Sports Roundup: Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad for MHS County Games

Three of the Montclair sports teams were battling it out in Essex County tournaments on Saturday while the lone Montclair Kimberley baseball team moved on in the Greater Newark Tournament.

Both the Montclair softball and baseball teams moved on their respective county tournaments. The Montclair boys lacrosse team though was knocked out of the Essex County Tournament.

MKA baseball defeated Columbia, 6-4, while the Montclair baseball squad dispatched Verona, 8-3, and the Lady Mounties softball team came back to beat Verona, 6-3.

The Montclair boys lacrosse team could not catch county defending champ, Seton Hall Prep, 11-8.
   
Baseball

The lone Montclair Kimberely team that was in action in the county tourney was the baseball team in the Greater Newark Tournament.

The Cougars took care of Columbia on Saturday in the first round of the Greater Newark Tournament. Columbia was a finalist from last year’s tournament.

Montclair Kimberley will take on third-seeded Seton Hall Prep in the quarterfinal game on Thursday.

Max Herrmann led the way on the mound for the Cougars keeping the Columbia offense at bay, allowing only one unearned run while scattering six hits and striking out eight. Herrmann also combined it with offense, a home run and scored three times.

Montclair Kimberley was ahead 6-1 when Columbia scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning to make it closer. Robert Pannullo and Nick Masterson had two hits each in the game. The Cougars increased their record to 10-7-1.

Fifth-seeded Montclair took a 7-0 lead in the first four innings against 12th-seeded Verona that the Mounties could never look back in the win at Woodman Field.

Sam Ackerman helped himself out on the mound going 1-for-2 with two RBI. Evan Janifer went 1-for-3 with two RBI of his own. Ackerman gave up three earned runs in five innings along with five strikeouts.

Montclair moves on to travel to fourth-seeded Millburn on Thursday. The Mounties will try to avenge the last time they were at Millburn where they lost 7-2 in a regular season Super Essex Conference battle.

Before the county game Montclair prepped against Columbia with a regular season game.

The Mounties fell behind 3-0 to Columbia in a Super Essex Conference contest only to roll off 13 straight runs and take the battle, 13-3, on Thursday at home.

Ben Hamilton fired a complete game that ended in the fifth inning because of the 10-run mercy rule.

Leading the Montclair offense was Elliot Gertner and Chris Vincent with three hits each. Vincent also had three RBI.

The victory raised Montclair's record to 10-5 on the season.

On Monday Brett Cooper got the big hit with a two RBI base hit in the fourth inning and Montclair pitcher Keith Harrison finished off the victory in the seventh inning. Max Barnes picked up the win on the mound for the Mounties.

Softball

The sixth-seeded Lady Mounties came from behind after going down 3-0 and did it in one fell swoop with six runs in the sixth inning led by a grand slam by Charlotte Skutch to defeat 11th-seeded Verona in the ECT.

Guilianna Freda had an RBI base hit while Sara Haefeli chipped in two hits.

After a bumpy start, Montclair pitcher Victoria Sneden settled down while striking out five and shutting down Columbia.

The victory raised the Lady Mounties record to 11-5.

Montclair Kimberley's young softball team continued to struggle on Thursday, falling 11-1 to Science Park. The Lady Cougars dropped to 2-12 for the season. The lone RBI came in the fourth inning for MKA from Liz Amato, scoring Nicole Layne. Science Park had built an 11-10 lead before MKA scored.

The Lady Mounties brought out some hot bats on Monday and went forward with a 19-0 victory over East Side at home. Deja Davis had a big day going 2-for-4 with four RBI and smacking a home run.

Charlotte Skutch added to the onslaught going 3-for-4 with five RBI and a double. Carly Goldstein struck out four to grab the victory in the circle.

Boys lacrosse

The Mounties, seventh seed, stayed toe to toe with Essex County Tournament defending champion Seton Hall Prep, the third seed, on Saturday for most of the game, but could not stay with them.

Montclair tied the game at five at halftime, but the Pirates got the better of them in the second half.

Seton Hall Prep outscored the Mounties, 4-1, and knocked off Montclair.

The Mounties dropped to 6-7 on the season as Montclair's Drew Nesmith had three goals while John Umbach pitched in two goals.

Before the loss to Seton Hall, Montclair won its fifth game in a row with an 8-7 victory at Montville on Thursday. It came down to a quality fourth quarter for the Mounties as the outscored Montville, 4-0, to give the Mounties the victory.

The combination of John Umbach and Drew Nesmith led the Montclair offense. Umbach scored three goals and two assists while Nesmith had two goals and three assists.

Girls lacrosse

In another battle of Montclair, Montclair defeated Montclair Academy, 10-5, on Tuesday.

The Mounties scored seven of the eight goals in the second half to pull away from the Lady Cougars. Montclair was 5-10 and Montclair Kimberley was 8-7 at the end of this week. Delaney Gilson and Charlotte Von Hoffmann led the way for the Lady Mounties with three goals each. Clare Keating added two goals. Lucy Ferguson made 19 saves to preserve the win for Montclair.

Track and Field

Montclair boys and girls teams finished in the top five this past week at the Essex County Relay Tournament.

The boys came in fourth with 63 points, only two points from third where West Orange collected 65 points and only seven points away from second place, St. Benedict's Prep's 70 points. On the girls side Montclair came in fifth with 33 points.

Both Montclair long jump relay teams collected first at the Essex County Relays this week at Livingston High School.

The Mounties tallied 40-feet-3-inches led by junior Stephaun Marshall (20-8.25) and junior Michael Smith (19-6.75) who came in fourth and eighth respectively in the individual jumps.

On the girls side senior Taylor Newman led the way for the first place in the long jump with 32-11 mark. Newman took first individually at 17-5.25.

The boys high jump relay took first at 11-9 as senior Aamad Bush (6-feet) and junior Michael Smith (5-9) finished tied for third and seventh.

In the triple jump the Montclair girls finished second at 69-11.25 with Newman jumping at 35-4.50, good for second individually.

In the sprints the best result came in the 800 meter boys relay with Marqui Salley, Marshall, Rory Monaghan and Aaron Rhodes with a time of 1:29.15 for second, only nine seconds behind West Orange's team for the first.

The 400 meter relay team of Salley, Marshall, Smith and Rhodes came in third with a time of 43.25 at the Essex County Relays on Thursday.

The 440-meter shuttle hurdle squad of Shawn Tann, Henzly Meghie, Michael Kornegay, Rashawn Barrett came in third in the relay with a time of 1:03.21.

On the girls side the Montclair group of senior Kristina Mondesir, Lanique Lumpkin, Charisma Spencer and Audreya Feacher at 1:51.35 came in third in the 800 relay.

The Montclair boys took control of both the shot put and the discus relays.

In the throws Montclair boys grabbed the top spot in the discus relay with 282-8 total of its throws. Junior Julie Pinnix-Odrick came in second in the discus with a throw of 141-7.

In the shot put Montclair collected first with 92-feet 4-inches, ahead of Seton Hall Prep. The pairing of juniors Henry Wilson  (46-3.50) and Pinnix-Odrick (46-1/2 inch) finished third and fourth respectively in the shot put competition.

For Montclair Kimberley the best results came in the girls pole vault, won by the Cougars at 18-6. Freshman Lyndsi Ross-Trevor had the best individual distance at 9.6 for second place.