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Getting off the mat
After blowing big lead in opener, Salem CC splits softball doubleheader with Delaware Tech; Aguirre sets modern-era single-season HR record
SUNDAY REGION 19 SOFTBALL Salem CC 14-15, Delaware Tech 18-11 RCSJ-Gloucester 18-12, RCSJ-Cumberland 4-4 Lackawanna 26-22, Morris 0-2
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
PENNSVILLE – The Salem CC softball team saved themselves a lot of what interim head coach Mackenzie Freas called “emotional damage” when it won Game 2 of Sunday’s doubleheader with Delaware Tech after suffering a crushing loss in the opener.
The Mighty Oaks blew a nine-run lead in losing the opener 18-14, but bounced back in the nightcap even with a repeat of the opener brewing to win 15-11.
“It definitely showed what our girls have been the whole year – they’re resilient no matter what’s in front of them,” Freas said. “We had the Angel incident, we’ve had a lot of deaths throughout our team, our girls are doing things at home, all over the board, cross the country, so they are just resilient and showing up every day and being here and I think that proved it Game Two that no matter what the circumstance Game One you still come back and you’ve got to be the one to take the first punch and you can’t go down without swinging. They didn’t allow that (first game) to take them completely out.”
J.J. Aguirre hit three home runs for the Mighty Oaks in the doubleheader, setting the modern-era single-season home run record. She tied the old record with a three-run homer in the opener, then broke it with a pair of two-run shots in her first two at-bats in the nightcap.
She now has a Region 19-leading 11 homers on the season; the Mighty Oaks only hit 13 as a team as recently as 2023. Her 54 RBIs already match two-time Region Player of the Year Ella Hayes’ total of a year ago; Hayes’ 61 RBIs in 2024 is the modern-era school record.
The freshman from Texas went 4-for-7 with three homers and nine RBIs in the doubleheader. Lilly Peverelle went 6-for-9 with seven RBIs, homered in the first game and came within inches of a grand slam in the nightcap.
“I honestly don’t really know anything (about the record),” Aguirre said. “I know my goal. I came in today I want double digits in home run and I did it … Against them last time we played this pitcher struck me out and I wanted to get back and prove that that’s not who I am.”
She got Nos. 10 and 11 in her first two at-bats in the nightcap. The first one tied the game 2-2. The second one gave the Mighty Oaks a 5-2 lead as part of a 10-run third inning.
The first game loss can only be described as crushing. The Mighty Oaks looked on their way to a run-rule victory, scoring 10 runs in the third inning to open an 11-2 lead, but then gave up nine runs the next inning to lose all of it. The game went back and forth from there – with the Mighty Oaks leading twice more — until Del Tech scored five runs in the seventh to take their first lead since the first inning and then closed it out with a game-ending double play.
The Mighty Oaks’ woes in the opener were exasperated by four dropped fly balls in the outfield due to lazy approaches to the ball, prompting them to take fly balls between games, a practice that had done previous but gotten away from for various reasons. Jordyn Busch threw 187 pitches in going the distance in the circle for Salem, but at no time did the coaches consider lifting her from the game.
“Jordyn has gotten so much more mature in softball and I don’t think she realizes it yet,” Freas said. “We are so hard on her, but for the best way possible because we know how good she is at this game and how much she can stay composed, and even when she’s in a position the way that she was she still is keeping batters off balance.
“I think she was composed. She wasn’t allowing herself to slump. We always talk about body language; she wasn’t allow herself to slump. She was sitting in a groove and she was just grooving and ready to go. She was looking at that play for her teammates to kind of help her out.”
If there was a bright spot in the loss it was the Mighty Oaks were hitting the ball, and that carried over into the nightcap.
But the second game went almost the same way. The Mighty Oaks scored 10 runs in the third inning again to regain a 12-2 lead. The inning featured nine hits, including Aguirre’s second homer of the game and Peverelle’s three-run double off the top of the fence in right center.
They were three outs away from a run-rule win when Del Tech scored six in the fifth to extend the game. They were one hit away from walking it off in the bottom of the fifth with two already in and runners at second and third with two outs, but Del Tech shortstop Abby Marsh kept her team in the game by snaring Chantelle Haskey’s sharp liner that was headed into left field.
Del Tech kept the pressure on with Maggie Hubbard’s three-run homer in the sixth (14-11). The Mighty Oaks got one back in the home sixth, then Savannah Palverento got them out of the game by retiring the side in the seventh without incident.
Had they lost the nightcap in a similar fashion to blowing the opener, there’s no telling what kind of emotional spiral they may have fallen into.
“I definitely would’ve been disappointed,” Aguirre said.
But now they can go forward feeling somewhat good about themselves heading into a week that includes games with Harford and region rival Mercer.
With the day’s split, the Mighty Oaks split the season series with Del Tech. They had never beaten the Georgetown school since the revival of the program before winning the second game of their doubleheader there earlier this season.
Delaware Tech
200
920
5-
18
20
7
Salem CC
10(10)
210
0-
14
9
6
WP: Faith Jiminez. LP: Jordyn Busch. HRs: Madison Fox (DT), J.J. Aguirre (S), Lilly Peverelle (S).
MONDAY’S GAMES Salem CC at Harford CC TUESDAY’S GAMES RCSJ-Gloucester at Cecil College Lackawanna at Mercer Sussex at Morris Raritan Valley at Delaware Tech Camden at Brookdale RCSJ-Cumberland at Northampton Bergen at Middlesex THURSDAY’S GAMES Mercer at Salem CC Monroe at RCSJ-Gloucester Bergen at Dutchess Lackawanna at Frederick CC Middlesex at Orange County CC Bucks County at RCSJ-Cumberland Brookdale at Morris Morris at Sussex
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