West Orange's Season Comes to an End

West Orange High School's softball team's season was ended by Ridgewood Thursday afternoon in the North Jersey, Section 1 Group IV quarterfinals.

Third-seeded Ridgewood (17-6) advanced to next Tuesday's sectional semifinals against second-seed Morris Knolls with a 7-0 victory over the 11th-seeded Mountaineers, who finished the season at 18-8

For three of the Mountaineers, the game marked their final high school contest.

Senior shortstop Kim Reitmeyer, senior right fielder Nora Crann and senior pitcher Jill Dolinko all played their final game.

"It wasn't our best day," said Crann, who will play at Southern Connecticut State University. "We hit the ball right at their players. They really played all seven innings."

Dolinko, who’ll attend Ithaca, relieved sophomore Greer Manton and pitched the sixth inning. 

"They did all the fundamentals well, they knew where all of their players where, what bases to throw to, they were really a team," said Dolinko.

West Orange loaded the bases in the first inning when Crann, Manton and Reitmeyer reached, but the three were stranded.

"We seemed to hit a lot of infield popups," said Dolinko.

Ridgewood scored single runs in the first, second and fourth innings and then broke the game open with four runs in the fifth.

Several West Orange miscues early in the game opened the door for Ridgewood.

"They really played small ball really well and it worked," said Dolinko. "They came wanting to win."

Lauren Tom doubled and drove in two runs for the Maroons.