Thursday, April 28, 2011
Cougar girls topped by the Mounties
The Columbia girls softball team dropped its third consecutive game on Wednesday afternoon, in their home opener against Montclair, 14-2, on Wednesday. The locals were without their normal starting pitcher, Emily Schnorr, who jammed her thumb in gym class, and the Mounties took full advantage. Montclair amassed 28 base runners in the game, 15 on walks, two on hit batters and earned 11 hits in the win. “I don’t look at it as a setback. When girls go down, there are other girls who can step up. That’s what teamwork is,” said CHS head coach Lou Cicenia. “I think we did well considering the circumstances …This is a good loss for us because the girls realize that one girl doesn’t make the team.” Kyrsten Van Natta led off the bottom of the first…
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Columbia girls improve hitting in new conference.
In the Cougar softball team's second season under the guidance of head coach Lou Cicenia, the Columbia girls have taken a large step forward, if not a leap. After winning just four games a year ago, the locals doubled their win total this season and qualified for the state playoffs for the first time in over a decade. An 8-19 record may not appear to be something to jump up and down about, but considering where this program was just a year ago and how irrelevant it had been over the last decade, this season was a huge step in the right direction. "I was hoping to do more this year because I'm a competitor and all I want to do is win," Cicenia said. There are two things that were major contributing factors to the turnaround of this team. …
Monday, April 5, 2010
Cougar girls struggle at plate, in field and on mound, losing to Montclair 15-0.
The Columbia softball team’s home opener at Frank Zuzori Field in Meadowland Park this afternoon, could not have gone any worse for the Cougars. In their first game ever played at the new field, the Cougar girls struggled in all phases of the game, losing a 15-0 mercy rule to Montclair. “I think it was a lack of concentration and focus. We came into the game very loose,” said Columbia senior Ngozi Ike. In five innings, Columbia managed just two hits—striking out 10 times. CHS also made four errors, walked nine batters and hit three others. The girls struck out twice in all five innings and did not have more than one runner on base at anytime during the game. Top-to-bottom, it was not a great game for the Cougars, who fell to 0-2. Things …
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Columbia girls try to build on four win season
The Columbia girls softball team may not go around bragging about this past spring season, but if things go the way first year Head Coach Lou Cicenia hopes, it will be a season that they look back on and say this is where it all started. At 4-19, their record isn’t pretty. But Cicenia hopes it will lead to something much bigger. With no place to go but up, the Cougar girls and Cicenia are excited to see what a full off-season, packed with camps, clinics, clubs and competitive games, will mean for the 2010 version of this team. “I’m real excited for next season. When you win four games, it can be frustrating,” Cicenia said. At the heart of the woes for the Cougar girls was a lack of game experience, and a lack of winning tradition in the …
Monday, April 27, 2009
Columbia softball falls to Roxbury, 12-2
Wild pitches, walks and stolen bases led the Columbia softball team to its ninth loss of the season on Monday, 12-2 to Roxbury, at Maplecrest Park. “I’m really disappointed because mentally we were just not in it and I think we’ve been struggling for the past couple of games, I think because of our mental ability, and once we start getting down on ourselves we can’t perform well,” said Columbia team captain Megan Mathews. Columbia pitchers Mary Nolet and Lizzy Kling combined to throw 11 wild pitches and issued 12 walks through six innings. Add in the four stolen bases, a hit batter and two errors, the Cougar girls surrendered 35 free bases on the afternoon, leading to seven runs for the visiting team. Roxbury picked up just six hits. “Both…
