Pennsville completes sweep of East Regional, heads to Senior Softball World Series in Delaware next week; ‘One more step,’ Watson says
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
WORCESTER, Mass. – Make room for another banner on the clubhouse.
The Pennsville LL Senior Softball All-Stars came here on a mission to get the East Region tournament that got away last year and won it all Wednesday emphatically making their point in a 10-5 title victory over Warwick North, R.I. to earn a trip to the World Series in Roxana, Del.
They open the Series Monday 6 p.m. against host Lower Sussex. It’s their first trip to the Series since 1996 and Pennsville’s first trip to any softball World Series since 1998.
The Eagles are undefeated this Little League tournament season, having swept the districts (3-0), sectionals (2-0), state (2-0) and, now, regionals (6-0). They have scored 10 runs or more 11 times and have seven run-rule wins.
“One more step,” manager Chris Watson told the girls as they lined up to accept the post-game awards.
They’re certainly leaving here feeling a lot better about themselves than they did a year ago. Last year they brought a team here capable of going the distance and was on the verge of reaching the finals when a team from Delaware rallied from 10 runs down to beat them. After today, with a team of virtually the same players, all that’s behind them.
“It feels like we got over a hump right now,” Watson said. “We still have an ultimate goal ahead of us, but it feels good, it’s something really to celebrate.
“It felt like a wall last year we ran into. To get over that wall and get past that and defeat those ghosts and all that we were living under for the last 12 months, it feels good.”
“It’s an amazing feeling especially the heartbreak we all went through last year,” third baseman Bella Farina said.
Rhode Island had pummeled almost all of its opponents in the state and regional tournaments, but Pennsville pitcher Kloi Tighe kept it in check with her usual approach of letting her fielders make the plays and her hitters create the cushion. She pitched in all six of the Eagles’ games, posting five wins and a save.
She got them to the finals with a 6-1 win over Delaware in the resumption of their suspended semifinal game from the night before. In that one she gave up five hits, walked one and struck out eight in a complete game.
“I didn’t think I was going to be able to pitch the whole time, but knowing the team needed it I made sure I was able to,” Tighe said. “I know now I can pitch and keep pitching and not get tired until the very end, because I did pitch a lot.”
“Kloi’s a warrior,” Watson said. “She will do whatever we ask her to do and because she’s a warrior, she doesn’t complain about it, she just steps up there and does her job. She’s a wrestler, that’s her No. 1 sport and she plays softball with the intensity of a wrestler and we really benefit from it.”
The offense was its typical self as well. They banged out 11 hits, five for extra bases. Eight of the nine starters had at least one hit or a run. They hit .377 as a team in the regional with 19 doubles and two homers.
Leadoff Lily Edwards got things going in the title game by scoring the first run and driving in the second. Edwards reached base all five times she batted and scored three runs. Farina went 3-for-5 with two doubles and three RBIs, and Jess Bretz drove in three runs with two hits.
Pennsville scored a run in the first after loading the bases with one out, but could’ve scored more. Farina singled home lead runner Edwards, but Bretz made too wide of a turn at third and was caught on the way back.
They made it 2-0 in the second when Graillyn Weber got to third with two outs and Edwards laced a triple into the right field corner after showing bunt the pitch before.
Rhode Island tied it in the third on Skyler Hawes’ two-run single to center, but Pennsville answered in the fourth and never looked back.
Avery Watson led off with a double to left and was sacrificed to third by Tighe. They eventually loaded the bases when Edwards popped a bunt over the third baseman’s head and Harris was hit by a pitch. Bretz followed with a two-run single through the hole at short and Farina ripped a two-run double to left.
“That was our gameplan all along, to punch back,” Watson said. “We felt like we wanted to stick with Kloi and have Kloi stick it out and clinch it. We knew she was going to give up some contact and they were going to score some runs, but it was really part of our gameplan that we were going to just punch back every time and we did.”
“I think it’s true Pennsville nature,” Farina said. “When we are stressed or down, one hit can get us fired up and then it becomes a continuous cycle and we all come together and hit bombs.”
After Tighe got the final out, the team rushed the pitching circle to celebrate and let loose a blue popper in front of their dugout, but beyond that their celebration was rather muted, as it has been throughout the process. Their eye is on a bigger prize.
“Everybody recognizes that while this is like a wall to get over, this is just Step Four of a five-step process that will get us to the World Series (championship),” Watson said.
The Eagles likely will report to the World Series site Saturday for registration, uniforms and other tournament business.
With a quicker turnaround than they had from the states to Massachusetts, the team has set up another GoFundMe campaign that can be accessed on the web to help offset expenses for the trip.
“There’s a lot to talk about in the next couple days,” Watson said.
East Region Championship
Pennsville 10, Rhode Island 5
Pennsville 220 422 0 – 10 11 4
Rhode Island 002 102 0 – 5 12 5
WP: Kloi Tighe (5-0). LP: Bryce Principe. 2B: Bella Farina 2 (P), Jess Bretz (P), Avery Watson (P), Adrianna Pettinato (RI), Skyler Hawes (RI). 3B: Lily Edwards (P).
SENIOR SOFTBALL WORLD SERIES
Roxana, Del.
Pool A
East: Pennsville LL, New Jersey
Asia-Pacific: Negros Occidental LL, Bacolod City, Philippines
Host: Lower Sussex, Delaware
Latin America: Yankees Family Group LL, Guanica, Puerto Rico
Southwest: Determined Friday
Pool B
Canada: Determined Thursday
Central: Illinois District 17
Europe-Africa: Czech Republic District 1, Prague
Southeast: Vine-Ingle LL, Macon, Georgia
West: Honolulu LL, Hawaii
East Schedule
July 31 – vs. Lower Sussex, 6 p.m.
Aug. 1 – vs Asia-Pacific, 8 p.m.
Aug. 2 – off
Aug. 3 – vs. Southwest, 5:30 p.m.
Aug. 3 – vs. Latin America, 8 p.m.
Aug. 4 – Quarterfinals
Aug. 5 – Semifinals
Aug. 6 – Finals
Top photo by Michelle Pedrick
Riverview Sports News 