Middletown Flames get off to a hot start

In their first tournament of their inaugural season together, the Middletown Flames 16-and-under girls travel softball team advanced undefeated to the semi-finals of the 21-team South Jersey Bandits PONY National Qualifier before being knocked out by a national place winner and Maryland State Champion.

The Flames are a new travel softball team currently composed of 10 players from Middletown High School North, one player from Middletown High School South and one player from Red Bank Catholic. The team is always interested in expanding its roster to players looking to enjoy summer softball, especially pitchers, so if interested, contact the team through its Web site at www.middletownflames.com.

In the first game in the history of the team, the Flames beat the Jersey Breeze, 2-0, behind the pitching of Casey Crist. Crist retired the first 13 batters before completing the game with a two-hitter and 14 strikeouts. Jenna Lougee scored first for the Flames when she singled in the third inning, moved to third on a single by Nicole Quiceno and then scored on a bunt by Keri Kent. Ashley Foster completed the scoring for the Flames in the fourth inning when she walked and then scored all the way from first base on a double by Crist.

The New Jersey Breakers were next up for the Flames. The Flames were down 3-0 after three innings, but then put six runs on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning and held on for a 6-4 victory. Once again, Jenna Lougee and Nicole Quiceno started the rally with walks, followed by a double by Crist scoring Lougee. After consecutive walks to Nicole Pinero, Keri Kent and Ashley Foster, which tied the score at 3-3, Meghan Trivett came through with a huge three-run double to put the Flames up 6-3. Pitcher Casey Crist then yielded just one more run and the Flames were victorious once again by the score of 6-4.

The Flames then advanced to the quarterfinals of the elimination bracket against the New Jersey Explosion. The Flames fell behind early, 2-0, but put together a walk by Jessica Boynton, a single by Crist and a bunt by Caitlin Zitzman before Keri Kent drove across the Flames' first run. Following an intentional walk to Meghan Trivett, Aubrey Cefalo singled to drive in the tying run. At this point, an international tie-breaker situation was put into effect, where each team would start its half of the inning with a runner on second base with no outs. Crist's sacrifice bunt scored Britney Carpenter with a run in the seventh inning, which was matched by their opponent. In the eighth inning, however, the Flames scored twice when, with Caitlin Zitzman on second base, Keri Kent walked and Ashley Foster moved them both up a base with a sacrifice bunt. At this point, it was Meghan Trivett again with a huge two-run single. When the Explosion was only able to score once in the eighth, the Flames were on to the Final Four of this National Qualifier.

The semifinals pitted the Flames against the Maryland Magic, the 2005 Maryland State Champion and third-place finisher in the 2005 PONY Nationals. The game was close for two innings. When Liz Herzog walked, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Nicole Pinero, and scored on a single by Nicole Quiceno, the score was tied at 1-1. The Magic put six more runs on the board, however, over the next four innings and eventually won, 7-1.

The Middletown Flames will be in action again when they take the field in another PONY National Qualifier in Fair Haven this weekend.