This weekend (Friday and Saturday) saw 12 New Jersey high school softball squads take to the diamond for its respective 2022 state group championships at Seton Hall softball field at Ivy Hill Park, in South Orange, N.J.
Here is how the high-octane action shook out.
Game One: No. 8 Clayton beat Weehawken, 5-1, in the Group 1 final on Saturday.
Junior second basemen Ally Koerner went 2-for-4 with three RBI and junior pitcher Meadow Lake struck out 11 batters.
Game Two: 18th-seeded Haddon Heights defeated No.4 Hanover Park, 4-0, behind freshman pitcher Sophia Bordi’s 20-strikeout, no-hit performance on Saturday in the Group 2 final.
Garnett junior Maddy Clark slugged two homeruns, one of which was a three-run bomb.
Game Three: No. 10 Roxbury knocked off eight-seeded Steinert, 6-4, on Saturday for the Group 3 championship, the program’s first group title since 1992.
Game Four: No. 3 Watchung Hills used a sophomore first baseman Ella Stevinson walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth to edge second-seeded Egg Harbor, 2-1, for the Group 4 title.
Game Five: No. 15 Morris Catholic outlasted St. Joseph (Hamm.), 4-3, for the Non-Public B crown on Friday.
Crusader junior pitcher/outfielder Hannah Streicher whiffed eight batters and went 2-4, while Carly Mockenhaupt cubbed two doubles and had an RBI.
Game Six: No. 1 Donovan Catholic beat the fourth-seeded Mount St. Dominic, 2-0, on Friday in the Non-Public A final.
Junior Julia Apostolakos fired a two-hit shutout with 16 strikeouts and accounted for all the runs with a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Donovan Catholic is 30-0 this season and owns a 48-game winning streak.
— Jerry Del Priore
Brooklyn Sports World/NY NJ Sports World 