Softball: New-look Bridgewater-Raritan defying expectations

On paper, this should be a rebuilding year for the Bridgewater-Raritan High School softball team.

Mass offseason losses hit the Panthers pretty hard, a haul that included graduated co-aces Megan Zinn and Dee Centi, Alyssa Natale, who joined Zinn as a first-team All-Area selection and on the graduation aisle, and star freshman left fielder Kierstan Williams, who moved back to Texas. So nobody would have been surprised if Bridgewater-Raritan took a big step back, a year after claiming the Skyland Conference Delaware Division title and two years after going to the state Group IV championship game.

But the Panthers of 2017 are here with a reminder that games aren’t won on paper.

Bridgewater-Raritan enters the weekend holding first place in the conference after Thursday’s thrilling 2-1 victory in 10 innings over Hunterdon Central. The Panthers are 12-2 and have, so far, handled any of the other contenders they’ve faced.

So how is a team that’s a shadow of its former self, at least in terms of established names, getting it done in one of the state’s toughest conferences?

“It is their desire to win and their desire to be there for one another and they play to the last out,” Bridgewater-Raritan coach Sandy Baranowski said. “We’re not as good (on paper) as we were last year, but their desire to win is right up there.”

“It’s just that this whole season, from the beginning, we’ve been underestimated,” said junior third baseman Sarah Karmazyn said. “We feel like we’re better than what others say and this has really brought us up. All these wins keep racking up and building on top of each other and the momentum just keeps going.”

The offense has certainly been the catalyst, a brutal attack that’s averaged close to 10 runs per game, tops in the entire Skyland Conference. The unit is led by four-year starting shortstop Sam Ward, who is hitting .569 with 24 RBI and has already blasted seven home runs. Senior center fielder Katie Winchock has been a revelation, breaking out this season in a big way, providing a key bat atop the order. The four-year starter never hit better than .216 in any season, doing it last year, and had never hit a varsity homer in her three pervious seasons. Now, three weeks into her senior campaign, Winchock is hitting .582 with three doubles, four triples and two homers, continuing to play a stellar center field.

Karmazyn, a junior three-year starter, has also been key, batting .453 with four homers and 18 RBI, while others, like Madison Capetta and Sammy Mazzagatti also  have had a big offensive impact.

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But perhaps the key going forward, and certainly headed into tournament season, is what happens in the circle, and with each passing game, that area of the field is becomes less of an issue.

Zinn and Centi’s graduations left a massive hole in the middle of the B-R infield. And while the Panthers are a superior offensive club and play excellent defense, as well, the pitching was the big question mark coming into the season and remained an area of concern through the early weeks of the campaign.

Mazzagatti, who saw limited at-bats as a freshman, shuttling back and forth between varsity and JV, missed all of last season with a concussion sustained during the Panthers’ first scrimmage. Now, as a junior, the left-hander has been thrust into the lion’s den, handed the role as ace mostly out of necessity. But with each passing game, Mazzagatti is growing more comfortable with her role, easing concerns, and the results have been increasingly better.

After a rough couple of weeks, pitching well enough to keep a team with a superior offense and defense in games, but lacking dominance, Mazzagatti’s outings are getting better and better. The junior enjoyed a career-high eight-strikeout performance on Wednesday in a 4-1 victory over Phillipsburg, but took things to a whole new level Thursday against powerhouse Hunterdon Central, another team, like B-R, with a highly potent offense. Mazzagatti allowed just one run on eight hits, two walks and struck out six over 10 innings. She also added the two-out game-winning hit in the bottom of the 10th for good measure.

“I feel she’s progressively getting better,” Baranowski said after Thursday’s victory. “For the most part, most days, I feel like we need to score eight runs or we’re not going to win, but today, against a team like this, she was fantastic. She was cool and composed and I’ve been seeing that a lot more lately. She’s seemed more comfortable out there.”

“A lot of repetition is making me better and I’m becoming a smarter pitcher,” said Mazzagatti, who also does a phenomenal job fielding her position. “I’m being able to hit the corners better to prevent them from hitting, but if they do hit, I trust my defense behind me. I think I am getting physically stronger, because a lot of people tell me I’m frail. A lot of repetition is making my arm stronger (too).”

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The names might have changed at Bridgewater-Raritan, but the expectations and the recipe for success clearly have not. And if Mazzagatti continues to progress, the sky appears to be the limit for this club because the rest of the ingredients are clearly in place.

“They’re skilled,” Baranowski said. “They know where to be on every play. We don’t make a lot of mistakes. For the most part, they make the right plays. And they hit the ball. They want to pick each other up in any way. Whatever they can do for the win.”

Staff writer Simeon Pincus can be reached atCourierSoftball@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @SimeonPincus and at www.Facebook.com/SimeonPincusCN .