It was hot — hotter than it's supposed to be this time of the year — and Elizabeth was smacking base hit after base hit and scoring run after run.
Scotch Plains-Fanwood's softball team was not having any fun out there.
However, the Raiders kept their heads up and went after it for five innings and fell just two runs short of extending a 10-run rule game to the sixth inning.
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A much-improved Elizabeth team, despite the fact that it starts only two seniors and has a new pitcher this season, connected on 14 hits in the first two innings en route to a 17-6, five-inning Union County Conference-Watchung Division softball triumph Thursday at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School.
Elizabeth scored seven runs on seven hits in the top of the first, beginning the game with three straight hits and then banging out four more in a row later in the inning.
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The Minutemen then began the second with six straight hits and scored 10 runs in the frame to take 17-0 lead.
To the credit of the Scotch Plains players, they never showed any quit and managed to score two runs on one hit in the second and four more on one in the fifth.
The Raiders scored the game's final six runs, which is momentum they hope to take into their next game.
Because of a new Watchung Division schedule under the first year of the UCC, this was Elizabeth's first game, with the Minutemen now 1-0. Elizabeth fashioned a 10-12 mark last year, while Scotch Plains is coming off a 12-11 finish.
Winning pitcher — freshman right hander Kassandra Veyer — went the distance, tossing a five-inning, two-hitter, that included seven strikeouts, seven walks and one hit batter. Veyer struck out the side in the first inning on 17 pitches and the fourth on 14. She threw a total of 98 in her varsity debut.
Junior right hander Amanda White started and took the loss for the Raiders, who fell to 2-3, with White now also 2-3. She was taken out after pitching one complete inning, plus six batters.
"Elizabeth is a good-hitting team," first-year Scotch Plains head coach Jess Hulnik said. "It's tough to see from where I'm sitting if she (White) was off a little bit here or there, but they are a good-hitting team. We tried to move the ball around quite a bit, but they just seemed to kind of find the holes, find the gaps. We pushed the outfield back after the first couple of hitters and they dropped some in. It was just one of those games."
White was relieved in the second inning by senior righty Bianca Root, who fell two strikes shy of tossing a perfect inning in the third.
Root pitched a scoreless third, allowing only a walk. Elizabeth did not get a hit in the third, fourth or fifth innings.
"Bianca settled down after having a little difficulty with the first couple of batters," Hulnik said.
After walking the first four batters she faced, Root went on to retire five of the next eight in a two-inning stint that included one Elizabeth runner called out for not touching home plate.
Freshman righty Amanda Raphael took the mound for Scotch Plains in the fourth with one out and runners on first and second. After walking the first batter she faced on four pitches, she came back nicely to strike out the next two batters she faced - the first one looking and the second one swinging - to end the inning.
Raphael then faced five batters in the fifth, with White catching a fly ball in right to end the frame.
In 1 and 2/3 innings, Raphael allowed no runs and no hits, while striking out three, walking two and hitting one batter. She threw 16 pitches in the fourth and 22 in the fifth for a total of 38.
"We brought her in for a little work and I thought she did pretty well," Hulnik said. "She came in and gave us some innings when we were struggling and it was a nice little change of pace."
Getting the first hit for Scotch Plains was No. 6 batter Kelly Lapham, a freshman who started in center and then moved to first base. Aysia Peterson and Courtney Zyla drew walks to start the inning.
Peterson, a junior, started at first base and Zyla, also a junior, at catcher, with freshman Christine Monroy at third. Zyla almost picked a runner leading off third, showing a strong and accurate arm.
On an 0-1 pitch, Lapham lined a single to center that would have loaded the bases. However, the center fielder let the ball get past her, with her error allowing Scotch Plains to score an unearned run on the play.
With Zyla moving to third and Lapham to second on the outfield miscue, junior shortstop Olivia Brokaw followed with a sacrfice fly RBI to center to make the score 17-2.
Scotch Plains tried its best to score six runs in the bottom of the fifth to extend the game to the sixth inning. A walk, a hit batter and then another walk loaded the bases with nobody out. Then lefty-batting leadoff hitter Jen Kickenwicz walked on a 3-2 count for an RBI to make it 17-3. Then junior Julia Root (No. 6) walked for an RBI to make the score 17-4, with the bases still loaded and still nobody out.
Monroy then connected on an RBI-single to center, but the Scotch Plains runner from second was thrown out at the plate, making the score 17-5. Scotch Plains scored its final run on an infield error to make it 17-6. With runners on first and third and two outs, Veyer got the game's final batter to ground out to first.
The two seniors for sixth-year Elizabeth head coach Devin Dudas - second baseman Janissa Cardona and catcher Kiary Pantoja - also had fine games. Cardona produced an RBI-single in the first and also walked with the bases loaded for another RBI in the second. Pantoja singled and scored in the second and walked in the fourth.
Batting No. 8 in the lineup for Elizabeth was left fielder K. Torres, who had a two-run single, a stolen base and then scored in the first and then had an RBI-single and scored in the second.
All nine Elizabeth batters hit safely and also scored. Seven of the nine starters scored at least two runs.
"They had their hitting shoes on today and that's all it was," Hulnik said.
Two other impressive Scotch Plains plays were made in the field by Lapham and Brokaw. At first base in the fifth on the first Elizabeth batter, Lapham moved quickly to her right to snare a hard hit grounder and then stepped on first base for an unassisted putout.
Later in the inning, Brokaw moved to her right and did a good job of catching a throw from Zyla, backing up on the play. After a wild pitch, Zyla threw to third to keep the runners at second and third. Elizabeth did not score in the inning.
In their only meeting last year - which was May 13, 2009, at Scotch Plains - the Raiders defeated the Minutemen 4-2 behind a complete-game, five-hitter White tossed. She struck out four and walked one in that contest.
NOTES: Scotch Plains is next scheduled to play at South Plainfield Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. and will then begin next week with a home game against Kent Place of Summit Monday at 4 p.m.
UNION COUNTY CONFERENCE-WATCHUNG DIVISION SOFTBALL GAME
ELIZABETH (1-0) 7 10 0 0 0 - 17 14 1
SCOTCH PLAINS-FANWOOD (2-3) 0 2 0 0 4 - 6 2 2
PITCHERS OF RECORD: Elizabeth - Kassandra Veyer (1-0).
Scotch Plains-Fanwood - Amanda White (2-3).
SCOTCH PLAINS-FANWOOD RAIDERS (2-3)
2010 SOFTBALL RESULTS/schedule:
April 1 (A) Scotch Plains 20, Plainfield 1
COUGAR CLASSIC AT
CRANFORD'S ADAMS AVENUE FIELD
April 3 (A) Cranford 4, Scotch Plains 3
April 3 (A) Scotch Plains 14, Ridge 4
April 5 (H) Bridgewater-Raritan 16, Scotch Plains 0
April 8 (H) Elizabeth 17, Scotch Plains 6
April 10 at South Plainfield, 10:30 a.m.
April 12 Kent Place, 4 p.m.
April 16 at Westfield, 4 p.m.
April 17 Villa Walsh Tournament, 1 p.m.
April 20 at Roselle, 4 p.m.
April 22 at Union, 4 p.m.
April 24 Linden Classic, TBA
April 26 at Bayonne, 4 p.m.
April 27 at Rahway, 4 p.m.
April 29 Linden, 4 p.m.
April 30 Plainfield, 4 p.m.
May 4 at Elizabeth, 4 p.m.
May 7 Westfield, 4 p.m.
May 11 Union, 4 p.m.
May 13 Rahway, 4 p.m.
May 14 at Linden, 4 p.m.
May 18 at Union Catholic, 4 p.m.
May 20 Roselle Park, 4 p.m.
