Josh O’Neill leads Nutley HS baseball team past Barringer in GNT first round; NHS softball team falls in ECT first round

NUTLEY, NJ – Josh O’Neill pitched a two-hitter with 10 strikeouts and also homered and drove in two runs to lead the fourth-seeded Nutley High School varsity baseball team to a 6-1 home win over No. 13 seed Barringer in the first round of the Greater Newark Tournament on Saturday, May 5.

Dan Caraballo homered and drove in two runs and Marty Higgins had two hits and an RBI for the Raiders, who won their sixth straight game to improve to a 13-4 record.

Nutley advances to the GNT quarterfinals against fifth-seeded Columbia on May 10 at the Park Oval. Nutley defeated Columbia earlier this season, 11-5, April 14, in Maplewood.

The winner of Nutley-Columbia will face the winner of No. 1 seed Seton Hall Prep and No. 8 seed Cedar Grove in the semifinals on May 12 at Verona HS.

In earlier action, Kevin Hogan hit sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth inning to score O’Neill for a walk-off 9-8 win over Hasbrouck Heights on May 3 at the Park Oval.

Hogan, who also had a single, finished with three RBI. Trevor Santos had a triple and two RBI and O’Neill, Pete Lopez, Higgins and Billy Searle each had an RBI.

 

NUTLEY, NJ – The eighth-seeded Nutley High School varsity softball team fell to ninth-seeded Livingston, 8-1, in the first round of the Essex County Tournament on May 5.

The Raiders moved to an 8-10 record.

Nutley split its two Super Essex Conference-American Division meetings with Livingston this season, losing 7-4 on April 14 and winning 4-3 on April 20.

In earlier action, the Raiders defeated West Orange, 12-5, May 3, in a SEC crossover game.  Briana Cruz had four hits and two RBI; Courtney Wilde had three hits, three RBI and four runs scored; Sydney Kunz had three hits and an RBI; Alexa Hergenhan had two RBI; Melanie Conca had two hits and three runs scored and Lorianne O’Connor collected two hits.