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PAGE 30 — THURSDAY, MAY 5, 2011 LOCALSOURCE.COM UNION COUNTY LOCALSOURCE JR's • SPORTS All the latest sports chatter, opinions, and scores for Union County. twitter.coni/^UnionCtySports UCT softball moves next to first round By .IK Parachini Sports Editor Governor Livingston, seeking to win its fourth county championship and first since 2001, was selected as the top seed for this month's 36th annual Softball Union County Tournament Competition was to begin this week with live preliminary round games that must be completed by today. Eight first round games are scheduled lor 4 p.m. Saturday at the higher seeds. The quarterfinals are scheduled to be played at Linden May 13 - dou- bleheaders at 6 and S p.m. and the semifinals there May 14 at 6 and 8 p.m. The final, tor the second year in a row. will be at Kean University in Union, scheduled for May 21 at 2 p.m. GL began the week 11-2, with Caldwell being the only team it's played that is has not defeated. The Highlanders split Union County Conlerence- Watchung Division games with Linden. GL won its first UCT title in 1997. second in 1999 and third in 2001. Johnson, which has not won the title since 1981, is the second seed. The Crusaders were judged on an 11-3 record that included losses on the same day in the Colonia Tournament to lselin Kennedy and Woodbridge and a conference-crossover setback to GL. Johnson, which captured the UCT first in 1979 and second in 1981, leads the UCC's Mountain Division with a perfect 10-0 mark and four league games to go - as of the start of the week. Defending UCT champion Cranford, 6-3 at the beginning of the week, is the third seed. The Cougars have won four of the past five crowns and will be seeking a sixth one overall. New Providence earned the fourth seed with a 9-3 record that included two Mountain Division losses to Johnson and a season- opening 2-1 setback at home to out-of-county foe Bernards. Mountain Division teams Brearley. the tilth seed, and Roselle Park, the sixth seed, were seeded ahead of Watchung Division schools West field, the seventh seed, and Linden, the eighth seed. Brearley was 6-5 with a 1-0 record over fellow Mountain Division rival Roselle Park and one more league game to go against the Panthers. Roselle Park has a rare win over Westfield and began the week at 8-6. Westfield is 6-10 and Linden was 4-6 through Saturday's cutoff for Sunday's seeding meeting. Linden went to 5-7 after falling to Nutley and beating Bloomfield at home Sunday in the Linden Classic. Union is the 1 Ith seed, which is its lowest since being seeded eighth in 2001. The Farmers will play at sixth-seeded Roselle Park in one of Saturday's first round games and it will be the first time the schools are facing each other in a count} conies! since Union blanked Roselle Park 1-0 in a 2008 semifinal at Linden. Union head coach Chris I'linn. at the helm of the Partners since 1996, and Roselle Park mentor Iran Maggio, at the helm of the Panthers since 1997, are close friends. I linn has guided Union to UCT championships in 1996, 200(1 and 2009 and Maggio has led Roselle Park to the title in 2003 and-2004. Union began the week only 4-8 in a rebuilding season. The Farmers are led b\ senior captains Megan Bohse, the third baseman, and Erica Greenwald, the second baseman. Bohse was batting .513 (20-for-39) and Greenwald an even .500 (20-for-40) as of the start of the week. • • • 36TH ANNUAL SOFTBALL UCT FIRST ROUND: Saturday, May 7 TOPSIDE OF THE BRACKET: 9-Union Catholic at 8-Linden Oak Knoll/Summit at 1-Gov. Livingston Plainfield/Kent Place at 5-Brearley liillside/Roselle Catholic at 4-New Providence BOTTOM SIDE OF THE BRACKET: 10-Elizabeth at 7-Westfield Scotch Plains/Dayton at 2-Johnson 11-Union at 6-Roselle Park Roselle/Rahway at 3-Cranford Crusaders were out to reach UCT semis again (Continued from Page 29) Seniors A.J. Murray and Steve lorgash also banged out two hits in the inning and drove in one run. Senior right) Justin White (3-1) started for Westfield and gave up one run in three innings. St. Mary's, the 19th seed, won its first UCT game winning at New Prov- idence 3-2 last Friday in the preliminary round dur- ing head coach Martin Ferreiro's nine-season tenure. Union Catholic 2, Roselie Park 0 at Union Catholic: Senior left bander Rich Birch tossed a one- hitter and the fourth-seeded Vikings received RBI-sin- gles from senior Brandon Suarez and sophomore Mike D'Antico. Scotch Plains 13, Union 5 at Scotch Plains: The Raiders will now play the Vikings in the quarterfinals for the third straight season and in the UCT for the sixth straight year. This time, for a change, Union Catholic is the high- er seed and will host the game. The teams scrimmaged at Union Catholic March 1 I, which was the first scrimmage for both. "We've had quite a history with Scotch Plains lately in the tournament, 1 ' said Union Catholic head coach Jim Reagan, now in his 10th season at the helm of the Vikings. Union Catholic earned its highest UCT seed under Reagan's tenure this season. The Vikings are seeking to reach the semifinals for the first time under Reagan. Since Tom Baylock became the head coach at Scotch Plains in 2004, Scotch Plains is 5-1 vs. Union Catholic in UCT play, with wins in 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. Union Catholic won the 2006 matchup. The teams did not face each other in the 2005 tournament. Scotch Plains has reached the semifinals the last three years. The top four seeds advanced to the semifinals the last five years. The last time the top four seeds did not advance to the semifinals was in 2005 when top-seeded Cranford lost at home to eighth-seeded Dayton and seventh- seeded Roselle Catholic defeated Johnson on the road in quarterfinal round play. Roselle Park, the 13th seed, defeated 20th-seeded Hillside 11-1 Friday in a prelim game. Elizabeth 12, Dayton 7 at Dayton: Elizabeth, the ninth seed, was the only road team to win Saturday, oust- ing eighth-seeded Dayton :ii Springfield's Ruby Field. Cranford 13, Rahway I at Cranford: The top- seeded and defending champion Cougars are now one win away from reaching the semifinals for the fifth consecutive year. Rahway, the 17th seed, won at 16th- seeded Brearley 8-5 Friday in prelim play. Roselle Catholic 6, Orator} 1 Prep 1 at Nomahe- gan Park: The seventh-seeded Lions won their sixth straight to improve to 10-4. Orator)' Prep, the 10th seed, won four of five coming in and is now 9-5. Gov. Livingston 6, Summit 1 at GL: The second- seeded Highlanders received a six-inning mound effort from junior right hander Joey Graziano, who is now 3-1. In less than 24 hours GL went 3-0 to improve to 12-2. The Highlanders first defeated Union Catholic 5-0 last Friday night in a Union County Conference- crossover game at Snyder Park in Berkeley Heights. Then after GL ousted 15th-secdcd Summit at home in UCT play, the Highlanders remained at their field Saturday and blanked visiting Plainfield 11-0 in another conference-crossover contest. GL junior catcher Keith Skinner, a lefty batter, had some week. He went 9-for-14 (.643) with seven RBI. In a 4-2 home win over Scotch Plains Tuesday he was l-for-3 with one RBI and vs. Union Catholic he was 3-for-4. On Saturday he was 2-for-4 with an RBI against Summit and 3-for-3 with five RBI vs. Plainfield. GUERRERO HAS A GAME TO REMEMBER FOR ST. MARY'S St. Mary's of Elizabeth sophomore right hander Fernando Guerrero was largel) responsible for seeing that the Hilltoppers won a UCT game for the first lime under the leadership of head coach Martin 1erreiro. He handcuffed 14th-seeded New Providence last Friday and then produced the game-winning hit to lift St. Mary's to a 3-2 road win in prelim play, Guerrero improved to 3-1 on the mound, tossing a six-hitter that included 15 strikeouts, two walks and one hit batter. Guerrero's game-winning hit came with one out and two runners on in the lop of the seventh. Guerrero no-hit Union Catholic in a 1-0 loss Mon- day in Scotch Plains, with St. Mary's giving up the game's only run on a throwing error. The batter that scored was struck out by Guerrero, but reached first base on a wild pitch. Against New Providence four days later, Guerrero gave up hard hits to the first three Pioneer batters he faced, with two of them scoring. He then settled down and allowed only three other hits the rest of the way, including an infield single where he followed up by picking the runner off first base. His fastball and curveball worked equally well, with six of his strikeouts swinging and nine looking. The drop on his curveball was unhittable. "It was a gutsy performance.'" I erreiro said. "The ball was high up to the first three baiters he faced and I thought they caught up to him. He then regrouped and threw strikes." The two runs he gave up to New Providence - a two-run double by Pioneer senior first baseman Doug Pastore - were the first earned runs he has yielded so far this year. His 3-1 record includes two shutouts (Roselle home and Perth Amboy lech away), and he has given up only three runs, with only two of them being earned. "He's a heck of a pitcher," New Providence coach Andy Silvagni said of CJuerrero. Silvagni, New Providence's junior varsit) coach, was coaching the varsitv Friday because head coach Chris Brodeur had a personal matter to attend to. "After he (Guerrero) settled down we tried to make him work," Silvagni said. "We had him on the ropes once or tw ice. bin he go) out of it." New Providence had runners on second and third with nobody out in the sixth, but failed to increase its 2-1 lead at the time. "We didn't take advantage of that opportunity there," Silvagni said. Pastore was 2-for-3 with a walk and two RBI. Solano, who bats left handed, brought home Ali Youngblood with an RBI-single to right in the seventh to tie the score at 2-2. In the fifth, Solano drove in Youngblood with an RBI-double to center field to pull St. Man's to within 2-1. Solano was 2-for-4 with two RBI. Youngblood. the No. 9 batter in St. Mary's lineup, scored twice after working walks against New Providence starter Mike Marchesano and reliever Marc (iiacalone. NOTES: The semifinals are Saturday at 2 p.m. and 4:15 p.m. at Elizabeth's Williams field. For the first time the championship game will be played at Kean University in Union. The contest is scheduled for May 15, with a time to be determined. The first Union-Essex All-Star Game was held at Kean last year and before that Cranford defeated Lakeland there in a Group 3 semifinal. • See UCT baseball results and schedule at www.localsource.com - Clark Navigator.
