Salem CC diamond drama

Mighty Oaks softball swept at home by Harford, baseball splits on first day of Myrtle Beach trip

SOFTBALL
Harford CC 12-4, Salem CC 2-3
BASEBALL
PSU-Hazleton 12, Salem CC 8
Salem CC 8, Illinois Valley 7

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – There was a lot to digest in Salem CC’s softball doubleheader Monday. There was some good. There was some bad. There was even some it could’ve been worse.

The bad was the Mighty Oaks were swept by Harford CC 12-2 and 4-3 to snap their four-game run-rule winning streak. In the it could’ve been worse department, at least it wasn’t a Region 19 counter like their season-opening sweep by Lackawanna. As for the good, they’ve got two more days of expected good weather to get themselves right before heading out on its spring break trip in Virginia, not that that’s any consolation.

“Being swept is never good whether it’s a region (doubleheader) or not,” Salem coach Angel Rodriguez said. “That’s just something we don’t want to deal with and we have to be able to play and win these kind of games.

“We’re right there, there’s some little things we have to keep working on to get better, but this one is going to hurt because we had every right to stay in this game. We did. We showed a little bit of our stuff, but we just didn’t show it consistently. We had a good opportunity to stick with and beat a really good team (and) we did not do that. We’ve got to do better. We’ve got to be able to pull stuff like this out.”

The Mighty Oaks (4-4) didn’t have much luck in the opener, falling behind 4-1 and then giving up six runs in the third inning. Noelle Beavers had three hits and seven RBIs for Harford (4-2), including a game-breaking three-run triple in the third.

The nightcap went much better for the home side. The Mighty Oaks were putting together a potential game-winning rally in the bottom of the seventh of the nightcap, getting the tying run to second with none out, before a bizarre infield out and a game-ending bang-bang 4-6-3 double play that left both teams wondering if it was the right call.

Salem trailed 4-2 going into their last bats, but had the top of the order due. Jalyn Rambally and Lilly Peverelle opened the inning with back-to-back doubles to make it 4-3. J.J. Aguirre, the Mighty Oaks’ most productive hitter, draw a walk and was replaced by Kasen Ervin on the bases.

Savannah Palverento hit a ball towards second that hit Ervin on the basepaths, killing the play and sending Peverelle back to second base. Chantelle Haskie pinch-hit for Sawyer Simmons, who had been hitless in the doubleheader, and grounded to second that keystone combo Audrey Coker and Katelyn McCullough turned into their third twin killing of the twinbill, with Haskie called out on a close play at first.

Haskie said “I feel like I was there already; kind of shocking a bit.” Rodriguez was convinced she was. Harford coach Dan Ashby said he wouldn’t have argued if they called the runner safe; “it was that close,” he said. Video replay showed the sophomore beat the throw.

“She 100 percent beat it out, but what are you going to do,” Rodriguez said. “We just have to put ourselves in a better position and hopefully not get into something like that to where it’s a close call, but … It’s a call that should’ve been maybe gotten help on, but they said we’re not going to judge on a judgement call, which was tough, especially on a close play like that. I thought it was close. At the end of the day it’s 50-50 and it just didn’t go our way that time.”

The Mighty Oaks took a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning, playing small ball to put runners in scoring position before Peverelle delivered a two-run single. The Fighting Owls robbed them of another run in the inning on a diving catch in the outfield, then retook the lead with three in the sixth.

“It showed us what we could’ve done, but we waited too long to do it,” Rodriguez said. “We had to adjust sooner and we just weren’t. We were playing into the pitcher’s pitches. We had a lot of hitter’s counts we were not capitalizing on and that hurt today. We just have to reflect on that and learn from that and get better. We were in a lot of positions to help ourselves out and we just played it to her ball and they made a couple really good plays on defense.”

GAME ONE	HARFORD 12	SALEM CC 2	R	H	E
Harford (3-2)	226	02-	12	12	1
Salem CC (4-3)	011	00-	2	6	2

GAME TWO	HARFORD 4	SALEM CC 3	R	H	E
Harford (4-2)	001	003 0-	4	5	0
Salem CC (4-4)	000	020 1-	3	11	3

Baseball splits

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Trevor Hernandez hit his second homer of the season and Chase Hortiz and Tyler Hacker each drove in a pair of runs as the Salem CC baseball team edged Illinois Valley 8-7 to earn a split on the first day of its spring break trip.

The Mighty Oaks lost their first game to Penn State-Hazleton 12-8.

Salem scored three runs in the first inning of their second game and held a 5-1 lead after two. Illinois Valley tied it in the fourth, but the Mighty Oaks scored single runs in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth and never lost the lead. Joe Pallante pitched the first four innings for the win and Tyler Hacker worked the seventh for the save.

The trip got off to a balky start. First-game starter Joe D’Amato walked five of the seven batters he faced in the first inning and Penn State-Hazleton scored five in the first on the way to an 8-0 lead. The Mighty Oaks got within 9-5 after a four-run fourth inning, but could never get the lead.

Hacker homered and doubled and drove in three runs. Roman Hernandez went 4-for-4 with three RBIs.

The trip continues Tuesday with a pair of night games against Lakeland CC and the CC of Rhode Island.

GAME ONE	PSU-HAZLETON 12	SALEM CC 8	R	H
Salem CC	001	401 2-	8	9
PSU-Hazleton	531	021 x-	12	14

GAME TWO	SALEM CC 8	ILLINOIS VALLEY 7	R	H
Illinois Valley (0-3)	012	201 1-	7	8
Salem CC (3-3)	320	111 x-	8	8