CHERRY HILL
Good pitching and timely hits are a great combination in softball. Camden Catholic had both
in its win Wednesday afternoon.
Winning pitcher Laura Messina had 15 strikeouts, no walks and scattered seven hits and her team came up with six hits and four runs in the second inning to earn the 8-3 Olympic Conference interdivision victory over Cherry Hill East.
Messina, a junior, also had a double and single and reached on an error for the Irish (3-0),
ranked No.‚5 in the Courier-Post Preseason Top 20.
``It was a great win,'' said Messina, who struck out the side in the third. ``We were kind of
nervous going into this game because we heard they were really good. We hoped that we could hit and our bats came to the game.
``Everything was working and I knew I had my team to back me up.''
Said Camden Catholic coach Mavreen Hering: ``It was a good win. The bats came alive. I said at the beginning of the season if we can support Laura with hitting we'll be all right, and we've been doing that.''
Cherry Hill East (2-2) struck first in the top of the first as Monica Bonitatis singled, stole
second and third and headed home on a throwing error.
But the Irish picked it up in the second. Jasmine Henderson walked, Jen Varallo reached via
error and Ali Summers walked to load the bases. Danielle Frasca's groundout sent the first runner home, Susan Wysocki drove in a run on a fielder's choice and catcher Brooke Fisher slammed a two-run double to make it 4-1.
Camden Catholic added another run in the third on an RBI single by Henderson and pushed across three more in the fifth … one when courtesy runner Mary Duffin (running for Messina, who reached first on an error) stole home … and the other two on a single by Maggie Madden.
``There's still a lot of stuff we need to work on,'' Wysocki said. ``But I think we've come
together as a team a lot.''
Cherry Hill East pulled within 8-3 in the sixth on a steal of home by Bonitatis and an RBI
single by Kristen DiGuglielmo and loaded the bases in the top of the seventh with three singles. But Messina struck out Nicole Escobar for the final out.
Losing pitcher Arielle Kitey scattered six hits and had four walks and two strikeouts. She also
doubled.
``We had a couple of ugly innings and it was the difference in the game,'' Cherry Hill East
coach Charlie Musumeci said. ``The four-run inning they had, there were some unearned runs in there. We made some mistakes. We're a young team. We're going to surprise people.
``(Messina's) a great pitcher, but we did hit her. I told the kids out in left field, I said,
`Look, you hit one of the best pitchers in South Jersey.'‚''
