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Softball: Swan’s arm, Meiners’ bat helps North Hunterdon blank J.P. Stevens in North 2 Group IV semis

Simeon Pincus
@SimeonPincus

CLINTON TOWNSHIP – The North Hunterdon High School softball team has become accustomed to getting consistently brilliant pitching efforts from emergent ace Maggie Swan, a junior left-hander who has gone from time-share arm to standout ace in just a year. And while the Lions certainly got another outstanding effort from Swan in Friday’s NJSIAA North 2 Group IV Tournament semifinals, it was the job their offense did against one of Middlesex County’s top pitchers that might be just the shot of confidence North Hunterdon needs as it looks to go deeper in the state tournament.

Swan was stellar, firing a three-hit shutout, walking two and striking out 11, as her batterymate, senior catcher Melissa Meiners, led the offense, going 2-for-3 with a double, homer and three RBIs to lead a nine-hit attack that lifted the top-seeded Lions to their first sectional final since 2014 with a 5-0 victory over fifth-seeded J.P. Stevens at North Hunterdon High School.

“At times, it’s like we all went into a slump at the same time, but the last couple of games we’ve been swinging the bats better,” said North Hunterdon coach Anthony Rotondo, whose team has been held to three runs or less in three of its past five games, including a shutout loss in the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex final and a 2-1 setback to St. John Vianney.

“We swung the bats well against Ridge (in a 3-1 quarterfinals victory), but they played a really good game and made some plays on us. We hit the ball well, so we felt like this was coming. We’ve just got to keep it going. Nothing’s easy (this time of year).”

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With Swan cruising, for the most part, and making big pitches to escape what minor jams she did find herself in during a couple of innings, the North offense took a few frames to find its rhythm against J.P. Stevens junior ace Ashley Lombardi, but finally broke through in the third inning.

Kira Thomas led off and floated a double into the left-center field gap, before Lombardi got a strikeout and a pop out. But Meiners came up, worked the count to 3-1, and then, after a quick chat with Rotondo as the Hawks’ infield gathered for a conference in the circle, Meiners lifted an opposite field drive that carried over the right-field fence for a two-run homer.

“He just told me to relax because I think so much when I step into the box,” said Meiners, whose 22-4 club will play host to second-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan in Tuesday’s final. “He just told me to have fun. We really focused on outside pitches, and once we started hitting those, everything fell into place.”

But the key to the Lions victory might have been their fifth and sixth inning. Instead of resting on a two-run advantage, which is usually plenty with Swan cruising, North added on. Jensen McCauley started the bottom of the fifth by dropping a double inside the left-field line, and, after two outs, scored on a hard single to right field by Meghan Graham. Meiners then followed, blasting an RBI double to deep center field to make it 4-0.

North Hunterdon scored against in the sixth, getting a one-out RBI single from Thomas -- the only one of the five Lions runs that didn’t score with two outs Friday.

“It starts with Maggie, she’s been outstanding,” Rotondo said. “But I think what we did today, which we have been struggling to do, is we got those tack-on runs. As good as she is, we can’t only rely on her and just score a run or two and leave the rest to Maggie. We got two in the fifth and one in the sixth, and those were huge runs. And we scored all (but one) of our runs with two outs, and that sucks the life out of a team. I’ve been on the other end of that, and that’s tough. I thought we had clutch, really gritty types of at-bats today and it was a team effort.”

“We’re definitely confident coming out of this,” Swan said. “It feels good to have a nice win like that.”

While Rotondo felt it was the tack-on runs that made the difference for North Hunterdon, J.P. Stevens coach Krystal Petty feels it might have actually been the first two runs the Lions scored that took the air out of her club. The Hawks, who boast an experienced, senior-heavy team, finish 17-6, falling in the sectional semifinals for the fifth straight season, all five at the hands of a Skyland Conference team.

“It’s just unfortunate that we dropped this today, because I felt like we were very prepared,” Petty said. “But it’s a game of momentum and they went ahead first, and it’s very hard to come back from that, especially with a pitcher like her.”

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

Senior catcher Melissa Meiners double, homered and drove in three runs to lead the North Hunterdon offense in a 5-0 victory over J.P. Stevens in the North 2 Group IV semifinals
Senior center fielder Meghan Graham singled in a fifth-inning run for North Hunterdon on Friday
North Hunterdon junior lefty Maggie Swan tossed a three-hit shutout, walking two and striking out 11 Friday
J.P. Stgevens ace Ashley Lombardi