CLARK, NJ- For the third consecutive game, the Arthur L. Johnson High School Crusaders varsity softball team found themselves in extra innings. In a classic game, the Crusaders came up just short, losing to the Governor Livingston High School Highlanders 9-7 in 11 innings Friday afternoon in Clark.
One run came in on an error and a single from senior Aislinn O’Keefe to give the Highlanders the edge in extra innings.
“We tried to clean up the fielding, towards the end, we fixed all the mistakes that we made,” O’Keefe said. “Earlier on in the game, we made some errors that they were able to capitalize on and brought us to the back-and-forth, so we continued cleaning up our game and putting the ball in play.”
In the bottom of the seventh inning, with Governor Livingston holding a 5-4 lead, Johnson came to the plate, looking to keep the game alive. Junior Victoria Zatko singled and stole second base, putting the tying run in scoring position.
Senior Lauren Donah hit a sharp groundball and was out on the throw to first base, but Zatko suddenly broke for home plate and scored before a chance at a tag could be made, tying the game at 5-5 and sending it to extra innings.
After neither team capitalized in the eighth or ninth innings, the game shifted to the tenth inning. The Highlanders struck first in the first frame with the international tiebreaker rule. With junior Jessica Schmidt at second base, junior Erica Kulback singled, scoring Schmidt to give the Highlanders a 6-5 lead.
Senior starting pitcher Jaime Belfer subsequently doubled, scoring Kulback, making it 7-5, but Johnson would not go away in the bottom half of the inning.
With Cassano at second base via the international tiebreaker rule and advancing to third base on a groundout and scoring on another groundout from sophomore Megan Tinger, the Highlanders lead became 7-6 with two outs.
Brogan stepped up to the plate and down to their last out at the time, connected for the game-tying hit, a long double to center field, knotting the score up at 7-7. The game would shift to the eleventh inning, where the Highlanders took control with the two runs to escape with a win in a game that took over three hours.
Full Coverage of Johnson Varsity Softball 11-Inning Battle Against Governor Livingston HS Here
