Lenape Blazers sweep Masquerade Ball

Stanhope - The Lenape Blazers won 10 games in four days to finish in first place in the Masquerade Ball Softball tournament hosted by the Mt. Olive Marauders Travel Girls Softball program the weekend of Oct. 22 - Oct. 23. Lenape played Mt. Olive, Rockaway, and Newton in the round-robin tournament Saturday, winning all three by a combined score of 41-5, earning a first-place seed in the single elimination tournament Sunday. “It was cold, and a steady driving rain pounded the girls all day,” said Rob Gowe, Lenape manager. “This group of girls is the best I’ve had in years, and they stayed focused and played very hard all day. We had excellent pitching, defense, and hitting to earn the number one seed. The girls were hungry for a championship.” Despite the poor weather, “the Mt. Olive field crews did an excellent job of keeping the fields playable,” he added. Sunday Lenape played a club team from Newtown, Pa. Lenape continued with dominating pitching from Erika Gowe, who threw a one-hit shutout, and excellent defense, as the team went on to win, 4-0. The championship game followed, against Brewster, N.Y., another club team. After a one-two-three inning in the top of the first, Lenape exploded with five runs in the bottom of the inning. “We challenged the girls to score five in the first,” said Gowe. “Great bunting, base running, and timely hitting, as the girls batted around, accomplished that.” Brewster would never recover as Erika Gow shut them down on another one-hit shutout, and Lenape went on to win 10-0, highlighted by Amanda Mazzari’s walk-off home run. “Last Tuesday we had a team meeting and asked the girls and parents if they wanted to play 10 games in four days,” said Gowe. “They all screamed yes!” He said they won all 10 games by executing “in every part of the games. From Alie’s grand slam and great defense, Stacey’s double, triples, Maria’s big hits and vacuum at third base, Mandy’s homer and cannon in the field, Tori’s bunts and great defense, Bri’s big hits, Jonzies toughness, speed and big hits, Maggie’s clutch hits, Lexi’s big bunts and great defense all over the field, Kaela’s aggressive hitting and running, Jackie G’s dominating fastball and change up and great defense, Lee’s (animal) blocking the plate to keep the runs out, plus big bunts and hits, and calling a good game for the pitchers, and Eri’s bunts, base running, and dominating pitching kept the opposing hitters off balance and guessing. We have a young team and this year they grew up. These girls have worked very hard all year compiling a 54-12 record in their leagues and tournaments. This championship is a nice finish to a great season,” he concluded.