West Windsor North 4, Nottingham 1 (High school Softball scores and results)

The Star Ledger, May 20, 2010 9:03 p.m.

By Andrew Borders

HAMILTON – The hits and the defense came later than Jason Petrone hoped for his West Windsor-Plainsboro North softball team, but the Knights are still right where he hoped they would be.

Kristie O’Cone’s two-out seventh-inning single sparked a three-run rally for WW-P North to get past Nottingham 4-1 yesterday in the quarterfinal round of the NJSIAA Group III Central tournament.

WW-P North advances to face Middletown South, the section’s top seed and defending state Group III champion, in a sectional semifinal game to be played by Tuesday in Middletown. The Eagles advanced with a 5-0 win over Allentown.

“We schedule certain teams and play tough games to hopefully be ready for the team that we may face on Tuesday,” Petrone said.

The Knights saw their season end at this point a year ago, losing a 5-4 game in nine innings to Wall. A year later and three seeds lower, WW-P North is on the other side of the bracket.

As bad as the bottom of the first inning was for WW-P North in its quarterfinal game, the top of the seventh was great.

Sydney Turchin had three straight balls hit her way at shortstop in the first frame and didn’t make an out on any of them, though the Knights were able to get out of the inning with just one run scored.

Perrine, a sophomore who has done just about all the pitching for the Knights this season, took a no-hitter into the fourth inning before giving up a bunt single. After the defense behind her settled down from its rough first inning, Perrine allowed no runners past second base and only two got that far.

Meanwhile, the Knights tried to solve Nottingham’s ace, Kim Murl. It took a Northstar error on a dropped ball in right field to kindle a run-scoring inning for WW-P North in the fourth, when Taylor Phelan reached on the miscue and Alex Niciforo's groundout drove her in two batters later.

Starting with Niciforo, Murl retired 10 straight batters from the fourth through seventh innings, but No. 11 was the one she needed to get.

O’Cone, a freshman who stepped into a starting role following an in-season defection, threaded a two-out single up the middle. That started a four-hit parade for WW-P North with Turchin doubling home O’Cone for the go-ahead run.

Perrine got the Northstars in order in the seventh, with the last two outs recorded on nice catches by second baseman Emily Weinberg, who had made a highlight-reel barehanded save in the third for a key out.

For Turchin, the run-scoring hit to follow O’Cone was redemption.

“The whole rest of the game after the first inning, I was just trying to pick myself up,” Turchin said. “I was relying on my team to pick me up, and Kate pitched a great game.”

The tough luck for Nottingham against WW-P North continued, as the Knights made it three wins over the Northstars this spring between the regular season, the Mercer County Tournament semifinals, and now the sectional quarters.

“It looked like today was going to be their day,” Petrone said of Nottingham. “They could have had three or four (in the first inning) if they got a big hit.”

All the big hits went WW-P North’s way yesterday, giving the Knights another shot at the semifinal round.

West Windsor North

Player AB R H RBI

Sydney Turchin 4 1 2 1

Emily Weinberg 4 1 1 1

Alexandra Forsell 4 0 2 0

Kaitlyn Nelson 4 0 0 0

Sarah Bush 3 0 0 0

Taylor Phelan 3 1 0 0

Brianna King 3 0 2 0

Alexandra Niciforo 3 0 0 1

Kristie O'Cone 3 1 1 0

Kaitlin Perrine 0 0 0 0

Totals: 31 4 8 3

Nottingham

Player AB R H RBI

Kim Murl 2 0 1 0

Amanda Agoglia 3 1 0 0

Lisa Burd 3 0 0 0

Emily Suto 3 0 0 0

Valerie Suto 2 0 1 0

Jessica Fremgen 3 0 0 0

Erica Guido 2 0 0 0

Nicole Perez 3 0 0 0

Taylor Lawson 1 0 0 0

Totals: 22 1 2 0

West Windsor North (16-6) 0 0 0 1 0 0 3

Nottingham (17-7) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0