PVLL goes to college

Salem CC bringing its softball games to Pennsville Little League park, fall event set for Sept. 24

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PENNSVILLE – College softball is coming to the Pennsville Little League.

The league and Salem Community College have entered into an agreement that will bring the Mighty Oaks to the PVLL Chris Watson Field as their home field for games and practices for as long as the sides see fit.

“It’s really exciting because we get college softball in Pennsville and that’s never happened before,” PVLL president Chris Watson said. “To bring that into Pennsville and to have the college girls practice and play in there, and our girls get to see that week in and week out, it’s kind of a big deal. It’s kind of like expanding our family.”

Salem CC revived its softball program after a 12-year hiatus last year and the softball Oaks played their inaugural season at the Carneys Point Recreation Park. They basically followed the school’s baseball team there, but after the season coach Angel Rodriguez went looking for a venue that would enhance the college softball experience for athletes and fans of their growing program and Pennsville proved attractive.

The Little League had been talking about having the Oaks play a game under the lights at the park, but it never materialized. Those talks morphed into more expansive discussions and soon after Watson brought his Pennsville LL softball team back from the Senior World Series the bigger deal was formalized.

“It just didn’t get a lot of attraction where we kind of really wanted it,” Rodriguez said of the team’s former home. “Where we wanted it to be as far being able to get out that we had a team again; most people still didn’t know we did. When we were thinking about what a college feel we wanted to bring, Pennsville just kind of had more of that feel for us.

“I think the new location’s going to help us kind of brand that news that we’re here, we’re a team that’s competing, trying to give back, and hopefully get a landing spot for a lot of Salem County athletes to come out and play.”

The Oaks had four Salem County players listed on their 2023 roster (Pennsville’s Faith Penn, Yari Laguna and Christina Dooley and Schalick’s Amy Chomo) and signed three in the offseason: Hailey Stewart (Salem Vo-Tech/Woodstown), Britney McCauley (Salem) and Gianna Dybus (Woodstown). Mackenzie Freas, one of Watson’s assistants on the Senior LL World Series team, joined the coaching staff this year.

The contract is a 12-month, year-to-year deal with each side having the option to renew. The college will pay a monthly fee of about $1,000 and be active in any facility enhancements. The playing field will need no alterations to accommodate the college game, but the first project they plan to tackle together is upgrading the dugouts.

“We have 21 women on the team,” Rodriguez said. “It gets pretty crowded in there.”

The team held its first practice in the facility Sunday and will be out there laboring on Labor Day. It has a fall season round-robin series scheduled with Delaware Tech and Anne Arundel (Md.) CC Sept. 24 and expects to play 12 to 15 doubleheader dates there during its spring regular-season.

It also plans to hold a clinic for Salem County athletes in October and conduct others during the year.