The Stateliners posted a 5-1 road win over Belvidere.
After a walk-off loss to Immaculata on Wednesday and a late rally to beat Delaware Valley on Saturday, the Phillipsburg softball team was in another tight game on Monday at Belvidere.
And this one stretched all the way to 10 innings before the Stateliners put together four runs to clinch the 5-1 victory over the County Seaters.
"They're good games. You can't ask for a better game on a better day," Phillipsburg coach Kristin Boyer said. "We're in tight games. I give our girls a lot of credit. They stay up and they know that they're capable of getting runs late in the game. They stay with it the whole game and thankfully we've managed to pull it out the last two games."
Freshman designated player Jewel Gonzalez walked with the bases loaded in the 10th inning to give Phillipsburg the 2-1 lead. Stateliners sophomore first baseman Ashley Warner followed with an RBI on a fielder's choice and then catcher Hanna Swisher had a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 4-1. Gonzalez finished off the scoring by crossing the plate on a wild pitch.
"I think we were pretty prepared. We practice pretty much every day after school, whether it's inside or outside. The coaches prepare us pretty well. I think overall it was a long game, but nothing we can really do about that. We kept defense strong, came back around with the bats to win in the end," Gonzalez said.
The Stateliner freshman went 2-for-4 with an RBI in the game.
"She's doing a great job for us," Boyer said of Gonzalez. "She's usually behind the plate and hits in the four spot. She's definitely got some RBIs on the season. The one thing about Jewel, you throw her in there and she's going to swing the bat hard. Regardless of where it goes, it's going to go there hard. She does a nice job in that spot and being a freshman, she's only going to mature every year. So it's going to be nice have her for four years."
Sophomore center fielder Sarah LeMar added two hits for the Stateliners.
Phillipsburg senior pitchers Meghan LeMar and Masha Corbett allowed only three hits and combined for 13 strikeouts on Monday.
Corbett struck out eight and allowed no runs in 6.2 innings after coming on in relief in the fourth inning. LeMar had five strikeouts and allowed only one hit and one run in 3.1 innings pitched.
"Meghan starting us off, throwing well. Then Masha coming in and closing it out. I guess by the end Masha threw pretty much almost a whole game," Boyer said. "It's great to have two pitchers that you have a lot of faith in and feel confident throwing either one on the mound. They both did a great job today."
"I had a good defense behind me. I wasn't afraid to throw pitches close to the zone because I knew that the defense would back me up and that they would make the plays and the catches that they needed to," Corbett said.
Belvidere sophomore pitcher Alexis Connors struck out seven in 10 innings and scored the County Seaters' only run in the fourth.
"She did a heck of a job. Alexis did a heck of a job out there. Threw really well," Belvidere coach Dan Dempsey said.
The County Seaters fell to 2-1 on the season and will host Bernards on Wednesday.
The Stateliners improved to 3-1 with a game at North Hunterdon coming up on Tuesday.
"I'll be honest, I don't think we've come close to our potential yet. I think we have a phenomenal team. I don't think they know it yet," Boyer said. "We have enough hitters in the lineup that we can get base runners on and we can move them around. I think once we hit our groove, that's what you're going to see happening. And with Masha and Meghan on the mound, they're going to keep us in tight games. We have some pretty solid defense. And that's going to keep us hopefully in some tight games and we're going to be able to go to work at the plate."
Josh Folck may be reached at jfolck@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshFolck. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.