Pennsville Senior Softball heading to Little League East Regional looking to get what they couldn’t close out last year
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PENNSVILLE – Most of the teams headed to Massachusetts this week for the Little League Senior Softball East Regional might have a message like “Delaware or Bust” scrawled across their caravan windows. There is really only one theme the Pennsville LL All-Stars are carrying: Unfinished business.
The New Jersey champions were on the verge of reaching the region championship game last year when the unthinkable happened. They lost a 10-run lead late in the game and it sent them on an excruciating six-hour drive back home thinking about all that could have been.
It’s a memory that has burned in the souls of all the returning players for an entire year. Now they have a chance for redemption back at the same place in the same regional that begins Saturday.
“We’re 100 percent focused on this,” Pennsville manager Chris Watson said. “It was a huge letdown last year. We felt like we were good enough to go beyond the East Region and we fell short. We have spent the last 12 months trying to get back there every day. Nick Rappa passing away, that’s a big driver, too. The girls have their motivation.”
Pennsville was six outs away from run-ruling Camden/Wyoming, Del., to earn a spot in the championship game that would follow last year when it all fell apart. The Delaware champs, who Pennsville beat in pool play earlier in the week, scored once in the home fourth to keep the game alive, plated seven in the bottom of the fifth to set Pennsville on its heels and then got four more in the sixth to complete the comeback and break Pennsville’s heart.
But instead of wallowing in the loss, they changed their mindset and jumped right back into the batting cage as soon as they got back in town to work out their frustrations.
“We always like to say we have unfinished business because of it,” shortstop Avery Watson said. “I do strongly believe that because we had it in the bag, (then) something happened and it just slipped out.
“It really motivates us because it’s going to be almost the same teams up there; everybody is just one year older. It’s going to be a bunch of the same girls and we want to hand it to them like we could have last year.”
“All of us, especially the Bellas (Farina and Rappa), have a fire in them,” catcher Kylie Harris said. “We have something to prove.”
Pennsville lost only two players off that team and added three more – four, if you include Savannah Palverento who was part of the team last year but missed the regional due to injury. Palverento hit the game-winning homer in the state title game comeback Tuesday night.
So, it’s basically the same team they took to regionals last year, but it’s different.
“They just matured,” Watson said. “I know it’s only been a year, but they matured like five years – and probably that night.
“You saw it on Tuesday night (when they trailed twice in the state title game). They didn’t get rattled. They got rattled last year. We were just 100 percent rattled last year and gave it up. This year they faced a lot of adversity, a lot of moments they could have gotten rattled, and they really didn’t.”
“A lot of our attitudes have changed,” Avery Watson said. “A big part of that is because of what happened last year. We’re more motivated now and more driven to finish what we had left up there.”
This year, they were placed in a five-team Mid-Atlantic pool with Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York, but late Wednesday night Watson learned the New York entry had withdrawn, forcing a major shift in the pool’s schedule.
They still will open the regional against Havre de Grace, Md., on Saturday, but now wrap up pool play with a doubleheader Sunday against Smyrna, Del., and Stroudsburg, Pa. The knockout rounds that now include all eight teams start Monday.
“We have deep pitching, so I think we have an advantage over some of those others teams when it comes to that and we lose that now in the tournament section,” Watson said. “The single-elimination tournament was a doubleheader for the championship on Wednesday. It’s just been reduced to one game per day so I guess we might lose an advantage there, if we had one. It kind of makes pool play almost irrelevant now.”
The Maryland team Pennsville opens with is 6-0 in the tournament with five run-rule wins. They’ve outscored their opponents 80-8 and pitcher Lilly Dalton has allowed only one earned run in 29 innings and struck out 47.
The top of the lineup has blazing speed – they opened the state title game with an inside-the-park homer and triple – and there’s plenty of pop throughout. Leadoff hitter Bayleigh Carstetter is 7-for-15 with 19 runs and Dayley Veres is 10-for-20 with 15 runs. The pop comes next with Kinsey Mentzer (12-for-21, 2 HRs, 10 RBIs); Dalton (.529, 14 RBIs); Katie Burr (.313) and Sarah Weitzel (.450, 7 RBIs).
The Delaware champs are 5-1 in the tournament, with three run-rule wins and 10 runs or more in every game. Isabella Mancini has thrown two no-hitters.
The Pennsylvania champion is 7-0 with seven run-rule wins. They haven’t allowed a run in their last four games and are working on a 21-inning scoreless streak.
“They all look like strong teams,” Watson said. “We’ve had a chance to watch all three of the teams play via video, but they all look strong, strong pitching in the zone – obviously none of them give up a lot of runs – good defense and they have dangerous base runners. We’re going to play the same that got us there.”
“I think we have to be ready for anything,” Avery Watson said. “We’re obviously going to see a lot more competition up there. We have to be prepared to make more comebacks like we did our last game. It’s going to happen a lot because from what we’ve seen on video they’re very talented teams and everybody is going up there to go all the way. Everybody wants to win it. We just have to want it more.”
NOTES: All four teams in the Pennsville pool can be found on the Gamechanger app: Pennsville Seniors 2023, HdG LL Seniors, SCLL Senior All Stars, Stroudsburg Seniors All-Star … As of 7 p.m. Thursday night, the Pennsville Senior Softball Regional GoFundMe page has raised $1,850 of its $2,500 goal … The regional winner punches a ticket to the Senior Softball World Series in Roxana, Del., July 31-Aug. 6. The East’s pool there includes Asia-Pacific, Host Delaware District 3, Latina America and Southwest and they open against the host team.
LITTLE LEAGUE SENIOR SOFTBALL
East Regional, Worcester, Mass.
Pool A (New England): Connecticut (Bristol), Host (Mass D4/Worcester), Massachusetts (Marblehead), Rhode Island (Warwick North)
Pool B (Mid-Atlantic): Delaware (Smyrna/Clayton), Maryland (Havre de Grace), New Jersey (Pennsville), Pennsylvania (Stroudsburg)
Saturday’s games
Opening ceremonies, 9 a.m.
Pennsylvania vs. Delaware, 11 a.m.
Massachusetts vs. Host, 11 a.m.
Maryland vs. Pennsville LL, 1:30 p.m.
Connecticut vs. Massachusetts, 1:30 p.m.
Pennsylvania vs. Maryland, 3 p.m.
Host vs. Rhode Island, 3 p.m.
Sunday’s games
Massachusetts vs. Rhode Island, 1 p.m.
Maryland vs. Delaware, 1 p.m.
Connecticut vs. Rhode Island, 3:30 p.m.
Delaware vs. Pennsville LL, 3:30 p.m.
Host vs. Connecticut, 6 p.m.
Pennsylvania vs. Pennsville LL, 6 p.m.
Monday’s games
1A vs. 4B, 5 p.m.
2A vs. 3B, 5 p.m.
2B vs. 3A, 8 p.m.
1B vs. 4A, 8 p.m.
Tuesday’s games
Semifinals
1A-4B winner vs. 2B-3A winner, 5:30 p.m.
2A-3B winner vs. 1B-4A winner, 5:30 p.m.
Wednesday’s game
Championship, 1 p.m.
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