By BRIAN TORTELLA
Correspondent
X @tortreports
AUDUBON — If you would have asked 90 percent of South Jersey softball fans who they would pick to win the South Jersey Group 1 final between third-seeded Haddon Township and No. 1 Audubon on Saturday morning, the choice would have been clear — Audubon.
What an educated fan would have told you, though, is to keep an eye on Haddon Township’s Jordan Strauss.
The junior ace has proved to be one of the top pitchers in the region this season, standing at 154 strikeouts heading into Saturday’s final. She has also made some noise at the plate, batting nearly .600.
Strauss went the distance while adding 10 more strikeouts as Haddon Township upset Audubon, 5-2, in the sectional championship.
“This means everything,” Strauss said. “Last year we lost in the semifinals (5-1 to Clayton) and winning is just the best feeling. We all knew it was a big game, we all knew we were the underdogs, but we knew that we could do it and we’ve been practicing all year for it. We had to trust ourselves. We’ve been leading up to this, especially in school, we look at the flag every day and see the last one was in 2006 and we knew we had to come out here and get it done. I definitely felt a little nervous, but I had to relax myself on the mound. I took a lot of deep breaths on the way here. I knew I had to come out here and get it down on the mound.”
Those deep breaths worked. Although her showing inside the circle shut down Audubon’s power hitting squad, it was her prowess at the plate that really took the life out of the Green Wave. Her double in the fifth inning opened up the floodgates, and extended Haddon Township’s lead to 4-1. She made it home shortly after on an RBI from Taylor Cusick.
“I think I knew that was going to be the one that gets us ahead,” the Siena commit said. “That was probably the best hit all season.”
Said Hawks coach Gary O’Brien, of Strauss: “Jordan’s a bulldog, man. She’s tough as nails. Mentally, physically, emotionally. She doesn’t get rattled. I went out and saw her once today. I think I probably went out to the mound three times all year. She’s got it. You know she’s got it. Jordan came into the playoffs with around 67 innings pitched. It was more of a 60/40 split (with Alexis Bordi & Taylor Cusick) instead of a 90/10, which is what you see with most teams. I wanted her arm fresh, but when the playoffs started, I told her this was her playoff run.”
Cusick went 3-for-4 with an RBI in the victory. The senior’s single to send Strauss home in the fifth inning was the final dagger to give the Hawks a commanding lead with two innings remaining.
“This is the first time we’ve gone this far in my four years of playing,” Cusick said. “It’s really great to do this my senior year with these girls. They’re amazing, they really are. We got our heads together, we came in, and we said ‘this is it, we’re going to stay in it, we’re going to win it.’ We didn’t take anything from that loss against them beforehand, we said ‘it’s a new game, fresh start.’”
Haddon Township (20-6, 8-0 Colonial Patriot) avenged a 6-1 loss to Audubon (18-6, 8-2 Colonial Liberty) from April 30. This time, the score was nearly flipped. Along the way, they edged Woodstown, 3-1, and routed second-seed Buena, 9-1 on Thursday.
“We said at the beginning of the year — before we even rolled out the balls — that Audubon’s going to be the team to beat if you want to win a group championship,” coach O’Brien said. “You have to go through Audubon. They showed out all year. They beat us 6-1 at our place, and that was a little humbling. We made a lot of mistakes in that game and we tried to clean them up for this game. I couldn’t be more proud of my girls and this coaching staff.”
Audubon enjoyed another great season, but fell short in the sectional final for the sixth time in the last eight seasons.
“We definitely made mistakes defensively and they capitalized on our mistakes with hits,” coach Erin Small said. “You have to give them credit for coming up with timely hits when they had runners in scoring position. We left a lot of runners on today. The first time we played Haddon Township, they made the mistakes, and we did not. This time, it was just reversed. That is why the score is very similar. It was a very similar game. The mistakes happened on our end, not theirs.”
