While defending champion and top-seeded Westfield will have to wait until Monday to play its first-round game – at home vs. 16th-seeded and 7-1 Roselle Catholic – Roselle Park, Union, Johnson, Cranford and Governor Livingston all advanced to Friday night’s quarterfinals at Linden with first-round wins on Saturday.
Three of the eight first-round games were moved to Monday because of Friday night’s heavy rainfall.
Those games include 16th-seeded Roselle Catholic at top-seeded Westfield, 12th-seeded Summit at fifth-seeded Rahway and 10th-seeded Linden at seventh-seeded Brearley.
Roselle Park, the ninth seed, won at eighth-seeded Union Catholic 17-1. In their first Union County Conference-Mountain Division matchup, Union Catholic won 2-1 in Scotch Plains on April 10.
Union, which is bouncing back from an uncharacteristic 3-22 campaign of a year ago, improved to 5-6 overall and won its second straight after ousting fourth-seeded Dayton 9-2 in Springfield. Kaitlyn McTernan had two hits, two RBI and two runs for the 13th-seeded Farmers.
Union won consecutive games for the first time in two years and tasted victory for the third time in four games following a 2-5 start.
When the teams first played in Mountain Division competition on April 10 – which was also at Dayton – the host Bulldogs won 10-9.
Second-seeded Johnson extended its winning streak to 11 games by eliminating 15th-seeded Elizabeth 11-1 at home. Gianna Randazza banged out three hits, including a home run, and finished with four RBI and two runs.
Johnson’s only UCT crown came way back in 1981. In 1996, the Crusaders were one out away from winning the title again before Union came back from a two-run deficit in the top of the seventh to win the championship game played at Linden by the score of 4-3.
Cranford’s third win of the year came on the road as the 11th-seeded Cougars topped sixth-seeded New Providence 5-2. In their first Watchung Division game, New Providence beat Cranford 2-1 at Cranford on April 9.
GL went back over the .500 mark again at 8-7 after downing 14th-seeded Scotch Plains 14-1 in Berkeley Heights. The third-seeded Highlanders won for the second straight time and third time in four games.
BEST OVERALL RECORDS AS OF SUNDAY, APRIL 27:
Johnson (12-1)
Westfield (10-1)
Rahway (9-2)
Benedictine Academy (8-1)
Roselle Catholic (7-1)
39TH ANNUAL SOFTBALL UNION COUNTY TOURNAMENT
SEEDS: 1-Westfield. 2-Johnson. 3-Gov. Livingston. 4-Dayton.
5-Rahway. 6-New Providence. 7-Brearley. 8-Union Catholic.
9-Roselle Park. 10-Linden. 11-Cranford. 12-Summit.
13-Union. 14-Scotch Plains. 15-Elizabeth. 16-Roselle Catholic.
17-Benedictine Academy. 18-Kent Place. 19-Oak Knoll. 20-Plainfield.
PRELIMINARY ROUND
Wednesday, April 23
Scotch Plains 15, Oak Knoll 0 – at SP
Roselle Catholic 6, Benedictine 5 – at RC
Thursday, April 24
Elizabeth 7, Kent Place 3 – at Elizabeth
Union 14, Plainfield 1 – at Union
FIRST ROUND
Saturday, April 26
Roselle Park 17, Union Catholic 1 – at UC
Union 9, Dayton 2 – at Dayton
Johnson 11, Elizabeth 1 – at Johnson
Cranford 5, New Providence 2 – at NP
Gov. Livingston 7, Scotch Plains 1 – at GL
Monday, April 28
16-Roselle Catholic at 1-Westfield
12-Summit at 5-Rahway
10-Linden at 7-Brearley
QUARTERFINALS
Friday, May 2
At Linden
2 games at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m.
SEMIFINALS
Saturday, May 3
At Linden
2 games at 3 p.m.
FINAL
Saturday, May 10
At Kean University
Semifinal winners, 2 p.m.