Marcinczuk and Butkus Lead Patriots to MCT White Championship

Wall, NJ- In what has been an up and down season for the Freehold Township Patriots softball team, the Patriots saved their best ball for Saturday afternoon.  Freehold Township went 2-0 Saturday beating Saint Rose in the morning semi-final matchup and then topped Monmouth Regional in the Championship game in the afternoon.

With the 10-0 win over the Falcons in the Monmouth County Tournament White Championship game, Freehold Township improved their record to 8-13 overall and 3-10 in A North.

Freehold Township rode the arm of Renee Marcinczuk who allowed just two hits, no walks and struck out one against Saint Rose in the first game and surrendered just one hit with no walks and two strikeouts against Monmouth in the final.

The Patriots were powered on offense on Saturday by senior Nicole Baptista who went a combined 5 for 8 improving her batting average to .514 and junior Kayla Butkus who finished the day 5 for 5 with 3 doubles and 3 rbi's to improve her average to .296 on the year.

Freehold Township got on the board in the second inning when Kayla Butkus doubled to right center and later scored when Taylor Tobey singled up the middle for the RBI.

The Patriots blew the game open in the third with three straight singles from Kiersten Withstandley, Kayla Pscolka and Heather Lally.  All three runners scored on RBI's from Elissa Masin on a fielders choice, Butkus plated two runners with her second hit of the game a double to right center scoring Pscolka and on passed ball from catcher, Lally scored to make the score 4-0.

Freehold would tack on two more in the fourth inning when Nicole Baptista beat out an infield single and Withstandley drew a walk and advanced on a past ball during the at bat to Pscolka, who grounded to short and scored Baptista.  Lally picked up the other RBI when she flew out to right field scoring Withstandley for a 6-0 lead over Monmouth Regional.

Sydney Rathsmith made it 7-0 when she doubled to center and scored when Tobey singled past third.

The Patriots ended the game in the sixth inning when they scored three for a 10-0 win over the Falcons.  Freehold Township scored three straight runs on a pass ball and five straight base on balls to capture the MCT White Championship.