Salem CC softball among national leaders in hitting, as a team and individually, but remain outside JUCO’s Division II Top 20

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT – The Salem CC softball team is off to its best start in program history. The Mighty Oaks have one of the longest current winning streaks in its division and several players among the national leaders, but it’s still not enough to break them into the national rankings.

The Mighty Oaks (20-4) have an 18-game winning streak and lead JUCO Division II in batting (.436) and on-base percentage (.534) among teams that have played at least 20 games this season, but they weren’t listed in this week’s Top 20 or teams receiving votes.

Oaks leadoff hitter Karyn Trice is second nationally in batting (.594) and first in OBP (.689) among players on teams with a minimum of 20 games. Ella Hayes is fourth in batting (.585), fourth in OBP (.641) and 11th in slugging (1.015). Other statistics are listed on a total basis and Hayes is tied for 14th in total RBIs.

Morgan Mecham is eighth in ERA among pitchers with 10 or more appearances (1.35). The Oaks are sixth in team ERA (2.40) and tenth in strikeouts per seven innings (7.37).

Despite their early-season success, the Oaks remained unranked in the latest D-II Top 20. Among the teams in this week’s poll, only unanimous No. 1 Parkland (30) and No. 14 Bryant & Stratton-Wis. (18) have winning streaks equal or longer than the Oaks. 

“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be (in the poll); I think we have a good shot,” Salem coach Angel Rodriguez said after Sunday’s sweep of Bucks CC. “We’re playing hot. We’re doing all the right things.

“The first step was getting a player recognized for the first time (GSAC Player of the Week Hayes). That’s a good start; hopefully we can make a good argument this week and see when the new rankings come up. It’s definitely going to be nice to see it, but (if) we don’t see it, it’s just more motivation for us – what do we have to keep doing to get there.”

JUCO DIVISION II RANKINGS
1. Parkland (37-3), 2. Copiah-Lincoln (27-3), 3. Louisburg (33-3), 4. Murray State (33-5), 5. Pearl River (33-6), 6. Jones (26-10), 7. Johnson County (26-6), 8. LSU-Eunice (32-8), 9. Kirkwood (22-10), 10. Phoenix (25-6);
11. Des Moines Area (23-7), 12. East Central (26-8), 13. St. Johns River (36-13), 14. Bryant & Stratton-Wis. (18-1), 15. Hines (23-11), 16. Spoon River (24-12), 17. Catawba Valley (19-2), 18. Cowley County (29-10), 19. Marion Military Institute (32-12), 20. NW Mississippi (19-13).
Receiving votes: Bryant & Stratton-Va., North Iowa Area, Kankakee, Rock Valley.

Salem CC softball reaches 20 wins for season, extends winning streak to 18 games; perhaps it’s time to bring the Oaks into the national picture

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – K.C. Garcia was just a little bit surprised when she was asked to participate in the post-game interviews after another weekend of Salem CC softball sweeps. 

It isn’t often a reserve outfielder with 25 at bats on the season gets requested to provide some insight on another Mighty Oaks run-rule sweep, but with a little bit of reflection the reason became abundantly clear.

It wasn’t lost on the sophomore from Houston the significance her jersey number has on the results of the day.

Salem reached the 20-win plateau for season Sunday with a 10-2, 11-0 sweep of Bucks CC at Watson Field. Neither game made it past the fifth inning.

“Our 20 wins, which is our highest record that we’ve had,” the Mighty Oaks’ No. 20 said. “It hasn’t (sunk in) yet, but I think it will a little bit later.”

Sunday’s sweep also extended the Oaks’ winning streak to 18 games, which is two more wins than they had all of last season.

The 20 wins aren’t quite enough to get the Oaks (20-4) in the playoffs yet – with a projected 48-game schedule that magic number is four for a .500 record to qualify – but it does represent a significant improvement over the team’s record in its resumption of play a year ago, which has been the goal all along. The Oaks were 13-11 after 24 games a year ago.

“(The 20) means a lot to me,” pitcher Caitlin LaGreca said. “Especially coming from last year since our record was definitely not like that last year.”

“We made our first mark last year, having the first team in quite some time, so anything we did last year was just great because we got it going,” Oaks coach Angel Rodriguez said. “This year we wanted to set the bar a little higher and we went out and got a team that’s going to put in the work to do that. We’re just creating our own history here and we love it. The goal we had was to be better than we were last year and build from there and we’re just glad to be doing that now.”

It was another big day for the offense, supported by more sharp pitching in the circle. The Oaks banged out 27 hits in the two games.  The first six batters in their lineup went a combined 23-for-38 with 18 RBIs, 10 extra-base hits and a pair of homers in the doubleheader. Pitchers LaGreca and Morgan Mecham allowed three hits in each game.

Ella Hayes went 4-for-5 with eight RBIs in the doubleheader and came within a homer of hitting the cycle in the nightcap. Karyn Trice went 3-for-3 in Game 2 and 5-for-6 with five runs in the twinbill. Faith Penn had three hits and four runs; Vaye Savage had three hits with a homer in the opener and five RBIs; Haylee Pickrell had three hits with a homer in the nightcap, and Courtney Hoggard had four hits and two RBIs.

“Since I’m the third batter I always tell Karyn and Faith to do a job and I’ll get them in, and they’ve been doing their jobs every time,” Hayes said. “I’m pretty sure they’re all the RBIs I’ve had or pretty close. I really rely on them to get the job done and I know if I can’t get the job done they or (the following hitters) will get it done.”

The pitchers have given up 36 runs in the winning streak, but 21 of those came in two games. LaGreca’s shutout in the nightcap was the Oaks’ seventh during the streak and ninth of the season.

The longer the streak goes, the pitchers might start feeling the squeeze to keep it going. LaGreca said she feels pressure “sometimes,” but she relies on her teammates’ continual support to bring her through it.

“There is pressure, we have that chip on our shoulder, but we also have that swagger in us that allows us to play loose and have fun,” Hayes said.

For all the success the Mighty Oaks have enjoyed in the last month, it hasn’t shown up on the national scene. It remains to be seen if they will be ranked in the JUCO Division II Top 20 when it comes out Monday. Their .427 team batting average would rank fourth nationally, their 9.9 runs per game average would be among the leaders and their 2.40 ERA would be T-7 among teams with 18 games or more.

“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be; I think we have a good shot,” Rodriguez said. “We’re playing hot. We’re doing all the right things. The first step was getting a player recognized for the first time (GSAC Player of the Week Hayes). That’s a good start; hopefully we can make a good argument this week and see when the new rankings come up. It’s definitely going to be nice to see it, but (if) we don’t see it, it’s just more motivation for us – what do we have to keep doing to get there.”

The Oaks haven’t suffered a loss since March 10, their final game in the Carolinas. They’ve trailed only four times during the winning streak and never after the fifth inning. It begs the question, will the Oaks ever lose again? The law of averages and nature of the game would suggest the streak will end at some point, but the players won’t hear of it.

“No, no shot,” Hayes said. “I won’t allow it. None of us will allow it. We’re going to keep that win streak.”

“Never again, never again,” Garcia said emphatically. “I’ll bet you 20.”

There’s that number again.