With nearly all the regular season games now in the books, it’s time for area softball teams to begin district and state tournament play.
As is nearly always the case, look for a bountiful harvest because there are a whole host of area teams capable of mounting long playoff runs and contending for state titles.
The most obvious local choices to potentially go all the way in New Jersey are the top three teams in the last installment of The Trentonian’s Area Ratings prior to the season reaching its completion.
Those three are No. 1 Notre Dame (22-1), No. 2 Robbinsville (19-3) and No. 3 Northern Burlington (17-3). Actually, you should probably include Steinert (17-4) in that mix as well because although the defending state champion Spartans have taken some losses of late, what they have accomplished over the last seven years speaks for itself.
It’s a little bit premature to project the exact sectional pairings because there are some games still to be played prior to Saturday’s cutoff. On the other hand, some things can be said with a good amount of certainty.
With its 2-1 victory over Robbinsville in the Mercer County Tournament championship game Thursday night, Notre Dame picked up mega power points and should go off as the top seed in South Jersey Parochial A. That’s huge because having home field advantage certainly can’t hurt in the most difficult section to win in the state.
Robbinsville also appears fairly safe to sit atop the C.J. III bracket. As of Friday morning, Robbinsville was No. 1 in the power points, followed by Middletown North, Steinert and Allentown in the top four spots.
Middletown North has a very tough pitcher in Madilynn Boyce (285 Ks in 151 innings) and Steinert is shooting for a remarkable eighth straight appearance in a sectional final, but with the way Katie Ziliani has been pitching, you have to like Robbinsville’s chances.
Ditto for Northern Burlington in C.J. IV. As is the case with Steinert, Northern Burlington is on the young side, but there’s no denying the talent is there and senior Mikayla Fontana is throwing well.
Also remember Northern Burlington nearly won this section last year before coming up just short in a 3-2 loss to state champion Marlboro in 10 innings. As of the last update on the power points, NBC is second behind Old Bridge (19-4).
While the above four mentioned teams are the biggest guns of the area New Jersey teams, there are others who are positioned to make a lot of noise when the state tournament get underway next week.
As of Friday morning, New Egypt (C.J. Group I), Cinnaminson (S.J. Group II) and Moorestown (S.J. Group III) are all No. 1 in power points. In C.J. Group II Bordentown and Delran are in the eight and nine spots, but this section could very well be wide open. Spotswood has the most power points, but it just lost to Allentown, 4-1.
Furthermore, the lookout for the entire Group II tournament just underwent a major shake-up with the announcement pitching phenom Sophia Bordi of two-time defending state champion Haddon Heights is likely out for the year with an arm injury.
Bordi, of course, was hoping to be the pitcher of a four-time state champion Haddon Heights team after committing to the University of Oklahoma over the summer. She threw four perfect games in last year’s state tourney and has 605 strikeouts in 266 innings.
The Pennsy Scene
The district 1 playoffs in Pennsylvania get underway on Monday with four local teams in the 24-team Class 6A Field.
Council Rock South (17-2) ended up as the No. 2 seed after a 16-1 loss to Pennsbury on Thursday. This was a shocking score considering Rock South beat Pennsbury, 3-0, a couple of weeks ago, but it didn’t matter if the Hawks are the first or second seed because the championship game will be played on the neutral Spring-Ford Field.
Rock South is the only one of the four to receive a first-round bye, and as luck would have it, the Hawks will open on Wednesday against the winner of Monday’s William Tennent at No.15 Pennsbury game.
No. 13 Neshaminy will host Central Bucks South in its opener and the winner will then travel to two-time defending state champion North Penn. No. 16 Council Rock North will host Avon Grove on Monday, and the winner of that game will face top-seeded Downingtown West (20-0).
Six of the 24 teams in District 1 Class 6A will qualify for the state tournament, making it do or die on Wednesday in the second round.
On the Class 2A front, Bristol is scheduled to start the defense of its district title in a home game against Morrisville on Tuesday. Morrisville, however, forfeited its second regular season game against Bristol, so it’s anybody’s guess what will happen there.
It was also announced on Friday that Conwell-Egan will play Archbishop Ryan in the Philadelphia League championship game on Monday at Neumann University. Game time there is 4 p.m.
The Hun Story
A week ago, the Hun School softball team was 17-1 and preparing for what it hoped would be a statement victory over Robbinsville in the semifinals of the MCT. Although Hun ended up losing that game, at least it could still look forward to winning a second straight Prep Class A state title.
Guess again.
In a stunning result, Hun lost to Pingry, 3-2, in the state final on Thursday after destroying that team, 13-3, during the regular season.
Talk about a season-ending disaster, and it’s difficult to see where Hun (18-3) will go from here. Because the preps will no longer be allowed in the county tournaments, it will be nearly impossible to get the respect it was hoping to attain from the Mercer County public school teams.
You also have to wonder if Hun’s soft schedule left the team unprepared to get the job done at the end of the season.
Trentonian Area Softball Ratings
x-1. Notre Dame (22-1)
x-2. Robbinsville (19-3)
x-3. Northern Burlington (17-3)
4. Steinert (17-4)
5. Council Rock South (17-2)
6. Neshaminy (13-7)
7. Pennsbury (13-6)
8. Cinnaminson (17-7)
9. Moorestown (17-5)
10. Council Rock North (12-8)
11. Hun (18-3)
12. Bristol (17-1)
13. Allentown (14-6)
x-14. Bordentown (10-9)
15. Cherokee (13-7-1)
16. Lenape (13-10)
x-17. Hightstown (12-11)
18. Hamilton/Nottingham (9-11)
19. Ewing (12-9)
20. Rancocas Valley (11-12)
21. Delran (11-9)
22. Holy Cross (12-7)
23Burlington Township (7-12)
24. Bensalem (5-15)
25. Conwell-Egan (11-6)
x-Friday’s games not included
