Miscues Cost Bridgewater-Raritan in Softball Final

The softball team definitely pushed defending champion Hillsborough to the brink in Saturday night’s Somerset County Tournament final, but the Panthers couldn’t muster that final shove to unseat the top-seeded Raiders.

Bridgewater-Raritan surrendered four unearned runs and squandered two separate leads, including one in extra innings, losing in the championship game, 6-5 in nine innings at the Nap Torpey Athletic Complex.  

Senior right-hander Alicia Gonnella turned in a solid performance in the circle, going the distance and allowing just two earned runs on 10 hits, walking one and striking out two. But five Bridgewater-Raritan errors, including a costly four-base miscue in the bottom of the seventh, doomed the Panthers.

Still, Bridgewater-Raritan turned in a fine outing, despite being a heavy underdog. The Panthers pounded out 12 hits against Hillsborough ace Brittany Ksiezopolski, and looked nothing like the team that had dropped two regular-season meetings to the Raiders by a combined score of 16-1.

“We came out and we knew that we had nothing to lose and all the pressure was on them, and it showed,” Gonnella said. “We came out, we fielded loosely and we were able to put the ball in play. And we kept our heads in it the entire game.”

The Panthers' offense was the highlight Saturday night, as Bridgewater-Raritan finally got to Ksiezopolski, who entered the game undefeated against the Panthers in her career.

After collecting hits in each of the first two innings, Bridgewater-Raritan broke through in the top of the fifth, after allowing two unearned runs, thanks to a pair of errors in the second.

First baseman Alyssa Myrnyj got things going in the fifth with a leadoff single, before Nikki Thomas reached on one of her three bunt singles to place runners on first and second.

After a strikeout and a fly out, senior Katie Fanning delivered an RBI single, bringing up shortstop Jordan Stephenson with runners on second and third.

Hillsborough chose to pitch to Stephenson with first base open, and the sophomore came through, lining a single to center field to give the Panthers a 3-2 lead.

After Megan Collins singled, catcher Brianna Arends added an insurance run, singling to center field to plate Stephenson.

“I was just waiting for us to hit her,” said Bridgewater-Raritan coach Sandy Baranowski, who put her team through hitting drills Saturday morning, focused on moving up in the box and getting to Ksiezopolski’s trademark drop pitch. “Because I knew it was in us.”

Hillsborough closed the gap to 4-3 with an unearned run in the bottom of the frame, but Bridgewater-Raritan took a one-run lead into the bottom of the seventh inning, looking to grab its first title since 2008.

But it was not to be, as speedy Lauren Panek came up with one out and tapped one out in front of the plate. But a throwing error that resulted in the ball landing more than 200 feet from home plate near the right-field fence sent Panek off to the races around the bases and home with the tying run.

The veteran Gonnella shook it off, working around a one-out single to send the game to extra innings, and got her team through the eighth inning, despite a leadoff walk.

Bridgewater-Raritan retook the lead in the top of the ninth inning, as Thomas led off with an infield single, but was erased trying to steal, before Nicole McClelland reached on a slow roller to shortstop.

After a strikeout, Fanning delivered again, singling to right field to give the Panthers a 6-5 lead.

“What else could you ask for?” Baranowski said of the performances given by Fanning and Gonnella, two of only three seniors in her starting lineup. “”She and Katie Fanning are our two leaders out there and they were tremendous.”

But Hillsborough rallied again, this time getting a leadoff triple by Kristi Ann Ivone and RBI singles by Alexis Pezza and Alison Shimko to claim the crown.

The game’s 11 runs were the most in the county final since 1993, as the teams combined for 22 hits. Still, the contest was another in a long line of classics in the SCT championship game, and this one gave the Raiders their fifth title since 2003.

“Bridgewater played a heck of a game, give them a lot of credit,” Hillsborough coach Cheryl Iaione said. “They gave us everything we could handle.”