Another comeback for Padua softball

Padua pitcher Abby Cunningham delivers in the seventh inning of Padua’s 3-2 win against Charter Thursday.

Padua’s Hannah Williams gets a hit to start the Panda’s toward breaking a 2-2 tie in the fifth inning and scoring the eventual winning run during Padua’s 3-2 win against Charter Thursday.

MILLTOWN

– Padua softball coach Peter Boyer wasn’t worried when his team fell behind early in Thursday’s game.

“When they step on the field, they just know they’re going to win,” Boyer said. “They just make it happen.”

The fourth-ranked Pandas came from behind for the seventh time this season, erasing a two-run deficit to edge Charter of Wilmington 3-2 at the Midway Softball Complex.

“This is a big win,” junior pitcher Abby Cunningham said. “We dropped down 2-0, and we really just wanted to win it for our seniors today, since it is Senior Day. We knew this was going to be a good game.”

And it was. Cunningham retired the first six in a row, including a strikeout on a devastating changeup to end the first inning. But the Force (12-4) started to hit that change of pace in the third.

Julianna Kolek led off with a single and moved to second on Kate Massih’s sacrifice bunt. Taylor Gillis ripped a hard, two-out single to score Kolek, and Gillis went all the way around the bases on an error to make it 2-0.

Payton Czerwinski and Zoey Jones followed with singles before Cunningham ended the uprising with one of her 11 strikeouts.

“I threw a couple that were too much on the plate, so I knew I had to work the corners more,” the right-hander said. “I had to lay off the changeups, because they squared those up.”

Czerwinski, Charter’s pitcher, allowed only a hit batter through the first three innings. But the Pandas (13-2) roared to life in the fourth.

Caitlin Baxter and Kiersten Fallers singled, and Baxter scored on Cunningham’s groundout. Then Fallers raced home on Anna Zebley’s two-out single to tie it at 2.

“I was thinking I’ve got to put the bat on the ball, get it on the ground as hard as I can and run it out,” Zebley said.

Then Padua took the lead with a two-out rally in the fifth. Hannah Williams and Baxter hit back-to-back singles, and Williams scooted home on an error to push the Pandas ahead 3-2.

Cunningham made sure that go-ahead run became the winning run, as she retired the Force in order in the sixth and seventh innings.

“You’ve just got to make sure you keep them off balance, make sure you move the ball around the plate,” Cunningham said. “If you keep it too close to the plate, they’re going to square it up.”

Padua has reached the state tournament in seven consecutive seasons, but a young lineup had the coach setting his sights a little lower this year. The Pandas have exceeded expectations, and will certainly be in the 16-team field when the DIAA Softball Tournament seedings are determined next week.

“We came into this year thinking it was going to be a rebuilding year,” Boyer said. “I have three freshmen and two sophomores out there. But everybody has really stepped up, they’ve really matured, and they’ve really jelled together. The team chemistry is tremendous.”

Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ