For Nutley softball, the third time truly was the charm on Sunday.
After two consecutive days of rainouts and two earlier regular-season losses, the third-seeded Raiders broke through against rival and second-seeded Livingston with a 3-2 victory in the Essex County Tournament semifinals at Ivy Hill Park in Newark.
Nutley will face top-seeded Mount St. Dominic, ranked No. 8 in the state by NJ.com, in the final on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Ivy Hill Park. It is a rematch of last year’s final, which Mount St. Dominic won, 3-2.
In the top of the seventh, Lia DeMaio reached on a bunt single and later came around to score the winning run on Robin Niland’s RBI hit. Three innings earlier, DeMaio tied the game at 2-2 with an RBI triple.
Senior Fallyn Stoeckel struck out 11 and walked none, allowing two unearned runs and seven hits on the day. Stoeckel, Sydney Hess and Gabriella Mariano added two hits apiece.
Nutley (16-4) has now won 10 of its last 11 games since an 8-1 loss at Livingston on April 20. Livingston, currently ranked No. 12 in the state by NJ.com, also defeated Nutley on April 1, 4-3.
We will have more coverage on Nutley softball and its run in the Essex County Tournament in an upcoming issue.
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)