Streak ends

Salem CC softball splits at Northampton, loss in nightcap ends Mighty Oaks’ winning streak at 19 games

By Riverview Sports News

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – As much as the players didn’t want it to end, the law of averages suggested Salem softball’s winning streak had to end sometime.

Northampton CC used a five-run fifth inning, highlighted by Morgan Boyd’s game-tying home run, to beat Salem 8-6 and stop the Mighty Oaks’ winning streak from reaching 20 games.

The Oaks’ extended their streak to 19 games in Game 1 of the doubleheader, 3-2, pushing across the go-ahead run on Vaye Savage’s sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh. It was the second-longest active winning streak in the country after Bryant & Stratton (Wis.) dropped the first game of its doubleheader Tuesday.

Division II No. 1 Parkland College is working on a 32-game winning streak.

“The streak was the streak; though it was great, we always took it one game at a time,” Oaks coach Angel Rodriguez said. “As far as the team, they obviously didn’t want to see it end, but we have a lot of softball left to play and a lot more to prove as a group.”

It looked like the Oaks (21-5) were headed for another sweep when they scored four in the first inning of the nightcap highlighted by Courtney Hoggard’s three-run homer. Vaye Savage’s two-run homer gave them a 6-3 lead in the fifth, but the Spartans (6-4), ranked No. 10 in JUCO Division III, answered and took the lead in the bottom of the inning.

Boyd hit a three-run homer to tie the game. Morgan Rissmiller gave the Spartans a 7-6 lead with an RBI double and Rissmiller scored on Chelsea Melkowits’ single.

Sydney Harper then kept the Oaks off the board in the sixth and seventh inning, 

Emma Hayes went 5-for-8 in doubleheader, raising her season average to .589 (43-for-73). Savage (3-for-4) and Hoggard (2-for-4) both drove in three runs in the nightcap.

“We learned from each game up to where we are now and with the split there’s a lot we can take away and get better for the next series, which in this case is a quick turnaround as we are back at it tomorrow,” Rodriguez said.

The Oaks return to the field Wednesday with a doubleheader at RCSJ-Cumberland, a team they swept in the early stages of the winning streak.