Panthers Adjust to Changes After Losing to Florence

In their second scrimmage of preseason Friday, Collingswood softball suffered another loss, this time by a score of 5-2.

Panthers fell to Florence Township High School Friday, who entered the scrimmage straight from a win against Lenape High School.

Sophomore Stephanie Williams took the mound for the Panthers, pitching a complete game. In seven innings of play, Williams surrendered five runs—with only seven hits and six strikeouts along the way. She didn’t walk a single batter, yet allowed one base in the second inning after hitting a Florence player with an inside fastball.

“Right now, she’s all we have,” said Collingswood head coach Abby Adams. “We have a pitcher on the junior varsity team, but she’s definitely not ready to come up yet. We’re going to try to go with Steph as much as we can and she knows that. We’re going to try to keep her healthy. She’s ready for it.”

On the offensive side, Panthers struggled early.

It wasn’t until two outs in the second inning that the team even saw a base runner. And even then, it was merely by way of a walk.

In the fourth inning, junior centerfielder Nicole Hall recorded the team’s first hit of the contest with a single up the middle. After a swinging strikeout by Williams, Hall stole second base to put herself into scoring position and was driven in by a double driven by junior catcher Stephanie Fultano.

After the Fultano RBI, she recorded a run by way of a single hit by sophomore third baseman Melissa Cunningham. The run momentarily tied the game at two, but unfortunately for Collingswood, it was their last of the game.

“We’ve been struggling,” said Adams. “We don’t show up for the first inning. We don’t really start to play until the third or the fourth inning and it hurts us. That’s something we’ve been working on. We also have a lot of kids playing out of position, though. That’s hard, too.”

Out of position were Fultano—who has received all-conference honors in each of her two seasons at Collingswood as a first baseman and now plays catcher—and junior Taylor Harkness, who spent most of last season in left field and played Friday’s entire scrimmage at shortstop.

“We’ve never had a set lineup this season in any of our scrimmages,” said Adams. “This was probably the best scrimmage we’ve had.

“These girls have never all played together. I’m really just trying to figure out who I want out there.”

Unless the team's scrimmage against West Deptford is rescheduled, their next and final preseason contest will be against Hammonton's St. Joseph High School on March 30. Their season opener is April 1 at Sterling High School.