By Ed Marrone
Pride softball head coach Bill Edwards tells all of his substitutes to always be ready in case a starter is suddenly unavailable. Amy Belonick got the message.
Filling in for suspended ace Callie Osborne, Belonick came within five outs of a perfect game before settling for a two-hitter in a 4-1 Pride victory in a doubleheader split with Towson University. The Pride fell, 6-3, in the nightcap, but the aura of Belonick’s brilliant performance lingered at the Hofstra Softball Stadium despite the defeat. The junior pitcher retired the first 16 Tigers batters in order before Towson right fielder Jillian Fraser reached on an a deep grounder to shortstop with one out in the top of the sixth inning. Belonick, who hadn’t pitched since an April 3 loss at George Mason, also surrendered a solo home run in the seventh, but she buckled down and finished the game, lowering her season ERA to 2.79 in the process.
“Coach always tells everybody to be ready, so I’m always ready to go whenever the team needs me,” Belonick said.
The modest and soft-spoken Belonick downplayed her performance, but was showered with praise from her coaching staff.
“Amy is one of the best clutch pitchers that we’ve had here,” said Edwards, who suspended Osborne for the two-game series because of a minor violation of team policy. “She’s usually a long reliever for us, but when we need her to step in and spot-start for us, she’s been there. She had some tough stretches earlier this year, but she’s gotten into the bullpen and straightened all of that out. She was dynamite today.”
The Pride offense was right there to back Belonick up. It used Towson’s shoddy defense to quickly get on the board in the first, scoring on a throwing error by left fielder Jenny Edwards. Stefanie Kenney, Pam Dreslinski and Courtney Oliver all added RBI singles to keep Belonick (3-0) undefeated on the season.
In the nightcap of the doubleheader, the Tigers retaliated by scoring six runs against the usually reliable Adrienne Clark, who struggled hitting her targets the entire game. The win by Towson allowed them to stay tied for first place atop the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) standings with the Pride. Each team has identical 8-2 records with six conference contests left. The Pride (30-14-1 overall, 8-2 CAA) will play James Madison University and Drexel University, while the Tigers (28-14, 8-2) will battle with the University of Delaware and University of North Carolina-Wilmington.
“I think we have a more difficult schedule than Towson, so we technically control our own destiny,” Edwards said. “We need to win out and we can do that by practicing and working hard. We’ll work on some hitting mechanics and try to get Adie back on track. If we hit the way we did today the rest of the season then we should be fine.”
Getting Clark back on track is crucial to how successful the Pride will be this season, and Edwards believes this can be done if she can hit her spots with more frequency and stop leaving the ball out over the plate. She is still working her way back from an illness that caused her to miss almost three weeks, so the Pride will look forward to getting her back to full strength for the stretch run.
On the other hand, the Pride got an extremely encouraging performance from junior third baseman Tara Ulrich. Ulrich, who has battled back problems and struggled at the plate this season, went 2-for-4 in the second game with a solo home run and a long single that caromed off the centerfield fence, lifting her average to .154. With the Pride down 6-3 in the bottom of the seventh, Ulrich came to the plate with the bases loaded, representing the game-winning run. Ulrich worked the count to 2-2, but fouled out to first base to end the threat. Still, it was an uplifting performance from a player that the Pride needs offensive contributions from.
“Tara had some great swings today,” Edwards said. “She just needs to swing at good pitches, which is exactly what she did today. I was also impressed on how she hit with two strikes. She maintained discipline, which was good to see. I hope this is just the beginning for her.”
At the end of the day it was Belonick’s performance that really lifted the Pride. With Osborne suspended and Clark having a rare bad day on the mound, the team needed Belonick to step up and she did just that. It’s uncertain how much action Belonick will see the rest of the season, but knowing that she’s always ready to go, the Pride should be in good shape down the stretch.
“Our goal is to just finish strong and win the rest of our games,” Belonick said. “We’re going to treat every opponent treat every opponent and game the same way and just go out and do what we have to do.”