Focused Tennent takes down Cheltenham in five

WARMINSTER >> The early weeks of the softball schedule are sometimes short on practice days but have plenty of games.
So, there’s ample opportunity for squads to bounce back quickly from a rough outing. When Cheltenham and William Tennent met Friday afternoon, such was the case for both teams.
Tennent, coming off a defensively sloppy loss to Council Rock North, played much sharper and jumped on Cheltenham early, claiming an 11-0 win in five innings.
“We had it in us, it was a tough loss yesterday and we wanted to bounce back,” Tennent shortstop Jackie Heim said. “We have it in us, we just had to put it all together, combine hits and not play selfish. We had to play as a team.”
Cheltenham is trying to replace a high number of key players from last year’s team, including most of the infield and the pitching spot. With two-year ace Grace DeRosa graduated, the Panthers are breaking in a few hurlers new to the varsity level.
While the defense let Tennent down against Rock North, it was pivotal to helping keep Cheltenham down in the early innings. After Cheltenham senior outfielder Madison Gianelle led off with a single to start the game, Tennent catcher Nikki Reh cut the speedster down trying to steal second.
“My experience kids didn’t play well and that’s unlike them so I thought today would be a better day for us,” Tennent coach Biz Keeny said. “We just didn’t play well, I don’t know why. We have a pretty experienced team.”
After Tennent put up three runs in the bottom of the first, Cheltenham looked to respond and loaded the bases up with one out. No. 9 hitter Marissa Custer hit one up the middle to Heim, who was able to start a 6-4-3 double play on a very close call at first to end the threat.
The two big defensive plays were all the help Tennent pitcher Reilly Dougherty needed to get rolling. Dougherty shut down Cheltenham after the second, retiring the last nine hitters she faced in order with Heim, second baseman Marissa Govan and third baseman Jocelyn Flores each making a couple of nice defensive plays.
Cheltenham coach Ron Pearlstein, a Tennent grad, gave Dougherty plenty of props for her outing.
Meanwhile, he’s still searching for the right mix with his two main arms, Shelly Lachock and Megan Smajda.
“We had a dominant pitcher for two years so I’m trying to find who’s going to start and who’s going to relieve,” Pearlstein said. “I thought Megan did a nice job, she came in and really quieted these bats a little bit. She showed composure, showed control and got us back on our feet again.”
Smajda got Cheltenham out of the second, but Tennent had struck for six runs in the frame, holding a 9-0 lead after two. Tennent’s defense wasn’t the only thing sharper on Friday, as the hitters showed poise and aggression at the plate, going after pitches they could hit and holding off and drawing five walks in the first two innings.
Keeny said the baserunning wasn’t particularly clean, but he does have a couple of young players in his lineup that are still learning situational softball. Freshman outfielder Brianna Koonce is one of those players, hitting a two-run double and walking twice but also hesitating on a passed ball that stopped her from scoring.
The Panthers were the last team into the district field last year but managed a first round upset. Keeny said that’s the goal again and Heim thinks that as long the team continues to play as a group, it’s a goal there for the taking.
“We have to bounce off last year and I think if we work hard and keep doing what we’re doing, it should be pretty fun this year,” Heim said. “Having a young team can be a really good thing because it can lead to bigger things in following years. Teaching them things from the past is a key thing for us. I can tell they’ve picked up a lot in the past two weeks.”
Tennent added a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth to bring about the run-rule ending.
Pearlstein said the high amount of games early in the season has limited practice time, but he still believes his team can come together and compete in the SOL American. It’s still an early getting-to-know period for the Panthers, but they’re also getting a lot of game reps that will pay off down the line.
It’s so different for Tennent, though those Panthers have the advantage of having a little more experience back. That’s the kind of thing that allows a team to take a loss, identify the mistakes and turn it into a win the next time out.
“We’ve been working hard the past couple of weeks,” Heim said. “Yesterday we made a couple mistakes that would lead to another and they all tied together. We bounced back and were tight today.”