SJ Sports: HS Diamond Champs

HS Softball
Frequently in sports, teams talk about overcoming adversity and digging down deep inside when the going gets rough. No team in any sport this spring had to do more digging than Northern Burlington’s softball squad. The Greyhounds capped a historic season with a 1-0 win over Pompton Lakes in the state Group 2 softball championship.

It was the first state title for any team in the school’s history. Any school would be hard-pressed to win a title in a more dramatic fashion.

Very little came easy for Northern Burlco in the state tournament, but the Greyhounds made it even more difficult on the opposition.

In the first state tournament game Northern Burlington won, 4-2 in eight innings against a pesky Hammonton team.

The second game Northern Burlco beat Haddonfield, 7-2, but after that the Greyhounds experienced a series of tense and dramatic games.

It began with a 3-2 South Jersey semifinal win over Burlington Township, in 19 innings. That’s almost three full softball games.

More amazingly was the fact that senior pitcher Kerry Lee pitched all 19 innings.

It’s said that a softball pitcher can throw all day because of the underhand motion, but anybody making that statement should try to throw 19 innings in the heat of the afternoon.

"I was really tired after that," Lee said. "But it gave me a lot of confidence, knowing I could pitch for 19 innings.."

Due to the extra innings, Northern Burlington coach Brian Wolverton said that Lee couldn’t throw her fastball effectively the next game against Point Pleasant Boro.

Without her best fastball, Lee relied on her off-speed pitches and a ton of courage.

Northern Burlco beat Point Pleasant Boro, 3-2 in eight innings to win the South Jersey championship.

Lee still admittedly was a little tired the next game, but it was difficult to tell by the results as Northern Burlington beat Carteret, 3-0, in the state Group 2 semifinals.

Then in her final high school game, Lee put on a championship performance. She limited a hard-hitting Pompton Lakes team to two hits in the 1-0 win.

"Winning the state championship is the best feeling in the world," said Lee, who will pitch next season for Montclair State.

Northern Burlington was a tight-knit veteran group with nine seniors. Lee was the only one of the seniors who wasn’t with the program for four years. That’s because she attended high school at Holy Cross her first two years before coming home to Northern Burlco.

"These two years at Northern Burlington were the best two years of my life," Lee said. "It was so special to be part of this team."

It was also special to be part of the teams at Washington Township and Pennsville, the other two teams from the seven-county South Jersey area to win state softball titles. Washington Township beat West Milford, 7-0 to win the Group 4 crown and Pennsville capped a 26-1 season with a 3-1 victory over Saddle Brook in the state Group 1 championship. Pennsville rode the right arm of junior Jaime Carlson to win the championship and give the Salem County school a daily double with softball and baseball state titles.

Washington Township pitcher Kristy Pron helped her team win its second state championship and first since 1985.

Both Washington Township and Pennsville didn’t have quite as difficult a time in winning titles as Northern Burlington, although it is still never easy to win a state championship. That’s why all three schools are savoring their titles, because as Northern Burlington can attest, these opportunities don’t come around all the time.

HS Baseball
It’s not how a team starts, but how it finishes that counts. That old adage was proven emphatically by the two high school baseball state champions from the seven-county South Jersey area. Bishop Eustace won the Parochial B state title and Pennsville won the Group 1 state championship. Neither began the baseball season exactly on fire. Pennsville opened the season by losing two of its first four games, to Glassboro and Salem. Those losses came to teams that would finish 11-10-1 and 5-14 respectively. Not only wasn’t anybody talking about Pennsville winning a state title, but the chance to remain in contention in the Tri-County Conference Classic Division appeared remote.

"Our goal all season was to win the conference, the South Jersey title and the state championship," said Pennsville coach Ryan Wood, whose team accomplished all three. "We knew with a young team that it might take some time to jell."

Ironically, the Salem loss came one day game after Pennsville had stunned Gloucester Catholic, 11-6 on April 15. At the time Gloucester Catholic was ranked No. 1 in South Jersey. Gloucester Catholic has won a state record 11 state championships since the advent of state title games in 1971. This is annually one of the top programs in the state.

Yet Pennsville may have been too overconfident in the next game against Salem. Losing to Salem showed that Pennsville couldn't overlook anybody.

On May 1, Pennsville proved that the earlier win over Gloucester Catholic wasn’t a fluke by defeating the Rams, 9-7. Both Gloucester Catholic and Pennsville ended up sharing the Classic Division title with two division losses.

Pennsville (21-6) tried to play the best possible competition and it paid off. After losing 9-5 on May 17 to Group 4 power Washington Township, Pennsville, would win its final six games, including a 3-2 state championship triumph over Whippany Park.

The key was pitching, and more specifically, the work of John Humphreys. A sophomore righthander, Humphreys went 5-0 in the state tournament and finished 10-1 this season. Wood said he wouldn’t trade Humphreys for any player in South Jersey. Who can blame him?

Like Pennsville, Bishop Eustace didn’t get off to a sizzling start. The Crusaders lost their first game of the season to Triton, 14-2 and then dropped a 5-4 decision to Washington Township to be eliminated from title contention of Audubon’s Ralph Shaw Tournament.

That opening game was significant because the losing pitcher was junior Nick Iannucci. As it turns out, the development of Iannucci was the single most important factor in Eustace winning the state Parochial B title.

Iannucci regrouped and when No. 1 pitcher Mark Petrongolo suffered an arm injury in mid-April that would sideline him for the season, Iannucci stepped up into the No. 1 role. Iannucci finished the year 9-2, capped by a 5-1 victory over Montclair Kimberly in the state championship.

Montclair Kimberly was ranked No. 4 in the state at the time and was considered a prohibitive favorite.

"Nick deserves so much credit for improving as each game went on," Eustace coach Sam Tropiano said. "We told him after that first game that he just had to keep working and he would see the results."

Eustace ended the season 23-8-1. Like Pennsville, the Crusaders played a strong regular season schedule and that benefited them in the postseason.

In fact Eustace only allowed a total of four runs in winning four Parochial B games. Iannucci pitched three of them. He showed that he had made tremendous strides since that opening loss to Triton on a cold April day.

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Author: Marc Narducci