Tag: salem cc

Savage sweep

Salem CC softball christens new Pennsville LL home with a doubleheader sweep of RCSJ-Cumberland

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – People around the Salem CC softball program know Vaye Savage as a player who will come early to the field and even show up to work when no one’s around. She was right on time Sunday.

The sophomore first baseman from Texas snared a hot liner with the bases loaded that surely would have tied the game and casually stepped on the bag for an inning-ending double play and then delivered an RBI single in the bottom of the inning to extend the lead in an eventual 7-1 win over RCSJ-Cumberland in the Mighty Oaks’ first-ever game in their new Pennsville Little League home.

The Oaks completed a successful christening of their new digs by winning the nightcap to sweep the day, 5-0.

“We did everything we were hoping to do,” Salem CC coach Angel Rodriguez said. “We came out and competed. Lovely ball field here, so I think that kind of helped out a little bit; you saw all the crowd comes out. So, everything we wanted to get out of what our home experience is going to be this year we did.”

Since reviving the program, the Oaks have played their games at the Carneys Point Recreation Complex, but while convenient, the facility wasn’t quite adequate for their needs. They looked around for a new site and struck a 12-month year-to-year deal last September to play on the Pennsville LL’s Watson Field.

The Oaks practiced in the complex during the fall and spring and played their first official games there Sunday. They have 11 more doubleheader dates there this season, including four straight between March 20 and 26.

“It was surreal,” Rodriguez said of the experience. “Just getting the field ready, going through warmups, I think they felt it, like having a home field where they feel at home.

“When we were thinking about the switch we brought the whole team knowing the majority of them were coming back. I think once they saw the complex, saw the field, their eyes lit up. Our goal was to try to make it happen and we did. They take pride in it every day and I definitely think they just feel more comfortable playing here, just knowing the facility feels like their home.”

Savage called it an “awesome field.”

Their era there couldn’t have started better.

In the first game Caitlin LeGreca pitched a three-hitter and struck out five. Seven of the Oaks’ nine hitters had at least one hit. Ella Hayes went 3-for-4 and Emilie Hamm went 2-for-3 with three RBIs.

Savage decorated the dugout for the occasion, then delivered the play of the day. The Oaks took a 4-0 lead into the fifth. The Dukes had just scored on a one-out bases-loaded walk. Cecely Dominguez hit a rocket towards right field. Savage, standing a few steps from the bag, stuck out her glove and speared it, then stepped on first to get the runner who took off thinking, like everyone in the park, the ball was headed into the corner to clear the bases and tie the game.

“You definitely felt that momentum change for sure,” Rodriguez said. “When she made that, we shifted it back in our favor.”

“The ball was just right there and I ended up sticking my glove up and catching it, and then I remembered the girl was on first and we got three outs,” Savage said. “I just kind of stuck my glove out there. My team knows on third base I have like no reaction time so I feel all of them were a little surprised at my reaction time on first.”

Ace Morgan Mecham pitched the nightcap and her advanced velocity proved too much of an adjustment for the Dukes. Mecham threw a two-hit shutout and struck out a season-high nine with no walks. She faced only three batters over the minimum.

She retired 12 of the first 13 hitters she faced and her last seven of the game. She has given up only one run in her last four starts – all wins, three shutouts – with 27 strikeouts and three walks. She hasn’t issued a walk in her last 13 2/3 innings.

“We have kind of a rivalry with them so it was kind of more personal than other teams,” Mecham said.

GAME 1
Salem CC 7, RCSJ Cumberland 1

RCSJ-Cumberland (0-3)0000100-132
Salem CC (5-4)002230x-7102
ASHLEY BRAG (0-2), Karly Smaniotto (4) and Mimi Acevedo, Jordan Spates (4); CAITLIN LaGRECA (2-3) and Callie Rozak. 2B: Mimi Acevedo (R), Ella Hayes (S). 3B: Ella Hayes (S).

GAME 2
Salem CC 5, RCSJ-Cumberland 0

RCSJ-Cumberland (0-4)0000000-022
Salem CC (6-4)002300x-561
GIANNA FISKE (0-2) and Jordan Spates; MORGAN MECHAM (4-1) and Vaye Savage. 2B: Karyn Trice (S).
Salem CC pitcher Morgan Mecham spun her third shutout in her last four starts in the second game of Sunday’s sweep. On the cover, first baseman Vaye Savage takes the stance that helped her make the defensive play of the first game. (Photos by John Holt)

Oaks bounce back

Mecham tough in circle as Salem softball scores first win of season after dropping first game of the day in a walk-off; 4 in seventh send baseball to defeat

By Riverview Sports News

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – After losing its first game of the day in the most heartbreaking of ways, the Salem CC softball team bounced back in its second game to earn its first victory of the season, 9-0 over Henry Ford College.

Morgan Mecham spun the shutout, allowing eight hits and striking out seven. The Hawks threatened at times, but Mecham held them to 0-for-12 with their seven runners in scoring position.

The Mighty Oaks supported her with 11 hits, including four doubles. Courtney Hoggard and Emilie Hamm had two hits apiece, Vaye Savage drove in three runs and Haylee Pickrell plated a pair.

“We’re just starting to get in a groove as a team,” Oaks coach Angel Rodriguez said. “Game 1 was a great game against a very good Harford team. We had a few things that didn’t go our way, but we had one statement at the end of the game: How are you going to bounce back and handle the adversity in Game 2?

“They went out and stuck together as a team and earned a very sweet victory to finish the day.”

The Oaks suffered their third straight loss to open their Southern swing when Harford scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to pull out a 4-3 victory. Salem led 2-0 after two innings and took a 3-2 lead in the sixth.

Their first two losses were equally tough to absorb – an 8-0 shutout in the opener and losing an early lead in the late innings of the second game – but this one went right down to the wire.

The Oaks took the lead in the sixth on Pickrell’s leadoff double and Kalila Pace’s RBI single to center.

Harford loaded the bases against reliever Caitlin LeGreca in the bottom of the seventh on a leadoff walk and two one-out walks before delivering a single up the middle to end the game.

LeGreca came in to start the fourth after starter Jill Robinson pitched three shutout innings to open the game.

Hoggard, Savage and Pickrell all had two hits for Salem.

GAME 1

Salem CC1100010–382
Harford CC0002002–4101

GAME 2

Salem CC2120013-9110
Henry Ford0000000-080

Baseball
Seventh-inning rally sinks Salem

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Penn State Hazelton scored six runs in the final two innings, four with none out in the bottom of the seventh, to hand Salem CC a 10-9 defeat.

The Oaks rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to take a 7-2 lead in the top of the fourth and a 9-4 lead after batting in the sixth. Penn State’s four runs in the seventh came home on two bases-loaded walks, a bases-loaded hit batsman and a game-ending error in the infield.

Demetrius DeRamus had another big day at the plate for Salem with two hits and three RBIs. Matt Murphy and Cole Dawson had two hits apiece and Nick Ciesielka had two RBIs.

Salem CC0043110-998
PSU Hazelton0211124-1094
WP: Zach Brister. LP: John McAllister.