Digging deep

Woodstown, Schalick, Pennsville win South Jersey Group I Tournament openers; Woodstown, Schalick to meet in quarterfinals

SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I SOFTBALL
Tuesday’s first-round games
Pennsville 11, Wildwood 0
Schalick 4, Palmyra 3 (8 inns.)
Woodstown 8, Glassboro 4
Haddon Twp. 20, LEAP 0

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODSTOWN – Early in the year when Rob Hildebrand was putting together his Woodstown softball team a lot of people wondered why he had so many players on the roster.

They got their answer Tuesday.

The Wolverines had only 12 available players for their first-round game in the South Jersey Group I playoffs, but it was more than enough to put away Glassboro 8-4 for their fifth win in a row and eighth in their last nine games.

“We were missing some players today because of class trips and stuff, we have prom this week, we had a lot of distractions, but our core group of girls just buckled down, beared down, and got the job done,” Hildebrand said. “It wasn’t pretty but got it done.”

The win sets up a third meeting this season with Schalick – but the first in Woodstown – in Friday’s quarterfinals. The Wolverines (13-7) won the first two, most recently May 6 in the Elmer Classic.

The Wolverines have 20 players on the roster, but the other eight, including four starters and a top player off the bench, were off on the freshman/sophomore class trip to Hershey Park that was scheduled and paid for long before the Wolverines rescheduled their playoff game to beat Wednesday’s expected bad weather. 

Hildebrand told them to enjoy the trip, that there’s more to life than softball, and the team would make do.

“We have depth,” Hildebrand said. “A lot of people were saying in the beginning of the year you’re keeping too many people on the roster. Our girls, from top to bottom, 1 through 20, I’m confident any single one of them can be in there and do it because they do it in practice every single day. There are so many girls that are battling close for certain positions that I know put them in and they’re going produce.

“It’s not like I foresaw that for any specific reason, but that’s part of the reason why you do. Everybody is such a team player you know they might not get the amount of at-bqts they thought they should have during the season but when it’s their turn they’re putting the team first.”

Among those who made the biggest impact with their chance to play were middle infielders Shelby Drummond and Avery Battle. Drummond went 2-for-3 with an RBI double in the Wolverines’ four-run first inning and Battle’s two-run single in the fifth extended their lead to 8-4. All nine batters in the lineup had at least one hit.

Drummond, a sophomore, had 13 at-bats this season coming into the game. Battle, a junior, had five in two years.

Leah Clark pitched a complete game, giving up five hits, one earned run and striking out 11, including the side in order in the seventh. She also had two hits.

PENNSVILLE 11, WILDWOOD 0: The second-seeded Eagles broke it open with an eight-run third inning and Savannah Brewer-Palverento faced just two batters over the minimum in a five-inning one-hitter with 11 strikeouts.

The Eagles sent 12 batters to the plate in the big inning. Two runs scored on Kylie Harris’ hard single. Three scored when the Warriors misplayed Elizabeth Fleming’s bases-loaded fly to right.

Harris, Brewer-Palverento and Avery Watson all had two RBIs in the heart of the order. Watson went 3-for-3. 

SCHALICK 4, PALMYRA 3: The Cougars (14-4) walked it off on Emily Miller’s triple and overthrow leading off the eighth inning. It was Miller’s second hit of the game. She gave the Cougars a 2-1 lead with an RBI single in the third..

Palmyra forced extra innings with a run in the top of the seventh. It was the third time they tied the game. The Cougars took a one-run game from Palmyra in their final regular-season game five days earlier.

Addi Shimp went the distance in the circle, giving up just one earned run and striking out 10, to get the win.