Columbia senior Claire Shupe fires a pitch in the win over Caldwell in the Essex County Tournament semifinals on May 15. Shupe was the program’s all-time hits leader and the team’s pitching ace for the past few seasons.
MAPLEWOOD — The Columbia High School softball team ended another sensational season.
The second-seeded Cougars went 1-1 in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s North Jersey, Section 2, Group 4 state tournament to finish the season with a stellar 20-8 record.
The Cougars defeated No 15 seed Ferris 12-1 in the first round on May 26 at Meadowland Park field, snapping a three-game losing streak.
Senior Claire Shupe had a single and two RBIs, and she was the winning pitcher, striking out nine over three innings of two-hit ball. Freshman Alison Kelly pitched two innings.
Junior Maya Bernstein went 4-for-4 with a triple and three RBIs; sophomore Jamie Tarrow had two hits, a walk and two RBIs; senior Eva Clevenger had two hits, including a double and an RBI, and she was hit by a pitch; and freshman Allie Tierno had two hits and two stolen bases to lead the Cougars.
Columbia lost a tough 2-1 decision to seventh-seeded Scotch Plains–Fanwood in the quarterfinal round on May 28 at Meadowland Park. CHS scored a run in the bottom of the second inning. Scotch Plains–Fanwood scored two runs in the top of the sixth.
Under head coach Cliff Smith, the Cougars this season were also the No. 2 seed in the Essex County Tournament, reaching the championship, where they lost to top-seeded Mount St. Dominic in a tough 1-0 decision at Seton Hall University’s Mike Sheppard Sr. Field at Ivy Hill Park on May 16. The Cougars were ranked as high as No. 4 in the state by NJ.com this eason. The Cougars have reached the state sectional final in each of the past three seasons. They won the North 1, Group 4 state sectional title in 2023, winning a state sectional title for the first time since 1979, before finishing 21-10. The next year, they were North 1, Group 4 state sectional runner-up and finished 17-10. Last season, they were runner-up in the North 2, Group 4 state sectional and finished 20-7.
Smith has been the CHS head coach since 2014 and has a 169-116 record (.592 winning percentage) in 12 seasons. The 2020 season was canceled due to the pandemic.
Shupe, who will continue her softball career at Boston University on an athletic scholarship, ended her career as the program’s all-time hits leader with 157 hits. She was the team’s pitching ace for the last few seasons, and accumulated 671 career strikeouts and a 1.13 career earned run average.
Photo by Joe Ungaro
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