EOCHS junior third baseman Kayla Cruz tags a Shabazz runner as shortstop Marilyn Mejia looks on.
EAST ORANGE – The East Orange Campus High School varsity softball team is having a successful season so far.
The Lady Jaguars
Photos by Steve Ellmore.
started 9-0 before losing the last two games to move to a 9-2 record through May 2.
Kiara Cruz tripled and homered to knock in five runs and Marilyn Mejia had two hits and two RBI in the 18-0 win over Weequahic on April 27 in Newark in a Super Essex Conference-Independence game. Naiva Altenor had two hits and an RBI; and Brittany Alicee, Amanda George, Kayla Mayers, and Aisha Morris each had one hit and an RBI.
Mejia was 3-for-4 with a home run; Josie Pascual went 3-for-3 with a double, triple and two RBI; Cruz was 3-for-4 with two RBI and Kayla Cruz was 3-for-4 with one RBI to lead the 21st-seeded Jaguars to a 20-7 win over No. 28 seed Shabazz in the first play-in round of the Essex County Tournament at the STEM Academy on April 28.
Winning pitcher Cindy Gnawa struck out six.
The Jaguars then fell to 20th-seeded Bloomfield Tech, 7-6, April 30 in the second play-in round.
EOCHS lost to St. Vincent on May 2 in divisional play. The loss moved the Jaguars out of first place in the division. However, EOCHS head coach Dana Sprague said there is still hope that the Jaguars can become co-champs in the division if they can win the rest of their conference games.
Sprague, indeed, is proud of her team this season.
“We have come a long way in the last six years. I am proud of them and happy that they are competing to be champs,” Sprague said.
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