The Millburn girls softball team got back on the winning track on Monday afternoon at Miller Field, pounding out eight hits for 12 runs, in a five inning shutout over St. Vincent Academy.
Millburn pitcher Danielle Kirchner turned in her third consecutive great performance, limiting St. Vincent to one hit, helping assistant head coach Sarah Pallino (who stood in as head coach for absent John Childs), pick up her first career win as a head coach.
“She is doing a great job,” Pallino said of Kirchner. “She’s a strong pitcher, she has been pitching a long time. This year I know she was really excited to get out there as a senior as the number one pitcher to really show what’s going on. …I’m sure this is going to hopefully lead up to more wins.”
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Kirchner and the Miller offense set the tone right away. In the top of the first inning, Kirchner struck-out the side in order, while the Miller offense put a five spot on the board in the bottom half.
Charlotte McCafferty and Lauryn Fiore got things started for Millburn with back-to-back RBI singles to centerfield, staking the Millers to a 2-0 lead. After a double steal by Fiore and Meryl Fishler put runners on second and third with two outs, an error allowed Fiore to score from third. With two outs, Millburn first baseman, Samantha Abrams knocked in Fishler with a single to left, the ball got past the leftfielder, and allowed Rachel Hitzig to cross.
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In the bottom of the next inning, Millburn’s first three hitters reached base with two walks and a bunt single put down by McCafferty towards third base. A sac fly from Fiore and an RBI single by Julie Zaifman put Millburn up 7-0. Fishler broke the game open in the ensuing at bat, with a two-run single which trickled into right field.
Co-captain, Lydia Vollavanh drew a walk to score Fishler later in the second inning, McCafferty put Millburn up 11-0 in the next at bat with an RBI single.
“I think we got confidence [from this win],” Vollavanh said. “We were having difficulty with our batting, with change ups and stuff and now we have experience waiting on pitches and all of that.”
Kirchner, who has allowed three runs total in her last three starts, stayed ahead of St. Vincent all game and was never in trouble. She gave up a bloop single in the second inning and a walk in the third and that was it. No one got to second base against her, while she struck out 10 batters.
“You just build your confidence and it makes you feel a little better and you can stay with it and practice all of your pitches and everything, so that’s nice,” Kirchner said of building momentum.”
It should be noted that St. Vincent, while coming in with a 6-3 record, play in the Colonial Division, which is a lower league than the Liberty Division, which the Millers play in.
“A win is a win, especially with the state cutoffs coming up. A win is a win at this point,” Pallino said. “I’m hoping that they get a little bit of confidence and some of their hits today are going to hopefully carry into Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.”
The 12 runs marks the highest total of runs scored by the Millers this season and comes right before a very difficult stretch of games this week. The girls play West Orange (13-3) on Wednesday night, home against Montclair (10-4) on Friday, and in the opening round of the Essex County Tournament in Cedar Grove (10-4) on Saturday.
“Every game’s a struggle, but it’s good to know that we already beat West Orange,” Vollavanh said. “We can play with anyone if we play the way we can.”
After getting off to a slow start this season, Millburn has now won three of its last five games and are currently 4-9.
