Three-Run Sixth Lifts Chatham to Sectional Title

It was quite a scene on Thursday afternoon as Chatham catcher Cara Delsandro jumped into the arms of pitcher Amanda Fazio celebrating the North Jersey Section 2, Group III championship. The rest of the Cougars followed Delsandro’s lead and swarmed Fazio on the mound.

The celebration came after the  softball team defeated Colonia High School, 6-3, at the Chatham Middle School field. The game was a nail-biter down to the final inning, leading to a burst of cheers and relief from the Chatham fans.

The Cougars took the lead for good in the bottom of the sixth inning when they exploded for three runs off of Patriots pitcher Kayla Zimmerman. Zimmerman kept the Patriots in the game, allowing six runs over the six innings she pitched.

The Cougars’ sixth-inning rally started with Elke Luria and Kelsey Davies reaching base, setting up a two-out opportunity for Kendall Davies. Davies came through in a mighty way, as she roped a base hit into left field. The single scored Luria and was the go-ahead drive that the Cougars needed.

“My last at bat I grounded out to second base and I wanted to make up for that,” Kendall Davies said. “I knew that I had to get the ball the other way, so I pretty much swung as hard as I could and watched it sail into the outfield.”

The Cougars continued the rally when Kelly Winans delivered the final blow to Colonia’s chances. Winans belted a two-run double off of the fence in left-center field to give the Cougars a 6-3 lead that Fazio would hold onto in the final inning.

“We knew coming into this season that we had a really talented team here,” Chatham head coach Alexis Davies said. “All season long I told the girls that amazing things can happen and when you get knocked down you just have to keep on getting back up. I think today’s game showed that over and over and over again.”

Chatham couldn’t muster a base hit until the bottom of the third inning. The game was scoreless through three frames as Chatham’s Patricia Crigler stepped to the plate. Crigler led off the inning with a double, setting up the Cougars. Crigler was then bunted over to third base before Kelsey Davies singled her in, scoring the game’s first run. Kendall Davies and Winans followed with hits of their own, giving Chatham a 2-0 lead after three innings.

Colonia came right back though in the fourth and answered Chatham’s big inning. Danielle Sica and Becky Rose reached base to start the frame, setting the Patriots up for a big inning. Colonia’s Renee Warrick stepped to the plate and delivered a base hit, scoring two runs for the Patriots, and just like that, the game was tied at two. Warrick then scored on an RBI groundout by Zimmerman as the Patriots claimed a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning.

Chatham answered the Patriots' big inning though when McCall Moore scored on an RBI single by Catrina Yohay. The Cougars’ resiliency and Fazio’s pitching set up Kendall Davies' game winner in the sixth. Fazio closed the door on Colonia’s season as she struck out the Patriots’ last batter, setting the scene for celebration for the Cougars and their fans.

“Our team is really excited right now. We came into this game and knew that Colonia was going to battle the whole time,” Fazio said. “Any time we had a rough inning today we came right back, we never put our heads and played our game.”

The victory improves Chatham’s record to 21-5. The loss for Colonia ends its season with a 14-13 record.

“We go on now to either play Sparta or West Milford, that’s the next step,” Kendall Davies said. “We feel really confident, and we are going to work really hard until Tuesday and hope that we can win again.”