Staff Report
The Cedar Creek softball team rapped out 18 hits and scored 20 runs in its season-opening win over Ocean City on April 1.
It doesn’t seem like there will be any let-up in the Pirates’ offensive attack the rest of the season. These girls can hit.
The Pirates — who won last year’s South Jersey Group 2 championship with an 8-7 win over Delran in the sectional title game — continued to show they are the real deal this weekend by winning the 26th Annual Battle of the Conferences Tournament at Overbrook High School. The tournament was single elimination and featured 16 teams from the Cape-Atlantic League, Burlington County Scholastic League, Colonial Conference and the Tri-County Conference.
Cedar Creek opened the tournament with a 13-0 win over Highland, then cruised past Haddon Heights, 8-1, in the quarterfinals. In the semifinal round, the Pirates got past Gloucester City, 6-3, before taking down GCIT, 9-5, to win the championship. A big highlight for the Pirates in that game was leadoff batter Olivia Catalina reaching 100 hits for her career.
The Pirates trailed the Cheetah’s 5-3 heading into the bottom of the fourth, but rallied for four runs to take the lead for good at 7-5.
With four wins over the weekend, the Pirates have improved to 5-1. Their only loss was 4-2 in eight innings to Paul VI at the Ron Vinick Tournament at Millville earlier this season.
Aside from Cedar Creek’s powerful bats, the Pirates have a pretty solid 1-2 punch inside the circle with Liz Martin and Giavana Torres. Martin twirled complete games against Haddon Heights and Gloucester and came in for a three-inning save in the championship game against GCIT.
Martin was also a factor on the offensive side during the title game, going 2-for-4 with three RBIs, while Chasedy and Chaneyl Johnson combined for three hits, three runs and an RBI. Catalina added a hit and two runs, and catcher Allison Amadio chipped in a hit and two RBIs.
Cedar Creek gets back in action on Tuesday when it travels to Absegami, then another road game at Mainland on Thursday before a big tilt with St. Joseph Academy during Spring Break.
