CB East cashes in on Abington mistakes for non-conference win

ABINGTON >> For whatever reason, Abington has struggled to put together complete-game efforts that has resulted in an underachieving season so far.

The Ghosts were paid a visit Tuesday afternoon from Central Bucks East, winners of three straight entering the game, for a non-league matchup. The Patriots were just a little bit better in all three phases of the game resulting in a 6-1 victory.

“We’ve only given up three runs (or more) once this season in a game so pitching is definitely our strong point,” East coach Karl Knapp said. “Defense they play really solid and don’t really give any freebees to anybody.”

Neither team was particularly potent on offense, which is understandable as there was a solid pitching matchup between Abington’s Nikki Ray and East’s Theresa Haug, who was relieved by Kayla Ventura in the fifth inning.

The Patriots were more opportunistic with their offensive opportunities however as Ray took some time settling in and a combination of passed balls and wild pitches helped East get some free bases that they cashed into runs.

“They had some passed balls, they gave us runs on that, they weren’t all earned but we were fortunate enough to take advantage of what they were giving us,” Knapp said.

The telling stat — through four innings, East had five runs on three hits while Abington had just one run on two hits. That stat epitomized by the Patriots’ first inning in which they scored three runs without recording a hit.

“Well there you go, that tells you just about everything you need to know,” Abington coach Helen White said. “We need to get it together. We practice defense all the time. We rep them all the time. We go over situations all the time. Everything that happens in a game we do in practice and we just cant seem to do it in a game.”

Abington did not play a bad a game in the field but certainly not one that would qualify as good and to make matters harder for the Ghosts. East played very solid in the field and made some difficult outs as well as all the routine ones. East ended the game errorless.

“We didn’t do anything well,” White said. “I thought we came out flat and you can’t come out against a CB East team flat.”

The Patriots look to be surging towards the District 1 playoffs, although they still have some tough games remaining in the Suburban One League Continental Conference. Abington is still looking to find its stride to play with some consistency.

“We can be really good,” White said. “We have the skill set. I think it’s the want to and the desire and the actual going out and doing it. I think that’s it, we have everything that we need we just have to go out and do it.”