Early exit

Salem CC softball eliminated from Region 19 Tournament in two games

REGION 19 TOURNAMENT
Friday’s games
Delaware Tech 10, Salem CC 4
Mercer 5, Lackawanna 1
Lackawanna 9, Salem CC 0
Mercer 9, Delaware Tech 3
Saturday’s games
Delaware Tech vs. Lackawanna, 10 a.m.
Del Tech-Lackawanna winner vs. Mercer, noon
If necessary, 2 p.m.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WEST WINDSOR – A tough season ended in a tough way for the Salem Community College softball team Friday.

The Mighty Oaks had hoped to carry the energy they had in a spirited opening-round loss to Delaware Tech in their elimination game with Lackawanna, but it just didn’t materialize.

They were held to two hits and five base runners and lost to the Falcons 9-0 in five innings to exit the Region 19 Tournament in two games.

“It was a tough Game 2, it looks like we just left a lot of our energy in that Game 1,” Salem coach Angel Rodriguez said.

The two pitchers the Mighty Oaks faced in the tournament hurt them at the plate as well as in the circle. They were a combined 4-for-7 with two homers, two doubles and 10 RBIs.

Del Tech’s Kylee Hill snapped a 2-2 tie with a three-run homer in the first-round game and Lackawanna’s Jillian Heimberger put the Falcons out front with a two-run homer in the first inning of the elimination game.

“Their hitters,” Rodriguez said. “They’re two-way athletes.”

The Falcons doubled their lead with two runs in the third and broke it open with five in the fourth highlighted by Heimberger’s two-run fielder’s choice. The Mighty Oaks threatened in the third, loading the bases with two outs, but couldn’t get the runs home.

The Mighty Oaks finished the season 19-25. Fourteen of their losses came to the other three teams in the tournament.

“We just wanted to get here and compete,” Rodriguez said. “We started out that way, it just didn’t end that way. We just have to make sure we’re getting better for next year.”

The only two hits the Mighty Oaks managed off Heimberger were Callie Rozak’s leadoff single in the second inning and Ella Hayes’ two-out double in the fifth.

The loss brought to a close to Hayes’ decorated JUCO career.

The sophomore shortstop, who was the Region 19 Player of the Year as a freshman, finished with a .586 career average with 154 hits, 117 runs, 16 homers and 115 RBIs. She was aggressive all the way to the end. Her final Salem at bat was a two-out double in the fifth inning to keep the inning alive.

“I’ve been in that position before,” Hayes said. “I remember one game, it was a big game and it was pretty close. We had two outs on us, no runners on, and my dad’s behind me (saying) put the pressure on the next batter. That kind of stuck with me, so that scenario was very similar – two outs, put the pressure on the next batter and keep it going. That was going through my mind the whole time.”

Del Tech 10, Salem CC 4

The Mighty Oaks will go into the afternoon session of the first day of the Region 19 tournament with a different vibe than they did a year ago.

Last year they went into Round 2 with a sense of confidence after knocking off the top seed that handled them in the regular season in the opening round. This year they go to the afternoon session with a sense of urgency after falling to top-seed Delaware Tech 10-4.

It’ll now take four wins to take the title.

“It’s a different year, we weren’t really comparing both, but we knew going into the playoffs everyone is 0-0,” Salem coach Angel Rodriguez said. “There was pressure being the 4 seed, we knew we had to go out there and compete and get some momentum.”

For a while early on it looked like the Mighty Oaks might find that first-round magic for the second year in a row.

Facing a pitcher who had one-hit them in their last meeting, the Mighty Oaks took a 2-0 lead in the third on Chantelle Haskie’s two-run single and some aggressive baserunning by Ella Hayes and scored two more runs in the fourth. Hayes scored a run in each inning from first base on hits by Haskie.

But Del Tech answered each outburst with five-run innings of their own to take control. Pitcher Kylee Hill snapped a 2-2 tie with a three-run homer in the third and had a two-run double in the fifth.

Hill had allowed the Might Oaks one run and five total hits in the two games she faced them this year. Salem got seven hits off her Friday morning and that gives Rodriguez reason for optimism going into the afternoon.

“We played our best game against a team we only got four hits off the whole season,” he said. “I think our momentum is there and confidence is there, now we’ve just got to go out there and play like we just did and hopefully things will go our way this time.”

It didn’t.