It was an unseasonably warm day for April, but that didn’t seem to faze the Cinnaminson softball team, which took down Maple Shade by a 4-1 score en route to its fourth win of the year (4-7).
The Pirates have now won three in a row over the Wildcats dating back to the 2014 season.
“Strong pitching on the mound. Strong defense. We moved baserunners when we needed to,” head coach Tracy Bart said. “We came through with big hits. It was nice to see everything come together today.”
Rebecca Martino got the start in the circle for the Pirates and she was dominant from the gitgo. Martino picked up two strikeouts in the first, working around a two out single.
“She (Martino) trusted what I called behind the plate,” catcher Olivia Pestridge said. “We’ve all started to click and it has led to two wins in a row.”
Martino threw five innings for the win, allowing just one earned run on four hits, while striking out eight Wildcats.
“I was really focused on hitting my spots and trusting the calls Liv (Olivia Pestridge) was giving me,” Martino said. “I trusted the fielders behind me that they would make the plays.”
“It’s huge. We just gotta always work together as a team and make sure every part of our game is there. It’ll come.”
Cinnaminson opened the scoring with one run in the first. Gia Trzaska led off the game and reached on an error. She scored from first on an RBI double into the left field corner by Brenna MacNair.
The Pirates made it 2-0 in the bottom of the second when Maddison Figiel led off with a single. She moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from SaraBeth Coyle and driven in by Trzaska’s single to left with two outs.
Cinnaminson made it a 3-0 game in the bottom of the third when Brooke Figiel led off the inning with a double to the wall in left center and then scored on a sacrifice fly from Pestridge, her second RBI of the game.
After Maple Shade made it a 3-1 game in the top of the fifth the Pirates added an insurance run in the bottom half of the inning thanks to an RBI single from Pestridge.
“That insurance run was huge,” Pestridge said. “When they scored in the top of the inning it looked like some of the girls were getting nervous. We scored that run and it seemed like everyone calmed down.”
Chelsea Price relieved Martino in the top of the sixth and pitched two perfect innings for the save, striking out one.
“Throwing a game like today just makes me feel really confident in myself,” Martino said. “It makes it a lot easier next game to go out and pitch the game the way I know I can.”
“You can see their confidence as they pitch and the innings go on. It makes a huge difference in the games,” Bart said of the relationship between Martino, Price and Pestridge.
The Pirates defense played its best game of the season on Monday, fielding balls cleanly in the infield and cutting off balls in the gap in the outfield, preventing runners from taking extra bases on long singles.
Only one Maple Shade hit went for extra bases; an RBI triple with two outs in the top of the fifth.
“We’re taking it one day at a time, one game at a time, and building off the previous day,” Bart said. “We built off of Friday’s win and now we need to build off today’s win, just kind of keep it going.”
The Pirates visit Florence on Tuesday for the first round of the BCSL Tournament at 3:45pm.
“We saw them last year (3-0 loss),” Bart said. “They have a strong pitcher, Lacey Olaff, who has a very nice changeup. She gets ahead of you with it.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
| Maple Shade | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Cinnaminson | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | x | 4 | 7 | 0 |
Rebecca Martino (W) 5IP 1ER 4H 8K
Chelsea Price (SV) 2IP 0R 0H 1K
Olivia Pestridge – 1-for-2 2RBI
Brenna MacNair – 1-for-3 2B 1RBI
Gia Trzaska – 2-for-3 1RBI
Maddison Figiel 2-for-3
Brooke Figiel 1-for-3 2B
Follow Cinn City Sports on Twitter for news, scores and live updates from games throughout each season. Like Cinn City Sports on Facebook. Sign-up for our daily newsletter, which arrives daily at 8am with the previous day’s stories, on the homepage.
