Union Catholic Edges Westfield, Heads for Tournament Quarterfinals

Union Catholic has an up-and-coming softball team, and the Vikings are starting to pick up memorable victories to prove it.

The Vikings, the seventh-seeded team in the Union County Tournament, held off Westfield 4-3 Saturday in Scotch Plains to advance to Friday's quarterfinal round.

Freshman pitcher Colleen Dow, a Scotch Plains native, ended the game with a strikeout with the bases loaded in the seventh inning.

"The defense was great for both teams, there weren't too many strikeouts, but we didn't make any errors,'' said Union Catholic coach Ed Ryan. "Colleen was hitting the corners very well. She's a good young pitcher and has kept us in a lot of games.''

The Vikings improved to 11-5.

The game was scoreless heading into the fifth inning when Union Catholic broke through. One of the key moments came when Ryan told senior Toni Ann Beckman to bunt. The bunt didn't work, but Beckman recovered to slam an RBI triple and sophomore Ashley Straile added a two-run double in the inning.

Ryan was concerned about his team coming into the game. The Vikings lost to Cranford 7-0 and Governor Livingston 9-0 last week. "We didn't play too well [then], but I'm proud of them,'' said Ryan. "They came out and played very well."

Westfield didn't go quietly. The Blue Devils are 5-13, but Ryan knew that the record was misleading. Westfield has played a difficult schedule.
"I had tried to get a scouting report on them, but I went into the game a little blind,'' Ryan said.

Westfield rallied when junior Emma Crossland stole home and Nikki Aronson scored on a passed ball in the sixth. Nikki Schneider's RBI triple in the seventh pulled the Blue Devils one run closer, but Dow was able to cap the game with a strikeout that was tipped into the glove of catcher Erin Farley.

Senior Sara Connery went 2-for-3 with a run scored for the Blue Devils, who were the 10th seed.

"They had a couple of scrappy girls,'' said Ryan. "They were similar to us in pitching and hitting. It was a game of two evenly matched teams.''
Union Catholic will play the winner of Monday's game between second-seeded Governor Livingston and 15th-seeded Dayton at 6 p.m. Friday night at Memorial Field in Linden.