Pennsville Senior Softball team honored with a parade down Broadway after World Series trip, take the plunge at the end of the ride
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PENNSVILLE – It doesn’t get any better to welcome home a local hero than a ticker-tape parade down Broadway, right. Well, there might not have been any ticker tape Monday, but there was a parade.
The players on the Pennsville Little League Senior Softball team received one final tribute for making the Little League World Series when they paraded through the center of town against a backdrop of sirens, lights, honking horns and appreciative fans.
The players climbed aboard a Pennsville fire truck with a big “Eagles Softball” banner draped across the side in the parking lot of the Little League complex and set off on the four-mile trip to their manager’s house. The parade was led by a Pennsville PD cruiser, two fire trucks, manager Chris Watson’s truck and a train of 16 other cars.
“That was incredible,” Watson said. “I didn’t think they would be allowed to ride up on top, so to be able to do that, that was another once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity for them. They’re going to remember riding through their hometown on top of the fire truck forever. “
Catcher Kylie Harris called the experience “awesome.”
The parade was put together somewhat hastily since the team wrapped up their week-long World Series experience late Saturday night. Still, there were friends, family and supporters at several spots along the parade route. Even the people in the cars coming the other way honked horns and waved when the parade went by.
There was a large group on both sides of the road at the Acme light waving and taking picture. A white-bearded man standing in front of the package goods store waved enthusiastically. A bike rider on West Pittsfield tipped his hat.
“I felt like a little princess on top of a firetruck having all eyes on me,” outfielder Savannah Palverento said. “It was not a very convenient time, but there were still people out to support us. I thought that was really nice.”
When the parade turned onto Fort Mott Road, neighbors were out on their lawns applauding and taking pictures. Perhaps the neatest part of the trip was when the caravan passed a large Atlantic City Electric crew working on the lines and the guys way up in the buckets waved down to the players.
“I wouldn’t want to go out any other way,” said third baseman Bella Farina, the oldest Little League player in the program and one of two players on the team aging out of the system. “It was a really good way to go out. Losing (in Saturday’s consolation game) was a heartbreak, but we still made it far.”
The Eagles swept through district, sectional, state and regional play to reach the World Series in Roxana, Del. They went 2-4 in the Series, beating teams from Puerto Rico and The Philippines in pool play.
The celebration didn’t end when the parade stopped. The players reconvened at Watson’s house for their annual season-end dip in the manager’s pool. They lined up at the edge of the deep end wearing their East jerseys from the Series and jumped in for a collective cannonball.
“It felt good today; everything felt good,” Watson said. “It was a relief, I guess, to jump in the pool with them one last time.”
Riverview Sports News 