Lehigh Valley's Carpenter Cup softball team, which includes Catasauqua player, Janae Matos, defeated Philadelphia Catholic's Carpenter Cup team, 10-5, in its first game of the double-elimination tournament on Monday at FDR Park in Philadelphia.

Matos played in the last four innings, catching for Emmaus pitcher, Olivia Marcks.

"It worked well. She has a lot of momentum on her ball and hit her spots. I tried to frame as many pitches as possible to get the questionable calls," Matos said.

Philadelphia Catholic jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but Lehigh Valley took over the lead in the third.

"I wasn't really worried because scoring two runs would be no big deal, but we knew we had to get runners on base and shut them down," said Matos.

Lehigh Valley muddled through the extreme heat to come up with the victory.

"I felt pretty good, but it's extra hot out. I've played down south, and it's not even as bad down there as it is up here," Marcks said. "The other team chased the high ball a lot, so we used that to get them swinging at it. There were a lot of pop-ups, a lot of ground-outs."

Marcks went 2-for-3 and scored a run. Matos walked and popped up twice. All ten of Lehigh Valley's runs came with two outs.

As Lehigh Valley was preparing to warm up for its second game of the day, thunderstorms postponed the rest of Monday's games.

"We had a lot of momentum going with our bats, but we'll be just fine picking up tomorrow," said Matos.

Lehigh Valley returned to FDR Park at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday to take on Tri-Cape, who defeated Berks County on Monday.

"Our coaches talked to the Berks County coaches, so they might know [something about Tri-Cape]. I like our chances [for the rest of the tournament]. We put up ten runs against pretty solid pitchers, and I don't think we had any errors," Matos said.

Editor's note: Wednesday's games take place after Catasauqua Press deadlines. For more on the Carpenter Cup softball tournament, see next week's edition of the Press.