By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
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MAYS LANDING — Last spring, the Oakcrest High softball team won 16 games, but in its two postseason matchups the Falcons were outscored 13-1. They lost 8-0 to Ocean City in the Cape-Atlantic League quarterfinals, then were upset as the No. 6 seed by No. 11 Collingswood, losing 5-1 in the opening round of the South Jersey Group 2 state playoffs.
If you’re looking for a dark horse to hitch your fortunes to in sectionals this spring, Oakcrest might not be a bad choice. The Falcons have hitters up and down their lineup, a budding star inside the circle in junior right-hander Chrystal Williams, and an athletic defense — all of which was on display Wednesday in a 10-0 win over CAL National Conference rival Atlantic Tech.
Oakcrest has now won three straight games after a somewhat light schedule due to some weather, but the Falcons are beginning a stretch of eight games in two weeks, and by the end of it they might just be a contender when the sectional brackets are finalized.
“We have four games this week and four next week. ACIT, they are a tough matchup to begin with and they were stronger today after getting some of their pieces back,” said longtime Oakcrest coach Jason Hearn. “The first time we played them they didn’t have their No. 1 pitcher (Sarah LoVullo) and she was ready. She was throwing hard, she was throwing spins, and it was tough because the last two games we saw pitchers who didn’t have as much location, spin and speed. It took us a couple of at-bats to make some adjustments, but the girls were able to dig in and take advantage.”
LoVullo got through the first inning facing just three batters, but Oakcrest got its offense going in the second inning, plating five runs to jump out to a 5-0 lead. Briella Johnson ripped an RBI single to score hot-hitting freshman Riley Sanders (.472 batting average) and a passed ball on a third strike eventually led to runners at second and third with just one out. Solia Pecou then came up with the biggest hit of the game, lacing a two-run single to center to give the Falcons a 3-0 lead. Later in the inning, Trinity Brown added a two-run single to right, pushing the lead to 5-0.
“In the beginning, our first inning was slow at the plate, but we just had to adjust to their pitcher. We hadn’t seen her before, but we adjusted well and were able to get the lead,” said Brown, a senior shortstop who is now just eight hits shy of 100 for her career.
“It takes a lot for me to be comfortable. Being around the game for so long, one inning can change everything,” Hearn added. “We put five on them, but we’ve had innings where we struggled and gave up four or five runs, so I wanted us to keep our intensity up and keep our foot on the gas pedal.”
The Falcons did just that, getting an RBI single from Emilee Richards in the fourth to go up 6-0, and adding two more on a double to deep left field by Arianna Massey. Oakcrest (8-4, 5-2 Cape-Atlantic League National) closed the game out in the bottom of the sixth when two runs scored on an infield error by the RedHawks (5-10, 1-9 CAL National).
Williams ran into trouble only in the top of the third as singles from Lydia Long and Sofia Vitiello put runners at the corners with two outs. But Williams got one of her five strikeouts to close out the frame, and she allowed just two singles the rest of the way. Long and Vitiello combined for four of ACIT’s five hits.
“We usually rely on Chrystal to get a lot of strikeouts because if anybody makes contact on any of her pitches, she throws so hard that it’s going to go,” Hearn said. “But (today) she got a lot of groundouts. She did a great job today with not striking everybody out. She does a tremendous job for us.”
“Chrystal shows up for us in every aspect possible — at the plate, inside the circle. She was a great freshman when she came in and she keeps getting better,” Brown added.
“It was a slow start for me, so I had to really focus and get comfortable. I just wanted to throw strikes and let my team back me up by making the plays they needed to,” Williams explained. “It always takes me an inning or two to kind of lock in. (Good defense) makes things a lot easier on me. It makes it easier when I can just throw strikes and be able to depend on my defense.”
Williams got plenty of defensive help as Sanders made a running catch in the left-center field gap early on, and the middle infield of Brown and Richards gobbled up ground balls throughout the game, including all three outs in the top of the sixth.
Offensively, the Falcons seem to be hitting their stride. After a three-game losing streak that had them sitting at 5-4, Oakcrest has outscored its last three opponents 33-7 and has rapped out 35 hits while improving to 8-4 overall.
“We have the option to be aggressive. We have girls who can put the ball in play whenever we want to move runners, we have some girls who are strong bunters, and we also have girls who are all willing to be selfless. I can put our No. 3 hitter in a bunt situation and she’s not going to give me a look, she’ll just do it. They all want to win, and that’s what you need. You need the nine starters and everybody on the bench. You need girls to step up and we’ve had that when we’ve lost a couple key players throughout the season,” Hearn said. “We’re very fortunate to have good, aggressive swingers who can put the ball in play. We haven’t had this many (solid contact hitters) the last few years. We’ve had three or four, but this year most of our hitters can put good contact on it. Yesterday, our No. 8 hitter almost hit a home run and today our No. 7 hitter almost did it. That’s a nice luxury to have, and hopefully we can keep it up.”
Oakcrest has a couple tough road games ahead at Middle Township and Mainland Regional, but with eight games remaining, matching last year’s 16 wins is within reach.
“We really just have to minimize our mistakes, but I think once we get into the flow these next few weeks I think we’ll be in good shape,” Williams said.
Added Brown, “this is a great group of girls and it’s showing in our record. It’s been tough with the weather so the end-of-the-season schedule will be heavy, but we like it like that. We’re always excited about the state playoffs and right now we’re looking good for that. Hopefully we can get a couple of playoff games at home.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Oakcrest travels to Middle Township on Friday at 4 p.m. Atlantic Tech travels to Hammonton on Friday at 6 p.m.
