another insurance run with a sacrifice fly to left field.

Robbinsville, which won three of the last four Group II state titles before moving up to Group III this year, will play at top-seeded Steinert in Tuesday’s semifinals.