Clearview works some postseason magic, earns huge upset over Triton in South Jersey Group 3

RUNNEMEDE – Fourteenth-seeded teams aren't supposed to win in the playoffs.

Don't tell that to the Clearview Regional High School softball team.

The Pioneers got the opportunity to pull off a little postseason magic and that’s exactly what they did with an 8-7 upset win over third-seeded Triton in the opening round of the South Jersey Group 3 tournament on Wednesday.

Clearview, the No. 14 seed in the bracket, becomes one of the lowest seeds to win a first-round game in recent history. The Pioneers (8-8) will travel to the 11th-seeded Cherry Hill West for Tuesday’s quarterfinal round. Cherry Hill West upset Pinelands 4-3 in its first-round game.

“It feels great,” senior Isabella Saveriano said. “There’s no pressure on us, it was all on them. That was the message Coach (Deana Moore) told us before the game. We weren’t expected to win, but we battled and we won.”

The squad was under .500 when the postseason cutoff date arrived, and were 2-5 in their final seven regular-season games, including being one-hit in the finale against Kingsway on May 14.

None of that matters now. The Pioneers are 1-0 and will be playing softball after Memorial Day, something many teams in South Jersey won’t be able to say.

“Just play loose,” Moore told her club before the game. “They know my philosophy, anybody can beat anyone on any day. (Her team) should be proud of themselves. They got the job done.”

When Moore played at Gateway, teams had to have a .500-or-better record at the cutoff to qualify for the postseason. She said she’s glad that rule changed, but not just because her team benefited.

“If you’re playing in a tough division, teams still have an opportunity to play in the postseason and that’s important,” said Moore, who later played at Camden County College and Rowan University. “Now it’s all power points. It’s a different way of doing things.”

Playing in the rough-and-tumble Tri-County Conference Royal Division, Clearview hasn’t finished with a winning record since 2017. That same year, the Pioneers won twice in the playoffs to reach the semifinal round.

Despite being held to just six hits, Clearview created havoc with its baserunning and took advantage of four Triton errors.

“We just didn’t get those opportunities all year long,” Moore said. “We have baserunners who are ready to take advantage of everything we can.”

And that’s exactly what the Pioneers did.

Saveriano delivered one of the biggest knocks, a two-run single in the third that put Clearview on the scoreboard and cut the deficit to 3-2 in the third inning. She finished with three RBIs in the game.

“After falling behind, it was important to battle back right away like we did,” said Saveriano, who will attend Virginia Tech in the fall and study biochemistry.  “The game was back and forth and it was scary at times, but we stayed together and got through it.”

Victoria Capri and Anna Hargraves delivered RBI singles in the fourth and fifth, respectively, while Jodi McGuigan and Ava D’Alessandro scored key runs in the sixth. McGuigan tied the game with an RBI sacrifice fly in the fourth.

Sophomore fireballer Sienna Garrison got the final six outs of the game in relief for the save. After warming up several times during the game, she finally got the call in a tight spot with two runners on and no outs in the sixth.

“It’s the playoffs, you've got to make changes,” Moore said. “Mixing up the pitchers, trying to throw their hitters off, that was the goal. It was the plan all along, we just didn’t know when we were going to use it.”

Gabriela Capri held a heavy-hitting Mustang lineup to eight hits over five innings to earn the victory.

Triton finished one of its best seasons in recent history. The Mustangs went 16-8, the most wins for the program since 2011, and earned the Tri-County Conference Liberty Division title with a 9-1 mark.

“The future is bright. We’re only losing four seniors and 12 kids are coming back,” Triton head coach Kristi Twardziak said. “Hopefully this group has set the tone for what is the new norm of what Triton softball is.

“Today just wasn’t our best day. I don’t know if it was the playoff vibe that had them tighter than usual, but we just didn’t execute in certain situations.”

Tom McGurk is a regional sports editor for the Courier-Post, The Daily Journal and Burlington County Times, covering South Jersey sports for over 30 years. If you have a sports story that needs to be told, contact him at (856) 486-2420 or email tmcgurk@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @McGurkSports. Help support local journalism with a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Clearview softball pulls off major upset over Triton in South Jersey Group 3