SOFTBALL: BRHS Rolls Past Somerville, 13-3 (5 INN), Hawley Wins First Game on Circle

BRIDGEWATER, NJ – It was a good day for Bridgewater-Raritan High School softball: both weather wise and on the scoreboard, April 26, at the North Bridge Street Softball Complex in Bridgewater.

Not only did the Panthers’ offense have a big day in a come-from-behind win against crosstown rival Somerville High School; it was a milestone day for Bridgewater-Raritan freshman starting pitcher Brynn Hawley.

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Bridgewater-Raritan (4-12) permanently erased an early two-run deficit by sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring six times in the bottom of the first inning against Somerville (7-4). The Panthers ultimately collected 11 unanswered runs, and Hawley (5 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 1 HB) officially clinched her first career win on the circle when junior Madalyn Dolly (3-3, 2 RBI, 2 R, BB, 2 SB) hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the fifth inning to close out a 13-3, five-inning victory over the Pioneers.

“It was all because of the team,” Hawley shared of her team’s big win. “We all cheered. The past two games, we haven’t been cheering throughout the entire game. But today was really good. We were all pumped and ready to win.”

Bridgewater-Raritan tallied its 13 runs on 15 hits and four walks with one error and no walks allowed on defense, while Somerville scored its three runs on seven hits with four errors on defense.

And despite having to navigate out of early trouble, the Panthers indeed had plenty to cheer about Friday afternoon.

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Somerville senior Nicole Fitzgibbon (2-3, R) and junior Riley DeSarno (2-3, 2 RBI, R) opened the game with a single and double, respectively, before senior Mina Batra (1-2, HBP) was hit by a pitch to load the bases for the Pioneers with nobody out in the top of the first inning. Hawley then bounced back by forcing pop-outs to Dolly at second base and junior shortstop Angela Tremarco (1-4, 2 R, SB), but Somerville struck first on a two-run, first-pitch single to left by senior starting pitcher Kari LaCanna (1-2, 2 RBI) to make it 2–0 Pioneers with two outs.

Hawley then found herself in a good battle with Somerville freshman Giuliana Oborne with the bases loaded, and while Oborone fouled off four pitches, what ended up being an eight-pitch at-bat concluded with a pop up to Hawley at the circle for the final out to strand runners on second and third base.

LaCanna, who took the loss on the circle, then started for Somerville with a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. She recorded a groundout to DeSarno at shortstop on the Panthers’ first at-bat, but Bridgewater-Raritan exploded for four hits and two walks in its next seven at-bats capped off by a two-run, first-pitch single by Hawley. Freshman Jess Pastorick (1 R) also beat out what ended up being a throw to first after putting the ball into play in the infield to keep the bases loaded before Dolly walked in a run on a full-count pitch to set up Hawley’s at-bat.

The second out was not recorded until a sacrifice bunt by sophomore McKenna Smith, who scored Dolly to give the Panthers a 6-2 cushion after one inning.

Now playing with a big lead, Hawley opened up the second inning with back-to-back strikeouts on just four pitches during each at-bat, and a groundout to Tremarco closed out a 1-2-3 top of the second inning. While Somerville was able to keep it a 6-2 game at the end of the second inning after stranding three Bridgewater-Raritan baserunners, Hawley needed just five pitches to retire the Pioneers in order in the top of the third inning.

“I thought she had decent speed,” praised Bridgewater-Raritan head coach Sandy Baranowski of Hawley’s performance. “For a freshman, her speed was good. She had a little bit of movement and some spin, and I felt that it was hard for Somerville to lay off of her up-pitch. It was working today, and it was good to get her this confidence.”

And Hawley had an even more breathing room the next time she stepped onto the circle.

With Bridgewater-Raritan still leading 6-2 heading into the bottom of the third inning, Dolly smacked a leadoff single before Somerville recorded back-to-back outs. With these two outs, however, the Panthers tallied five straight hits on an RBI single by senior Mel Artuso (1-3, RBI, R, BB), a first-pitch single by Tremarco, before a two-run double by junior Evelyn Fresco (4-4, 3 RBI, 3 R, SB) resulted in a pitching change for Somerville.

Sophomore reliever Sarah Graber then entered the game to try and limit the damage, but three pitches later, another RBI double by junior catcher Cai Mahovetz (2-2, 2 RBI, 2 R, 2 BB) scored Fresco, and sophomore Bri Cacchio (3-4, 3 RBI, R) whacked a first-pitch single to score Mahovetz to give the Panthers two more runs before a groundout to Graber at the circle ended the third inning.

Suddenly, the Panthers led 11-2 after just three innings on North Bridge Street.

“I think we did very well today adjusting to pitchers,” reflected after the game by Dolly, who walked in a run in the first inning, hit leadoff singles in both the third and fourth innings, and then dropped in the game-ending single in the fifth inning. “We’ve seen a lot of different speeds, and today, we did really well with staying on the ball. I think the energy was really there and we all wanted it. It was just amazing.”

After a one-out, first-pitch single by Oborne, sophomore Ella Schueler gave Somerville a run back on a groundout that scored classmate Thea Pappas (1-3, R), who led off the top of the fourth inning with a single. This cut Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to 11-3, but this ended up being the Pioneers’ final run of the afternoon.

Somerville managed to erase a pair of baserunners in the bottom of the fourth inning, and the Pioneers produced two baserunners of their own courtesy of back-to-back, first-pitch singles by DeSarno and Batra. Bridgewater-Raritan answered by stranding both runners, and the Panthers quickly set themselves up to end the game in the bottom of the fifth inning.

With the Panthers leading 11-3 at this point, Fresco and Mahovetz collected back-to-back singles before Cacchio drove Mahovetz home with an RBI single of her own to extend the Panthers’ lead to 12-3. An infield error by Somerville then loaded the bases for Bridgewater-Raritan, which advanced the winning run at third base as a result. Two pitches later, Dolly’s aforementioned bloop single scored Mahovetz to seal the Panthers’ 13-3 victory in five innings by mercy rule: a complete game for Hawley on top of this.

“This was her first time that she pitched a complete game, and it was really nice,” Baranowski went on to say. “Usually when she’s been pitching, she’ll come in cleanup for [sophomore Jaelyn Madison], so she’ll pitch two or three [innings].”

Madison, who did not make an appearance in the Panthers’ win against Somerville, has been on the circle for 14 of her team’s 16 games so far in 2024, including four seven-inning complete games. Her first win this season: a 3-2 victory against Governor Livingston High School back on April 7, came in one of these complete games for what ended up being the Panthers’ first win of 2024, and she also went the distance in five- and six-inning triumphs by mercy rule against Manville High School (12-2, April 20) and Delaware Valley Regional High School (14-4, April 22), respectively.

Against Somerville, sophomore Madison Lockwood contributed to six of the team’s 15 defensive outs at first base to round out the scoring for the Panthers, who won for the third time in their last five games while averaging a whopping 13 runs per game in these recent victories.

“I’m just happy that they were clicking today,” said Baranowski of her team’s offense, which put an impressive 23 baserunners in play during the game’s five innings. “We needed a game like this to get us going. [On Saturday, April 27], we’re in the second round of the county tournament on the road against [No. 7 seeded Gill St. Bernard’s School]. We’re the [No. 10 seed] this year. I just feel like having a game like this going to help us. Maybe we carry the momentum into that county game. That’s one that we really want to win and get to the quarterfinal round.”

The Panthers have already seen all of their division rivals at least once as part of another loaded Skyland Conference Delaware Division, which is currently led by state-ranked No. 17 Watchung Hills (12-2, 5-1) as of the morning of April 27. While Bridgewater-Raritan is still looking for its first division win six games into its division slate, the Panthers had leads in four of those six games and have also delivered closer results in the rematches they have had so far.

With plenty of softball still left in the 2024 regular season, that certainly bodes well for this young and rapidly-improving Panthers varsity squad, which consists of three freshmen, four sophomores, seven juniors, and outfielder Artuso leading the way from the Bridgewater-Raritan High School senior Class of 2024.

These rematches include their most recent meeting against reigning state finalist Hillsborough High School, which defeated the Panthers, 11-7, back on April 9. In their rematch just 24 hours before Bridgewater-Raritan’s big win against Somerville, the Panthers built a three-run lead and shutout through four innings before the Raiders rallied for six of the game’s final seven runs to steal a 6-4 victory on the Panthers’ field.

Bridgewater-Raritan has also played then No. 14 ranked North Hunterdon Regional High School twice, and while they struck first before falling 7-2 in their season opener, the Panthers were tied through three innings of their April 18 rematch and down just one run late before the Lions scored twice in the bottom of the sixth inning and sealed a 5-2 win.

“[Our schedule] is just challenging us, and we’re getting better.” Dolly went on to say. “We’re seeing this tough competition, we’re able to adjust to different things, and we get better seeing better people.”

The Panthers will travel to Immaculata High School (April 30) and Watchung Hills (May 9) and also will serve as host to Hunterdon Central Regional High School (May 3) in these three division rematches to round out their regular-season division schedule. However, next up for Bridgewater-Raritan is its huge aforementioned matchup at Gill St. Bernard’s in the second round of the 2024 Somerset County Softball Tournament.

“We just have to keep it up, think about today’s win, and carry it over,” concluded Hawley about next steps for her team following the Panthers’ win over Somerville. “We have to think about the positives that happened throughout the game and just stay positive.”

First pitch for the Panthers, who advanced in the county tournament via their aforementioned five-inning victory against Manville, is April 27, at 11 a.m. in Gladstone.

Bridgewater-Raritan will then return to North Bridge Street April 29, at 4:30 p.m. against Hopewell Valley Central High School.

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