Rega helps power South River softball past Dunellen
· Yahoo Sports
SOUTH RIVER — Anabella Almenas was her own worst enemy at times Monday, pitching herself into jams, then, with one exception, pitching herself out of them.
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Meanwhile, her batterymate, Reese Rega, provided all of the support she needed with three hits and five RBI as the South River High School softball team recorded a five-inning, 15-4 triumph over J.P. Stevens.
The victory keeps the Rams (13-3, 8-2) atop the heated Greater Middlesex Conference Blue-American Division race, with Dunellen and North Plainfield also sitting with two losses.
South River spotted Dunellen 10 run in the first inning in a key divisional loss on Friday, but played with the lead Monday after scoring three runs of its own in the first inning. Rega drove in two with a single up the middle and scored on Abby Helstowski’s infield hit.
“That was something that was not like these girls this season,” South River coach Nicky Curran said of Friday’s awful start, which followed the team’s late arrival and abbreviated 10-minute warmup. “I commend their ability to keep going, especially with that bad loss on Friday.”
Rega singled in two more runs in a five-run third inning and delivered her final RBI with a single in a six-run, fifth-inning outburst that brought the game to an early conclusion.
J.P. Stevens (7-8, 2-5) put a runner in scoring position in the first inning, then loaded the bases in the second and third, but came away empty each time. Almenas got the first outs in the second by strikeout and fanned the last two batters in the third.
The senior ace was not as fortunate in the fourth as the Hawks put their first five batters on base on two walks, two singles and another walk, scoring four runs, two on bases-loaded walks. Once again Almenas fanned two batters to get out of the inning.
“I do get scared when the bases are loaded, especially when I’m walking a lot of people,” Almenas revealed. “I think it just helps me focus better because obviously I want to win and help my team win and I don’t want to let anyone down.”
She walked the first batter in the fifth, recorded her eighth and final strikeout against the second, then turned a line drive back to the circle into a double play. She matched her eight strikeouts with eight walks and yielded five hits, two by Dhriti Patel.
“I just trust my team a lot so, when I struggle, I just think throw a strike and the people behind me will save it,” Almenas explained. “Whenever I fall behind, I just think of my mechanics and think about what I could be doing wrong to fix it.”
Her ability to get herself out of jams with strikeouts has been a big of part of Almenas’ success this spring.
“A lot of times this season we are in situations where the bases are loaded and we make errors and it’s hard for the pitcher to throw so well and have errors behind you,” said Curran. “A lot of times she gets into a spot where she’s like, ‘I want to do this myself,’ and she overcomes it. She gets us out of a lot of innings.”
South River halted the affair by scoring six runs in the fifth as all seven batters reached base. Rega’s fifth RBI knocked in the first run and Helstowski added the big hit with a three-run triple.
South River has already won eight more games than last season, a fact that could be partially attributed to the arrival of Almenas from Franklin and realignment, although the Rams are essentially competing with the same teams while picking up an easier crossover slate.
But, obviously, there’s more going on in South River than that.
“In this division, if you have a pitcher like Bella, you’re pretty solid,” stated Curran. “These girls come to practice and they work hard and they listen to the things that we tell them to do. We’re still a young team. We’re only graduating two. All in all, I think that they’re looking forward to the future because I think they see the things that they are able to do with the improvement they’ve had. I think they look forward to that.”
With a divisional title within its grasp season, the future is now in South River.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Rega helps power South River softball past Dunellen