There is a baseball adage that says some hitters can roll out of bed in the morning, grab a bat and start hitting. Unfortunately for the Lehigh Valley Carpenter Cup softball team, hitting first thing on a Monday morning after a very early commute to Philadelphia isn’t a bullet point on their resume.

The team was held to just one hit in their tournament opener on Monday, but by the time game two came around, Lehigh Valley was wide awake and swinging hot bats, winning their next two games and finishing as the top team from their bracket, giving them the opportunity to return to Philadelphia to play again on Wednesday.

In their opener against Burlington County, Central Catholic’s Lauren Egan dropped a bunt single for the only hit of the game in a 1-0 loss. Burlington County picked up their only run in the top of the seventh and then put down Lehigh Valley in the bottom of the inning to preserve the win.

“The girls had an early wake-up call this morning and then had to travel, plus you have to remember that a lot of these girls play on travel teams and might have played six or eight games over the weekend, so they’re a little tired,” said coach Blake Morgan of his team’s early struggles. “As things went on, they got to know each other better and really started to get into playing in these games. I think that first game was just a rough start and maybe some nerves thrown in there.”

In game two, Lehigh Valley faced Inter-Ac/BAL, who put up six runs in the first inning, but by then, Lehigh Valley woke up their bats and came right back with eight runs in two innings to surge ahead 8-6. Northampton’s Taylor Kranzley, who played a flawless shortstop throughout the three games, tripled with the bases loaded and Northwestern Lehigh’s Marissa Christman also delivered with the bases loaded, doubling to plate all three runners. Christman would finish the game 4-for-4 with a run scored and five RBI. Kranzley was again in the middle of the scoring in the fifth when she again cleared the bases, this time with a double, to put Lehigh Valley up 12-6 before Inter-Ac/BAL picked up a run in the seventh.

Lehigh Valley (2-1) closed out the day with an 8-7 win over Olympic Colonial, who had won both of their previous games. Kranzley, Christman and Devin Demchak (Northampton), hitting three, four and five in the Lehigh Valley lineup, combined to go 5-for-12 (.417) with three runs scored and four RBI as Lehigh Valley scored in each of the first four innings and led from start to finish. Meanwhile, Shayla Morgan (Emmaus) and Rozalee Negron (Easton) hit ahead of the big three and both scored two runs in the game with Morgan collecting two hits and Negron delivering a triple.

“Honestly, it’s an honor to be able to play in this tournament. I was super excited by this my freshman year when I first heard about it. My coaches brought it up during the season and I knew that I wanted to come down here and play,” said Freedom’s Natalie Stannard, who was originally exposed to the Carpenter Cup when her brother played in the baseball tournament for Lehigh Valley.

On the mound, Jen Milisits (Central Catholic) threw four shutout innings in the opener, allowing just two hits and Demchak allowed just one run in three innings for Lehigh Valley against Inter-Ac/BAL. Freedom’s Julia Griffith pitched in all three games, combining for 7 1/3 innings and giving up just four hits and one run.

Burlington County and Olympic Colonial also finished the day 2-1 with Lehigh Valley being given the top seed from their bracket based on allowing the fewest average number of runs allowed between the three teams. Olympic Colonial also advanced to day three by virtue of their win over Burlington County.

“Once we got the first game under our belts, the chemistry just really started to come together,” Stannard explained. “We didn’t even know a lot of the other player’s names coming into today because we only had one practice, so we had to get to know each other better.”

In addition to Stannard and Griffith, Freedom’s Julia Heineman also played in all three games for Lehigh Valley.

Morgan believes that his team has the talent to play deep into the tournament. They will play at 9 a.m. Wednesday before potentially moving into the semifinals and finals later in the day as they look for their first tournament win since 2008.

“There’s no doubt that we have some real talent and I’m excited about this team,” he said. “I like the way the chemistry has built up and it’s going to be interesting to see how this all goes.”