Cougars Advance to Take on GL Again in County Final

With yesterday's 6-2 victory over Johnson in the semifinal round, Cranford High School's softball team is on the verge of winning their fourth title in the past five years.

"I think I was quoted earlier on in the year, that I'll see if I'm a good teacher or not," said Cranford head coach Bob Bruno. "So I think I'm a pretty darn good teacher to get this group of kids to the county final. There's only two kids out there that have any varsity experience, I'm proud of them. We're playing good ball now, so hopefully it carries on to the first few rounds of the states and into the county final on Saturday."

The final sets up a match between the top two seeds, with Governor Livingston having defeated defending champion Union by a score of 3-2 in the other semifinal tilt. Cranford and GL have met twice this season, with the Highlanders taking the first game 7-2 in Cranford, and the Cougars winning 15-5 in Berkeley Heights after trailing 5-0 to mark one of the more recent memorable comebacks.

Sunday's semifinal was nothing like the Cougars' 1-0 early-season 10-inning win squeaker over Johnson. They received timely hitting, including a two-run single by Melissa Moreno and another solid pitching performance from freshman lefthander Julie Siragusa.

"I felt like today I was a little off," said Siragusa. "My pitches weren't coming in as hard as they usually do, I was hanging some, but looking at the scoreboard, we did pretty well."

"Julie was not 100 percent today," said Bruno. "She's a pitcher. Some days you have it, today, she was a little flat, but I'll tell you this, when I talked to her about coming out in the fifth inning she goes, please don't, I'll be able to do this. So I gave her the sixth and she was okay, and then there was no doubt that I was going to let her finish the game. She does it all. I'm happy for her."

Siragusa also had a key hit, driving in the first two runs.

"I felt like, as a team throughout the season, we've been hitting so much better, she said. "The first time we played Johnson, we only won 1-0. Now, we're hitting so much better. I feel like when we come out and play our game, we can beat anyone out here. We have such talent on this team. When we all play together, we really show it."

Times certainly have changed since the Cougars lost their season opener.

"It's amazing, we lost the first game 8-2," said Siragusa. "We were like, oh no, what is this season going to turn out to be, but we've been playing fantastic. I'm so excited. This is like an awesome dream for us."