Holy Cross finally gets win over Delran

Pitcher Taylor Steele and her Holy Cross softball teammates had more fun playing Delran on Tuesday than they did three days earlier.

Against the visiting Bears, who had beaten Holy Cross, 5-3, Friday, Steele threw better, the defense vacuumed the infield more efficiently, and the team had more timely hits.

The result was a 5-3 victory for Holy Cross in a Burlington County League Patriot Division game.

It was the first time that the Holy Cross seniors had beaten the Bears.

"I think Delran had beaten us nine straight times," veteran coach Walt Walsh said. "They've beaten us all kind of ways over the last five years."

Delran pitcher Rachel Bintliff limited the Lancers to six hits again; however, this time Holy Cross (7-4 overall, 3-3 division) knew which pitches to look for and made the most of them.

"We all hit very good," said Steele, a senior who went 2 for 3, including an RBI single that gave Holy Cross a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first inning. "We were more confident.

"We saw her [Bintliff] now a few times in a couple of days, so we were ready. We weren't chasing after her outside pitches. It was mostly her inside pitches we all swung on."

Olivia Bell scored what turned out to be the winning run on an overthrow to second base in the fourth inning. Megan Dicus scored ahead of her, and Holy Cross took a 4-3 lead.

Designated hitter Gianna Sarullo singled in Bell in the sixth for a 5-3 lead that held.

Steele, who surrendered nine hits in the first meeting, limited the Bears (5-5, 2-3) to five hits. Helping her was Taylor Cowan, who made scintillating plays at shortstop in the fifth and sixth innings.

Holy Cross was leading, 4-3, in the fifth with Raeanne Atzert on third and two out when Colleen Hughes smashed a low line drive that Cowan caught to end the inning.

"It was hard to get to, but if I didn't save it, a run would have scored, and it would have been a tie game," Cowan said. "It was kind of a must-make play. It was instinctive."

The score stayed the same in the top of the sixth when Cowan smothered a liner by Katie Larson and threw her out at first base for the first out.

"I dove for it and popped up on my knees," Cowan said. "That's always been a tough play for me, so it picked me up a lot, and I feel like it picked up the energy on the team."

Bintliff, who gave the Bears a short-lived, 3-2 lead with a two-run double in the fourth inning, was disappointed in the way the team approached Steele's pitching.

"We just weren't going for the pitches we should have been going for," Bintliff said. "Like her curveball. It was always right there, and we never swung at it once."

Bintliff added that she was not in total command of her own pitches, but she thought she had pitched well enough to win.

Delran 100 200 0 - 3 5 4

Holy Cross 200 201 x - 5 6 2

WP: Taylor Steele. LP: Rachel Bintliff. 2B: Bintliff.