Perrotte pitches Monroe softball past Bishop Ahr

MONROE – With its offensive bats feasting on opposing pitchers so frequently early in the season and five of its first six games ending in five innings or less via the mercy rule, not much had been placed on the shoulders of junior pitcher Glorrianna Perrotte in the early going of the 2015 campaign for the defending Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament champions.

But with a cold and windy day on Thursday making for not-ideal hitting conditions and a good Bishop Ahr team in the other dugout with arguably the best pitcher the Falcons have seen this season to-date in senior Christine LaRochelle, Monroe needed Perrotte to come through.

And that she did, as she worked out of jams when she got into them and pitched a four-hit shutout with eight strikeouts and two walks as Monroe took advantage of three Bishop Ahr errors to plate a pair of runs in the second inning and one in the third for a 3-0 victory.

"I give all the credit to Glorianna today," Monroe coach Keith Hudak said. "She's in a tough situation, especially coming in — she didn't start for us last year. I can't even tell you if she pitched 10 innings last year for us. And then we have such a bad spring, we can't get any scrimmages. The first time she went past three innings was the South Plainfield game (on April 15). So for her to pitch today against a good team, complete game like that, I'm really proud and happy for her."

Monroe (6-1), which was averaging over 19 runs per game coming in, cashed in with two outs in the second inning as Ashlyn Petersen singled, Hannah Fisher reached on an error, and then Grace Martini lined an RBI single to right to plate Petersen with an error on the play allowing Fisher to score as well.

In the third it was the same thing — Casey Schieda doubled with one out, advanced to third on a groundout to the right side, and then scored with two outs on a fly ball in the infield that was dropped.

"Not a good day fot hitting the ball. Not a good day for softball, period, let's be honest about it," Hudak said. "But both teams are playing in it. You got to do what you have to do. That second inning we strung three hard hit balls together, got two hits and two errors."

Perrotte did the rest as Bishop Ahr (7-3) never got a runner past third base against her.

When a flare single and an error to start the top of the seventh inning for the Trojans brought the game-tying run to the plate, Perrotte got a strikeout looking, a pop out to short, and a fielder's choice hit to short to end the game.

"Bishop Ahr has obviously a great offensive and defensive team, but pitching I know I can trust my infield and outfield so it makes my part a lot easier and just knowing I have that confidence behind me gives me a lot more confidence in my pitching," Perrotte said.

It was the first complete game seven-inning outing for Perrotte all season, as Monroe's only other game to go seven innings was a wild see-saw affair they lost 13-12 to South Plainfield last week for its only loss so far.

"We haven't seen her enough," Hudak said. "We're not quite sure if we can throw a change. I'm not quite sure if her best pitch right now is a drop-curve? Is it the screwball? Working on her rise pitch a little bit. But we need to see her. We need some rhythm, we need some continuity to the season."

LaRochelle was a hard-luck loser as all three runs she surrendered were unearned and she allowed six hits, struck out five, and walked none.

Staff writer Mike Becker: mbecker@GannettNJ.com