Haddon Heights, St. Joseph Hammonton are South Jersey state softball champions
This year in the NJSIAA baseball and softball tournament, it showed how difficult it was to repeat as a champion.
In the 12 state championships for Groups 1-4 and Non-Public A and B for both sports, just one team repeated as a state champion.
That was Haddon Heights, which completed a dominant state tournament by sophomore pitcher Sophia Bordi with a 3-0 win over Jefferson. St. Joseph of Hammonton, led by junior Ava Fisher, won the Non-Public B title, 7-1, over Morris Catholic . The other team from South Jersey that competed in a state title game was Clayton, a two-time defending state champ, which lost to Cedar Grove, 5-0, in the state Group 1 final.
Bordi pitched in five of Haddon Heights' six NJSIAA tournament games, throwing four perfect games in that span. The only game she wasn’t perfect, Bordi threw a two-hitter and struck out 15 in a 3-0 win over Delran during a state Group 2 semifinal.
In the state final against Jefferson, Bordi struck out 16.
She ended the season with a 0.40 ERA and 274 strikeouts in 121 1/3 innings, according to NJ.com.
Haddon Heights (23-6) won the Tournament of Champions last year, but that tournament was eliminated by the NJSIAA, so the Garnets finished the season by winning their final game for the second year in a row.
In the state final, St. Joseph’s Fisher pitched a complete-game three-hitter, striking out 14. She finished the season with a 2.58 ERA, and 267 strikeouts in 158 innings.
St. Joseph freshman Alaina Dorsey played like a veteran on the big stage. She went 3 for 4 with two triples, a run scored and three RBI.
Even though Clayton saw its two-year reign as state champion end with the loss to Cedar Grove. It has been quite a run for the Clippers.
During the past three years coach Joe Moore’s Clayton team went 76-8. In addition to the two state titles and three South Jersey Group 1 crowns, Clayton also captured three Tri-County Classic championships, sharing this year’s title with Gloucester Catholic.
Clayton entered the state championship with a 26-game win streak, but lost to a Cedar Grove team that won its sixth state title. In fact, Cedar Grove was the last team to win the Group 1 title before Clayton’s run, having earned the championship in 2019.
(There was no softball season in 2020 due to COVID).
Clayton senior pitchers Allyson Koerner and Meadow Lake formed one of the top pitching tandems and they left their mark, along with their teammates, during a truly impressive three-year run.
Photo Courtesy: Haddon Heights Softball
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Author: Marc Narducci
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