'Best' Catcher and PR Buster Named Patch Athletes

This week's Patch Athlete honor goes to a sophomore known as "the best catcher in the county" and a senior track star who beats his best times again and again.

Melissa Moreno, a standout for the girls' varsity softball team, celebrated the biggest victory of her career this past Saturday when the Lady Cougars captured the 2010 Union County Tournament championship with a thrilling 4-3 victory over Governor Livingston.

"The feeling was great," said Moreno of winning the title. "I knew coming in that we had this. There was a lot of pressure, but we were calm and very relaxed when we came in. We were very pumped up in the beginning of the game."

Moreno, who is considered by many the best catcher in the county, is just a sophomore, but had the job of handling the day-to-day job of working with star pitchers Kelly Hardman and Julie Siragusa.

Her batting average has been hovering around the .500 mark all season. She can point to the second game against Governor Livingston as arguably her best performance of the season. Cranford was trailing 5-0 before they mounted a stunning comeback, posting 15 runs in the final two innings after trailing 5-0 for the first five frames. Moreno went 4-for-5 in that game, driving in three runs with a pair of triples while scoring three runs.

"This season was great, better than last year." said Moreno. "I showed what I can do, because there were a lot of seniors last year overpowering me, but I think I did really well this year."

The Yankee fan also has a talented brother who came through the CHS baseball program, graduated in 2008. Dan Moreno, now a sophomore at Ramapo College, was a first baseman for the Cougars. He was recently selected to the New Jersey Athletic Conference First-Team.

Senior track standout Will Smith has been running a mile and the 800, taking personal bests (PR's) in almost every race that he's run since his return from an injury.

"I got down to a 1:59, and that was in a conference meet," said Smith. "I took second. For the rest of the season, I'm planning on going to Meet of Champions, that's been my goal since I was a sophomore. That would really be a privilege, and after high school, I'm going to Rowan, and I'll be running track and cross-country there and continue my career."

Smith was a good soccer player in middle school, but decided to give track a try on the recommendation of a teacher.

"It was a really tough decision to quit soccer, I really loved it. I decided to run cross-country my freshman year in fall as opposed to soccer and I did really good. I just stuck with it and here I am today."

Smith has taken to the shorter events the past few years with plenty of success.

"My sophomore year I was of a two-miler, but right now I'm not really training a lot, I'm just trying to stay healthy. I'm only running about 15 miles per week. The other guys are probably running close to 35. So it's hard for me to run long distance events like that, so I'm sticking with the 800 and the mile, because I can get by on natural ability and speed and not worry too much about my mileage, unlike the two-mile where you really need a big base to do well."

Smith is looking forward to running in college.

"I met up with the coach and I really liked the place," said Smith of Rowan. "I just thought I could fit in really good."