Squeri, Pacheco Lead New Providence to Sixth-Straight Softball Win

Jess Pacheco came up firing from center field and threw a strike to pitcher , who relayed the ball to home plate to nail Roselle Park’s baserunner by more than two feet. The timely defensive play ended the bottom of the sixth, and with it, Roselle Park’s last-ditch comeback effort.

The late-inning collaboration was fitting, considering it was the duo of Pacheco and Squeri who were most responsible for propelling the New Providence varsity softball team to victory on a blustery Thursday afternoon at Roselle Park.

Squeri tossed a complete game and allowed three runs, and Pacheco went 4-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored and three RBIs in the Lady Pioneers’ 7-3 win. Jenna Madden also chipped in by going 3-for-4 with three RBIs.

The win is Squeri’s fifth of the season already, as the New Providence ace has started all but one game while completing all seven games she has started. She also drove in a run with an RBI double batting out of the cleanup spot in the order.

New Providence (6-2) has now won six straight after starting out 0-2; Thursday was the team's third consecutive day with a game.

“We lost the first two games 2-1, which were close, and it was our hitting [that was the problem],” said New Providence coach Kelly Villa. “We’ve been struggling with staying seven innings, we’ve had that one bad inning. So today’s our first game where we played seven solid innings. So we’re going to continue to build. These guys are not settling; they just want to keep working hard.”

Incidentally, it was a first-inning throwing blunder by Pacheco that put the Lady Pioneers in an early hole. Squeri allowed a bloop single and a walk to start the game, then gave up a single to center with two outs. Pacheco charged and came up throwing but sailed the throw over the backstop, allowing a second run to score to make it 2-1 Roselle Park.

She immediately redeemed herself in the top of the second, dropping a two-out single behind the second baseman in shallow right-center field; the clutch knock scored two and gave the Lady Pioneers a lead Squeri would make sure they wouldn’t relinquish.

The sophomore hurler cruised through the next three innings, allowing only three runners to reach base, but the New Providence offense clearly didn’t view Squeri’s dominant stretch as a time to rest, as the team scored again in the top of the third on an infield single by Madden.  

In the fourth, the Lady Pioneers blew it open with another big inning, fueled by an RBI single to center by Pacheco and a double over the center fielder’s head by Madden that scored two more runs, making it 7-2 New Providence.

The Lady Pioneers scored five of its seven runs with two outs, and Villa was very pleased with the situational hitting after the team had struggled with that in the first two games.

“They just keep wanting to attack,” Villa said. “We’ve been trying to focus on our hitting, because that was what our downfall was the first two games, and they were just getting up to bat every time being aggressive.”

Squeri allowed the first two batters to reach in the bottom of the fifth before an error pushed Roselle Park’s third run across. With two on and one out, the sophomore stepped up, inducing a pop-up to center and a tapper back to the mound to wiggle out of the jam.

Squeri walked the lead-off batter in the sixth, and the runner reached second on a ground-out to first. Squeri then gave up a sharp single to center field, but Pacheco fielded the ball cleanly and hit her pitcher on a direct line to start the relay that would result in the final out of the inning before any damage could be done.

“We’ve practiced cut-offs so many times, and she was so happy after she threw it in,” Squeri said of Pacheco. “It was a great throw, a perfect throw actually, and when [catcher] Michelle [Ciarrocca] tagged her out, it was just a great play.”

The Lady Pioneers will try to keep their winning streak alive when they travel to Arthur L. Johnson High School in Clark on Monday at 4 p.m. to play the Crusaders.