Gritty? Definitely.

Plucky? No doubt.

One tough cookie? Believe it.

Newark’s Ryan Williams checks the boxes. It’s why the junior third baseman considered her decision a no-brainer to play this spring and summer travel with a torn ACL in her left knee.

Her reasons? Twofold.

The travel season following a potential college recruit’s junior year in high school is extremely important for getting noticed.

Then there’s the goal of making a second straight trip to the Class 1A state finals after the Norsemen finished fourth last season.

“I didn’t want to let my team down,” Williams said. “There’s a lot of really talented seniors on this team who are going to be graduating, so I’m sticking around to hopefully help us make it to state this year for them.”

How is she doing?

Very well, thank you.

Williams, who earned third team all-state honors after hitting .432 last season, entered Tuesday’s 10-0 nonconference win against Class 2A Sandwich hitting .500 with 29 RBIs.

She led a 16-hit attack by going 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles and a walk, driving in three runs and lifting her average to .523 for the Norsemen (26-1).

It backed the four-hit shutout thrown by junior pitcher Kodi Rizzo (8-0), who had a season-high 14 strikeouts.

Senior shortstop Breanna Sexton had three hits, including a double, to lead Sandwich (11-11).

“It’s my out pitch, kind of what I’m known for,” Rizzo said of a change-up that gave Indian hitters fits.

Newark coach Tim Schofield called Rizzo’s change-up “salty.”

“She throws her fastball 60 mph and gets a lot of swings and misses, then the change comes in at 40,” he said. “She gets a lot of called strikes on it. It may look like a beach ball, but it’s difficult to pull the trigger.”

Senior second baseman Kaitlyn Schofield, the coach’s daughter, added two doubles, including a shot high off the fence in left field that is 225 feet from the plate at the spacious Sandwich field.

Junior center fielder Danica Peshia added three singles and anchored a solid defense with three fine catches, the last on a running, lunging grab of a drive to deep right-center off the bat of Sandwich’s Allison Olson.

“She hit that one and I said, ‘Uh-oh, she got that one good,’” Tim Schofield said. “But Danica made up ground quick. That was a great catch.”

In the third inning, Peshia turned the wrong way going back on the ball and had to turn again but came up with the catch.

“I was thinking, ‘That one’s on me — that’s my fault,’” Rizzo said. “She made it work, though. She always makes it work. She’s a very good fielder. She tracks the ball really well. I trust her. It doesn’t have to look pretty, as long as she catches it.”

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Williams, who wears a brace outside her uniform pants, injured her knee in December at a college camp at Morehead State in Kentucky. It happened on the first drill players were going through.

“I went to crow hop and throw the ball and thought I hyperextended it,” Williams said.

A subsequent MRI revealed the tear. She plans to have the surgery in late summer and hopes to return next spring for her senior season.

Williams’ mother Dawn is a physical therapist and oversees daily workouts to strengthen the leg muscles around her knee.

“At first it was painful and would swell up,” Ryan said. “Now I’ve gotten strong enough because I do the exercises every single day, getting the muscles around it strong enough to support it.”

Schofield said Williams hasn’t missed any time and does well in the field.

“It’s easier for her to come forward than go side to side but she does a good job coming in on bunts,” Schofield. “She’s doing the things she needs to keep in the game.”