By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
HAMMONTON — Meghan Johansen admitted she had a little bit of the butterflies going on during the last three innings against host Hammonton on Wednesday afternoon. The 5-foot-11 sophomore right-handed pitcher was in one of the toughest spots of her young career, trying to hold off a hard-charging Blue Devils team and put a signature win under her belt.
Last year, as a freshman, she was only involved in a single one-run game, and she was facing the team that roughed Absegami up in the state playoffs a year ago, winning 14-1 in the opening round of states to end the Braves’ 15-win season.
Johansen worked out of huge jams in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, and helped her own cause with a solo home run to lead Absegami to a nail-biting 4-3 win over Hammonton in our Bunting Family Pharmacy Marquee Matchup. The win helped Absegami keep pace with Atlantic Tech atop the Cape-Atlantic League National Conference standings in the season’s first week, while Hammonton suffered its first loss and fell a game behind both the RedHawks and Braves.
Hammonton (3-1, 1-1 CAL National) faced a 4-0 deficit entering the fifth, but loaded the bases on an error, a single and a fielder’s choice. Alexis Vellucci launched a sacrifice fly and then two more runs scored on a bloop single down the right-field line by Gracie Ravenkamp, cutting Absegami’s lead to 4-3. But Johansen got some big-time help from her defense, as Ravenkamp was cut down at second trying to take an extra base on the throw home, and that ended the inning. Johansen worked out of another two-on, nobody-out jam in the sixth, and the in the seventh she got a tremendous diving catch by second baseman Emma Grimley on a wicked smash off the bat of leadoff batter Kamryn Barker.
“I was definitely relieved. With the bases loaded it’s hard, you have to know where to go after every pitch and if the ball comes to you, you have to know what to do. We just had to keep the intensity up at all times. We couldn’t let them get up again, we had to play clean defense,” said Johansen, who had a 2.25 ERA and 99 strikeouts in 87 innings a year ago. “I was definitely hyped up, and nervous. I owe it all to my defense. If we didn’t have clean defense today we clearly would have lost, so I give it all to the defense.”
“It really is so fun getting to watch her work,” said senior catcher Alyssa Bailey. “I’m an upperclassman, and she came in and did so well her freshman year and has only gotten better. She was throwing a bunch of change-ups (early on) and that was throwing them off because it’s a dramatic drop (from her fastball).”
Johansen had some extra zip on her fastball in the bottom of the seventh as she tried to close out the win. She got two quick outs with a strikeout and that line out to second, then worked around a pair of singles and closed the game with another strikeout.
“It was really exciting. Everyone was super nervous, but we were just focused on keeping our cool and doing what we know how to do,” Bailey said. “(Assistant) coach Kevin (Jorgensen) calls a lot of change-ups back-to-back, but we were kind of staying away from that early in the count to the first batter (of the seventh) because we had called a first-pitch change in her at-bats before that, and we were trying to keep her off stride.”
Not only did the battery of Johansen and Bailey get it done on defense, they combined to go 4-for-7 at the plate with two runs, two RBIs and a walk. Bailey led off the top of the third with a solo home run to left-center, and Johansen followed with a solo blast to straightaway center field, giving the Braves (2-0, 2-0 CAL National) a 3-0 lead. They tacked on another run in the fourth on an RBI single by Sara Czeslaw, stretching the lead to 4-0.
“I thought we played well. We gave up two home runs early, but our kids didn’t get upset and didn’t quit. We scratched across three in the fifth. We had runners on and hit some seeds at people, but they made some plays. We tell the girls that other teams practice, too,” said Hammonton coach Eric Shulman, whose team had outscored its first three opponents 37-14. “One of the things we talked about was when you win a game like this you act like you’ve done it before, and when you lose, you reflect. There’s nothing we can look back on and say effort-wise or execution-wise we can be upset about. They made plays. When you have opportunities you have to get runs across. But again, we were hitting the ball hard, and we tell the kids you can’t steer the ball (to where you want it to go).”
Czeslaw went 2-for-3 with an RBI and Yaceana Scriven had the other RBI for the Braves, who have won 14 of their last 19 games dating back to last year.
“We definitely got better from last year,” Johansen said. “Last year, we played them in the playoffs and lost pretty badly, so this shows we’ve done a lot to get better.”
Added Bailey, “we’re definitely excited. This win builds a lot of confidence. We’re looking to go as far as we can this year. It’s a young team, but this is the year for us.”
Shulman said it’s early in the season and with a young roster, he’s looking for steady improvement to see what kind of team he’ll have in May and potentially June.
“This is only the fourth game for us. We’re not jumping up and down when we win and we’re not crying when we lose,” he said. “We’re still very young. We start two freshmen and a boatload of sophomores. We think we’re getting better every day. This is a very good group and they are doing everything they are asked to do. We just have to learn. (Ravenkamp) does a good job in the circle, and we’re only going to get better.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Hammonton hosts Atlantic Tech on Friday at 4 p.m. Absegami travels to Buena on Friday at 4 p.m.
