Columbia HS baseball team’s hard work pays off this season

MAPLEWOOD – The Columbia High School varsity baseball team worked hard during the course of the season.

Indeed, the Cougars’ diligence paid off as they won the Super Essex Conference-Liberty Division title for the second year in a row. The Cougars shared this year’s title with Verona.

CHS ended its season on a winning note, defeating Toms River North, 13-7, May 28, in Toms River to finish with a strong 17-10 overall record.

Senior catcher Quinn Krais went 3-for-4 with a triple, four RBI and three runs and sophomore Christian Pierre had three hits, including a double, with an RBI and three runs.

Freshman Eliot Dix drove in three runs and scored twice and  juniors Reid Evans and Daniel Cotler had run-scoring singles.

Junior Pete Nolet struck out five for his sixth win of the season.

The Cougars next season will move up to the SEC-American Division, which is the highest division of the conference. The SEC-Liberty was the second highest of the four divisions.

CHS head coach Joe Fischetti was proud of his team’s success this season.

“It was great. We had a young team. We’re going to miss Quinn obviously at catcher. He was a huge part of our success. But we had about five or six first-year varsity players this year and they did a really nice job. I’m hoping that confidence will build. Being back-to-back conference champs is always great. We’re going to move up to the American Division next year, which we are excited about. It was a really, really nice year for us.”

The Cougars also will have three players in the seventh annual Essex/Union Underclassmen All-Star Game on June 20 at Kean University. They are Nolet, junior pitcher Danny Boehmer and Pierre. Fischetti also will be a coach in the game.

This summer, the CHS baseball program will once again compete in the High School Developmental League. CHS competes in the Union County Division. Last summer, the CHS junior varsity team won the league tournament title.

  Columbia High School baseball