Heading in the Right Direction

Columbia softball closes another positive year

Considering where the girls were three years ago and what they accomplished this spring, there’s only one way to look at the past season for the Columbia softball team: as a resounding success. For a third consecutive season under head coach Lou Cicenia, Columbia increased its wins. In his first year, they won four games, up from one win. In 2010, they won eight games and made the playoffs as an 11 seed. This past year they went 12-13 and made the postseason as a 10 seed. “It was a great year, it went better than anyone else, except me, could’ve expected, especially with only four returning starters,” said Cicenia. “I think we did exceptionally well.” The improvements on the field aren’t only evident in the win-loss record, but in the …

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Major, Van Natta Power Columbia Softball Over .500

Big win for locals over West Orange

A pair of homeruns from Mariah Major and Kyrsten Van Natta, using the same bat, led to the Columbia softball team’s biggest win of the season over the previously 13-3 West Orange Mountaineers, 5-4, at Meadowland Park. With the Cougars trailing, 4-3, heading into the bottom half of the fifth inning, Major stepped to the plate and launched a 1-2 pitch way over the centerfield fence, tying the game with the solo homer. Van Natta followed with an infield single and two batters later, after Samantha Guillen legged out an infield hit towards second base, Van Natta scored on an ensuing throwing error. “I think Mariah was waiting all season to uncork that one. It was nice to see her extend her arms on that pitch,” said CHS head coach Lou Cicenia…

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Columbia Softball Opens Victoriously

Cougar girls rally from two runs down to win in extras

The Columbia softball team got its season off to a good start on Wednesday afternoon in Millburn, rallying from behind to knock off the Miller girls, 6-5. The Cougars used a combination of aggressive base running, timely hits, solid pitching and some fight to pull out their season opener in extra innings. In the top half of the eighth frame with the game knotted at five, Cougar short stop Kyrsten Van Natta knocked in the go-ahead and eventual winning run, squeezing a hard hit groundball past Millburn’s second baseman, scoring courtesy runner, Tiffany Major from second. With two outs in the inning, Columbia catcher Kaitlin Kling got the rally started with a base hit to leftfield (Major ran in her place) and Terry Seelbach kept the inning …

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Cougar Softball Team Doubles 2009 Win Total

Columbia girls improve with better 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. …

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Stayin' Alive

Samantha Guillen lifts Columbia softball, keeps playoff hopes alive

With a 7-2 home win over the North 13th Street girls softball team, the Cougar girls have kept themselves alive as a possible long shot to make the state tournament for the first time in what could only be described as ages. Powered by a good pitching performance by Samantha Guillen and some early runs, the Cougars put this game to bed pretty much after the second inning, and with a win on Friday against Verona, Columbia could be looking at making the state playoffs for the first time in over 30 years. "I think it would be a great accomplishment for this program. I don't even know how long it has been," said Columbia head coach Lou Cicenia, a 1991 graduate of CHS. The story of the game was the pitching of Guillen, who did not blow anyone …

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Columbia Softball Shut Out in Home Opener

Cougar girls struggle on the field, at the plate, in the circle.

The Columbia softball team's home opener at Frank Zuzori Field in Meadowland Park this afternoon could not have gone 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, struck out 10 times, made four errors, walked nine batters and hit three others. The girls did not have more than one runner on base at any time during the game. Top-to-bottom, it was not a great game for the Cougars, who fell to 0-2. Things fell apart in the top half of the second inning, when …

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Columbia Softball Team Goes into Year Two of Rebuilding

Cougars hope to improve on 4-19 '09 season and take the next step.

Columbia head coach Lou Cicenia is a man on a mission. He and the softball team are trying to change everything you've ever known about Cougar softball, which has perennially struggled. But they aren't looking for one big magical season, they're looking to change tradition and create a new history: one of winning. "That's all they hear. They're going to be known as the founders of the new program," Cicenia said. "They're setting the path for the younger kids." A year ago the Columbia girls finished 4-19 and in last place in the Iron Hills Conference. They struggled in all aspects of the game, but mostly from youth and inexperience. This year, with the team a year older and more experienced, in a new division and with no place to go but up…

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Cougar Softball Looking Toward Next Year

Columbia girls look to build off of 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 they look back on and say: this is where it all started. At 4-19, their record wasn’t pretty, but Cicenia hopes it will be the building block for 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 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 …

Wild Pitching Kills the Cougars

Columbia softball team loses 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. If you add in the four stolen bases, a hit by pitch 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 …

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