Pennsville LL departs for Senior Softball World Series, eager to meet players from all across the globe
SENIOR SOFTBALL WORLD SERIES
Lower Sussex LL Complex, Roxana, Del.
Monday’s games
Lower Sussex vs. Pennsville, 6 p.m.
Canada vs. Southeast, 6 p.m.
Central U.S. vs. West U.S., 8 p.m.
Latin America vs. Southwest U.S., 8 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
They’ve known they were going to the World Series since Wednesday afternoon, but the enormity of it all didn’t hit the Pennsville Senior Softball players until the big charter bus pulled into the parking lot Saturday morning to carry them to their date with destiny.
There was palpable excitement among the ranks and parents – even some tears were shed – as the bus pulled into the Pennsville LL parking lot and the players started assembling their gear for what they hope is a nine-day trip on the Delmarva Peninsula.
The Series doesn’t start in Roxana, Del., for them until Monday when they play the host team at 6 p.m., but they had to report to the site with the other nine participating teams Saturday to knock out all the preliminaries.
“It’s kind of not real,” outfielder Savannah Palverento said as she waited to board the bus. “It’s just not real that we’re going to the World Series and we’re going to be playing against all these other teams from around the world.
“I think it’s really gonna hit when we get to the park.”
The original departure plan was for the bus to pull out of Pennsville at 7 a.m. Manager Chris Watson had gotten it moved up to 10 a.m., but all that did was ramp up the players’ anticipation even more.
“I guess it’s real then,” Watson said. “I know (one of the moms) said they had a reaction when they pulled up and saw the big bus sitting out there. She was excited. It’s like Christmas morning for them.
“We pushed the bus back to 10 a.m. and they’re complaining about that because … they want to be down there. They want to start experiencing it all, so it’s exciting for them.”
Little League sent the charter bus for them for the 2.5-hour trip south; outside of the host team they are the most local team here. The organization arranged travel and transfers for all the teams flying in from all parts of the globe. The only thing that would’ve been neater for the Eagles is if one of the incoming teams was on the bus from the airport with them.
That’s the part of the experience the Eagles are really looking forward to. They have two international entries in their pool – Bacolod City, Philippines, and Guanica, Puerto Rico. The other pool has Canada and Czech Republic along with three domestic entries.
“There’s a team from the Czech Republic and The Philippines, I’m literally so excited to meet them,” utilityman Gabby Forino said. “I’m the type person who loves to know, ‘Where are you from? Oh, you’re from somewhere way far away? I’d love to see how cool that is.’ I just love meeting new people. It’s like my favorite thing ever.”
She won’t have long to wait. All the players are housed in the same hotel.
“I think the out-of-country teams are going to be so awesome to play,” catcher Kylie Harris said. “We don’t play out of country teams, so this is like a big opportunity for the travel girls because they’ve never played out-of-country people and these girls have never played out-of-state people (before the regionals), so it’s really awesome for all of us.”
“It’s the World Series,” first baseman Bella Rappa said. “It’ll be really cool to meet the other girls and talk about the one thing we share in common, which is softball.”
Once the players arrived, one of the first orders of business was assigning numbers and East jerseys. Several of the players are joining the team Sunday, but here are the roster numbers for those on campus. Their regular-season uniform numbers are in parenthesis.
1-Avery Watson (19)
2-Gina Shinn (0)
3-Lily Edwards (85)
8-Graillyn Weber (39)
9-Gracie Mease (1)
10-Sawyer Simmons (66)
13-Lilly Birney (13)
17-Kylie Harris (87)
18-Kam Garron (16)
19-Audrey Claybourn (96)
21-Savannah Palverento (21)
22-Gabby Forino (31)
NA-Bella Farina (55)
NA-Bella Rappa (25)
NA-Jess Bretz (20)
NA-Kloi Tighe (99)
Riverview Sports News 