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Seeing beyond the day
Salem CC softball coaches take, share encouragement from team’s play despite being swept by current region leader Mercer
REGION XIX SOFTBALL Mercer 8-7, Salem CC 4-6 RCSJ-Gloucester 9-0, Monroe 8-12 Lackawanna 10-6, Frederick CC 1-0 Bucks 12, RCSJ-Cumberland 5 Bergen at Dutchess Brookdale at Morris Middlesex at Orange County CC Morris at Sussex
By Al Muskewitz Riverview Sports News
PENNSVILLE — The Salem CC softball team came ever so close to giving acting head coach Mackenzie Freas an early birthday present by knocking off a team they haven’t had much luck against in the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader.
The Mighty Oaks had a lead after a big inning with six outs to go, but then Mercer did what Mercer always does against the Mighty Oaks and rallied to complete a sweep of their Region 19 twin bill and regular-season series, 8-4 and 7-6.
Under any other circumstances it would have been an occasion to hang heads and put on a brave face when it came to talking about what transpired over the last four and a half hours of softball. But this time, the Mighty Oaks were encouraged by the things they saw against a team they had only beaten only once in 12 previous meetings, never in the regular season, and hadn’t score a run the last four times they played, including both games the day before Easter.
The Mighty Oaks (20-18) scored three runs in the seventh inning of the opener to make that one close and had the tying run at the plate when it ended, then they scored six in the fifth inning of the nightcap to take a 6-3 lead with six outs to go and just had to get out of the seventh to earn the win.
“Obviously we lost, but it was, I don’t want to say a good loss, but it was like a ‘we needed that,” said Freas, who remains the face of the program while head coach Angel Rodriguez awaits clearance from the college to return. “I think our girls had some doubt, not doubt in themselves because they knew they could do it, but the first time we played them we didn’t even get six walks, or six hits, we didn’t get anything.
“This game we got six runs in one inning. The game before we had three runs on two outs. I think it was almost like an eye-opener to them in like we can do this. We just said to them this is such a good team and you are realizing it now. Now that we’re going into the postseason … during the postseason you don’t want the team that’s red hot, we’re getting red hot. We’re getting so close. We’re getting right there.
“This is the best team in the region and to hold them like we did and then to almost beat them, that felt a little bit good.”
Mercer (29-3) led 3-0 in the nightcap before the Mighty Oaks flipped the game with six in the fifth. Bella Rappa single home the first run, then J.J. Aguirre gave them the lead with a three-run double. But the Mighty Oaks weren’t finished. They reloaded the bases and then Jocelyn Melendez ripped a two-run single up the middle to make it 6-3. Rappa had three hits in the game and Melendez had two.
“Oh my God, that felt great,” Freas said. “I don’t think we felt like that against them since the year (they beat them in the playoffs, 2024). The body of them was so similar and our girls were just like fueling off of it. it was their best way of (thinking) this is what post-season can feel like. That was their taste of it and they want it.”
The Mighty Oaks just had to get six outs to secure the win. Mercer scored two in the sixth, although Aguirre made a diving stop at third with the bases loaded to keep a ball from going down into the corner and really hurting the Mighty Oaks, and two more in the seventh to take the lead.
Karisa Krawiec raced home with the tying run on a wild pitch that was ball four to Isabella Cornish-Didonato. Cornish-Didonato continued around the bases on pitches that got away and finally came home with the go-ahead run when Jamie Kozarski hit a sharp grounder past third that shortstop Lilly Peverelle collected but couldn’t make a throw.
“I just think we tried to get too big in a moment, we tried to do too much in the moment,” Freas said. “When we had that six-run inning nobody was trying to do anything crazy. Everybody was just gotta get on base, gotta do my job, gotta stay patient. And then when we get to the sixth and seventh inning it’s I’ve got to do too much. Before, it was just like you’re just playing to play.
“Come playoffs you can feel this again. You’re going to feel this pressure opportunity again. You have to now get comfortable with that uncomfortable now when we’re in the regular season. Come postseason you’re going to knock it out of the park.”
The Mighty Oaks went down in order in the seventh, but not before making it interesting. Aguirre, the modern-era single-season home run record holder, led off with long fly Krawiac flagged down in right field. Megan Koski lofted a fly into shallow right that Krawiac raced in just as hard to snare and then Witter flew to center to end the game.
The Mighty Oaks hadn’t scored a run against Mercer since the third inning of an April 5, 2025 run-rule loss, but they broke that 27-inning drought in the third inning of Game One on Emme Witter’s sacrifice fly. They could have gotten a lot more early. They had bases-loaded, no-out situations in the first and third innings, but only got the one run out of them.
They finally capitalized on a bases-loaded situation in the seventh, but by then trailed 8-1. Witter delivered a two-run single to make it 8-3 and Jordyn Busch scored the final run on a wild pitch. They brought the tying run to the plate, but the game ended on a grounder back to the pitcher.
“We saw what we can be; we saw that we can play up here,” Freas said. “That’s the No. 1 team in the region and we saw we can get ahead and we can hang with the big dogs. And come playoff time we are going to beat the big dogs. It’s coming. I know it’s coming. This reminds me so much of that (2024) team. It is so similar and we’re starting to see the spurts now.”
ACORNS: The Mighty Oaks are now 1-13 in the series with Mercer since reviving their program. Their only win came in the first round of the 2024 Region 19 playoffs (6-0) … Game 2 Thursday was the closest game in the series … Aguirre is two RBIs shy of tying the modern era single-season school record (Ella Hayes, 61) … Freas continues to serve as the Mighty Oaks’ head coach while Rodriguez awaits clearance to return by college HR, although he has been medically cleared by his cardiac surgeon to return to his full-time job as a Salem CC advisor and fulfill his daily coaching responsibilities. He spoke to the team after the doubleheader … Freas’ birthday is Friday.
Riverview Sports News 