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Sports

Hurricanes Softball Thrives Against National Competition

Barrington's under-18 softball team wins pool in Pennsbury Tournament.

Hurricanes softball infielder/pitcher star Loren Krzysko found some inspiration to excel at the Pennsbury College Showcase Invitational in Yardley, Pa., on June 16 and 17.

“It’s a little nerve-racking,” Krzysko said of playing in front of the different college recruiters who were in attendance. “But it gives you more of a feeling that you need to get out there and perform.”

Krzysko finished the weekend tournament leading the team in batting with an impressive .667 (8 of 12) average, while driving in four runs, one less than teammate Savonnah Osmanski’s team-leading 5 RBIs for the tournament. Osmanski finished 4 of 11 with a .364 batting average.    

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Krzysko not only helped the Hurricanes with her bat, but also with her arm. Barrington finished 4-1 in the tournament and Krzysko secured two of Barrington’s victories with her .72 earned-run average (9.2 innings pitched) in the two-day tourney that featured teams from across the United States. 

With Krzysko pitching well, fellow pitcher Cassidy Kraimer locked down the competition even more, finishing the event with a 2-1 record and a miniscule .55 ERA with 14 strikeouts in 12.2 innings pitched. Barrington was able to win its pool for the first time in four years and did so against teams from Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey and other parts of the country.

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“This is a pretty big college recruiting tournament and well-run,” said Perry Peterson, who coaches both the Hurricanes and the Fillies varsity squad. “Our kids will get a chance for some college exposure while seeing the United States.”

“Some of the kids went to Hoboken, N.J., and some saw the Liberty Bell, while others saw colleges,” Peterson said. “They also got a cake from TLC’s ‘The Cake Boss.’ ”

Perhaps Barrington used the cake to celebrate the successful weekend and what appears to be a turning point in its season.

“We played really good competition,” Krzysko said of her team’s performance. “We stepped up to the plate when we should have and we did a really nice job battling back.”

Prior to winning their pool at the tournament, the Hurricanes were sitting at 5-5 but it was a deceiving record, since the Hurricanes have been competitive in all their contests (their five losses have been by a total of eight runs). The Hurricanes have averaged a little bit better than 2.5 runs per game in their losses but score more than six runs of support in their wins.

Helping to create some of the early season runs, and havoc on the base pads, for the Hurricanes has been Ally McLaughlin. She leads the team in batting average (.426), is tied for stolen bases (six with Tess Bolger) and is tied for second in runs scored (12) and on-base percentage (.481). 

Driving home McLaughlin and Bolger have been the bats’ of Osmanski (14 RBIs), Krzysko (12 RBIs) and Jordan Wekony (9).  

Although Krzysko is not leading the team in batting (third with a .400 average) as she did in the tournament, the more telling stat of how she continually performs well under pressure throughout the season is her .711 slugging percentage and the .400 batting average with runners in scoring position (8 of 20).  Krzysoko is just slightly ahead of Osmanski’s average of .381 (8 of 21) with runners in scoring position, and all of this is occurring against some of the state’s best players.

“The competition is coming from different schools that make up an all-star team,” Peterson said of the talented pool of players that comprise each team that the Hurricanes face. “We only play one high school team all summer, the rest are ‘A’ level teams.”

“I’m really thrilled with where we are going,” Peterson went on to say of the team’s overall performance.  “We are pushing hard to keep getting better, and there is quite a bit of intensity on this team with a group of kids that really want to prove they belong on the field come spring” of 2012.

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