Call it a case of deja vu all over again: the West Windsor 12 year old girls all-star softball team can’t stop winning.##M:[more]## The team hasn’t lost a regular game in three years and last season won the regional championship and came within a hair of competing for the national title in Oregon. This season the team boasts a perfect 10-0 record, winning the District 12 championship and the Section 3 crown on July 19. The girls now have their eyes set on the state crown. West Windsor will face the Section 4 winner this Friday, July 22, at 8 p.m in Lincroft.
One of the team’s top players for the past three years has been Lexie Forsell. As a full-time catcher and sometime pitcher throughout her career she has once again proved to be one of West Windsor’s most valuable assets. In a game against Bordentown on July 7, Forsell pitched a complete game victory while allowing just two hits and striking out six. She also contributed two hits, including a double.
But how much Forsell means to the team was apparent July 9 in a must-win game against Washington Township. With her team losing, 3-2, in the last inning, Forsell knocked a double into left field, scoring Kat Philbin and tying the game. Then Forsell scored the winning run when second baseman Sydney Turchin hit a single. The win propelled West Windsor into the district championship game.
On July 11 the team faced a tough Bordentown team for the Section 12 title and Forsell was nearly perfect for three innings before succumbing to a case of the walks in the fourth. Still she wound up with a no-hitter, striking out five batters and walking five.
But the West Windsor bats were also in high gear. After scoring just one run in the first inning when Sydney Turchin ran home on a wild pitch, the team added nine more runs in the second.
Pitching was a problem for Bordentown. West Windsor’s Joanna Schutzer walked twice and scored two runs during the second inning and Abby Lerner hit a single, scoring two runs, and catcher Caitlin McCann doubled to drive in more two runs. Its final run in the third came when Jenna Carlin came home on an error.
West Windsor marched into the Section 3 playoffs on July 14 to face an unknown opponent in Marlboro. With Abby Lerner, Liz Mendez, and Megan Chismar pitching, West Windsor won handily, 14-2. Lerner started the game, going two innings, striking out four, and walking three. With the score 12-0, she was replaced by Mendez, who pitched one inning, allowing a hit and a walk and striking out two. Chismar followed that up with one inning, two hits allowed and two runs.
After scoring three runs in the first, West Windsor blasted away for nine runs in the second inning. Sydney Turchin had two hits, a run scored, and an RBI. Lerner and Schultzer each had two hits, two runs, and two RBIs combined.
West Windsor than breezed past Manasquan-Brielle for the Section 3 championship on July 15 and 19, outscoring the opponent 23-1 in the process.
People in Sports
Ted Mavraganis, a 2004 graduate of High School South, ran the 4×400 meter relay to a second place finish for the Gettysburg College men’s track team in the Centennial Conference Championships on July 16. He also was a part of the sixth place 4×100 relay team. Last month Mavraganis competed in the Mason Dixon Invitational and finished 10th in the 400 meter race and 17th in the 200 meters.
Demetri Vrahnos, a Plainsboro resident, and Peter Ku, a resident of West Windsor, were among the winners of the Princeton Tennis Program Junior Open II on July 16. Vrahnos won the boys 14s singles title, 6-1, 2-6, 6-4, while Ku won the boys 10s title with a 6-1, 6-0 victory.
