The North Hunterdon softball team’s season came to an end last spring when Warren Hills upset the Lions at their home field in the NJSIAA North 2 Group 3 quarterfinals.
Facing the Blue Streaks in the sectional quarterfinals in this year’s N2G3 tournament, North Hunterdon refused to let history repeat itself.
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5/28 - 2:00 PM Softball Final Warren Hills 1 North Hunterdon 11
Complete Box Score »
The second-seeded Lions jumped out to a 7-0 lead through two innings, scored in every inning and rolled to an 11-1 win in five innings over seventh-seeded Warren Hills Tuesday afternoon at North Hunterdon.
North Hunterdon (18-9) will host the winner of the quarterfinal between third-seeded West Morris Central and sixth-seeded Colonia in the semifinal Thursday, May 30 at a time to be determined.
The Blue Streaks finished the season 13-7.
“Last year, they kinda took it to us so, this year, we all felt personally towards this game,” North Hunterdon junior Samantha Dougherty said. “Getting on them early and staying on them really helped us out this year.”
Warren Hills won that game 8-5 over the then-top-seeded Lions.
“100%,” North Hunterdon coach Anthony Rotondo said when asked if last year’s loss motivated his team. “They’re a good team, Warren Hills is a good team. They came in, they beat us pretty solidly last year and they deserved to win. We weren’t gonna take them lightly today, we knew we were going to have to play well. We stressed getting a lead and playing from ahead and we were able to do that. We just kept adding on, I think we scored in every inning, which is really nice to see.”
One player who didn’t take part in that game is sophom*ore pitcher Layla Francisco, who transferred to North Hunterdon from Gill St. Bernard’s after her freshman year.
“I’ve been extremely welcomed and I’ve grown up with a lot of these girls and gotten to play with them,” Francisco said. “Of course, transferring, I feel like I always need to prove myself. I feel like I’ve done a really good job of that. I’ve constantly tried to improve and tried to make myself known. I feel like the bond has been really good so far with all these girls.”
Francisco struck out six batters with no walks and gave up just one run in five innings pitched.
“My biggest approach was trying to work the corners and do what I know I can do,” Francisco said.
“Layla’s aggressive, she’s intense, she competes,” Rotondo said. “I thought she had really good command today, she was ahead of hitters. Really can’t ask for much more, thought she was great.”
Francisco had immediate run support as the Lions, going up against Warren Hills junior pitcher Laney Adie, a Quinnipiac commit, were aggressive at the plate right away.
After Francisco got a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the first with two strikeouts, Dougherty led the Lions off with a bloop single to left field. A sacrifice bunt by freshman Alex Hsu moved Dougherty to second before junior Katie Reed got on base by earning a full-count walk.
Both Dougherty and Reed advanced on a wild pitch before senior Sienna Sorrentino plated the pair of juniors with a shot to center field. After Camryn Campbell, another junior, earned a walk off another long at-bat, freshman designated hitter Morgan Penna drove Sorrentino home with a hit down the first baseline. Campbell advanced to third on that hit and scored off a bloop single by freshman Sage Canavan.
“It’s kinda like one person after the other, passing the bat mentality. We all just have to be there for each other,” Dougherty said. “It’s not so much that we all need home runs, just little hits, trying to get each other in. Working for each other instead of yourself.”
North Hunterdon went through its entire batting order while building a 4-0 lead in the first and, while leading off for the Lions in the bottom of the second, Dougherty hit the game’s only home run with a solo shot to left field.
Despite getting two outs immediately after Dougherty’s team-high seventh home run of the season, the Lions stayed resilient in the second as Sorrentino hit a single to shallow center and advanced to second on an error that also allowed senior Kylie Petak to reach first.
Both Sorrentino and Petak advanced on another low, wild pitch and scored on Campbell’s hard drive to center field that stretched North Hunterdon’s lead to 7-0.
“It’s very huge,” Francisco said of getting run support early. “It takes off some of the pressure as a pitcher… It’s great to have my team behind me."
The Blue Streaks pulled one run back thanks to an odd sequence when senior Quin Johnson, who tripled to lead off the inning, scored when she sprinted home moments after fellow-senior Rylee Rhinehart struck out.
The Lions added one run each in the third, when Canavan scored thanks to a sacrifice fly by freshman Nadia Harris, and in the fourth, when Petak scored when another low pitch got behind Warren Hills sophom*ore catcher Jalecia Stoddart.
Junior Skye Cooke and Dougherty both hit singles to start the bottom of the fifth and, after another blooped single by Hsu, Cooke scored as the Blue Streaks struggled to control the ball in the outfield. Sorrentino’s third hit of the day plated Dougherty and ended the game via the 10-run mercy rule.
“We talk about approach constantly and we talk about having quality at bats that don’t always necessarily end up with a hit,” Rotondo said. “It’s really starting to register with our kids. If you look at the last couple of weeks, our at-bats have gotten better and better.”
North Hunterdon, which has won its last six games and scored 50 runs during that stretch, will look to advance to the sectional final for the first time since 2019, when it won the North 2 Group 4 championship. That came one spring after the Lions won the Group 4 title.
“We’ve had some players from the 2018, 2019 teams come back and talk to us and just share their experiences,” Dougherty said. “Last year, we had an early exit and I think it’s all just very personal for us. This year, we really want to see how far we can take it.”
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Desmond Boyle may be reached at dboyle@lehighvalleylive.com.
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