Record breaker

Woodstown’s Mingin becomes softball program’s all-time hits lead after going 4-for-4 against Glassboro

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODSTOWN – Dave Wildermuth took great pride in reading off all the accomplishments of the nine players he introduced during Woodstown’s Senior Day softball celebration.

One by one the Wolverines coach described what each player did and what they meant to the program. They still had a softball game to play and the next name on the list had a lot on her resume, so when Wildermuth got to Tulana Mingin’s segment in the program he simply described her as “the most decorated player in school history.”

That about covered it. The Wolverines’ senior shortstop added another milestone to an already impressive list of accolades Tuesday when she became the program’s all-time hits leader after going 4-for-4 in a 5-0 victory over Glassboro.

“(Getting the record) means a lot; it feels great, honestly,” Mingin said. “I know it’s a really big deal, but it doesn’t really feel like that. Looking at it from an outside perspective makes me realize how cool it really is.”

The East Stroudsburg signee entered the game needing three hits to tie the record (131) Gracee Roberts set before graduating in 2018. She got those with bunt singles in the first, second and third innings as the Wolverines were building a 5-0 lead and then got the record-breaker on a slap ground single to left in the fifth.

It was her second four-hit game this season and fourth in the last two years. She now has 35 hits this season and is batting .593, which is only a few points shy of her career best .597 set in 2022.

“I knew it was definitely possible (Tuesday),” she said. “I’ve done it before, gotten that many hits in a game, but I wasn’t counting on it because I know that there’s some stuff I can’t control like walks and reaching on errors and just the game of softball, it’s hard to get a hit every at-bat.”

Even Wildermuth thought it might take another game or two for the record to fall, but once Mingin got the first two bunts down all that changed.

“We knew she was going to get it,” he said. “It was just a matter of when.”

When she first started playing varsity softball getting 100 hits was a goal. Becoming the school’s all-time leader in hits wasn’t anywhere on the radar.

“When I was a freshman I was not thinking about that at all, I was just focused on earning a spot,” she said.

In the years that have passed, she had seasons of 14, 43, 40 and this year 35 hits. There have been only 12 games in her career where she has been held hitless.

When she got the milestone hit, they stopped the game briefly, recognized the feat and tossed the ball to Mingin’s dad. The team made her a poster to mark the occasion, but something more elaborate to commemorate the moment will have to wait.

“I’m not done yet,” she said. “If they’re going to do a banner they have to wait to the end of the season because I’m not done yet.”

And the Wolverines plan to play for a long time.

The win was Woodstown’s 26th straight in division and clinched at least a share of their third straight Diamond Division title. They hold a two-game lead in the loss column on Overbrook with two games to play, but they beat the Rams in both games of their series this season.

Liv Boultinghouse spun a four-hit complete-game shutout with eight strikeouts. The only two other baserunners the Bulldogs had reached on errors. Four runners reached scoring position, but only one got past second base.

Everybody on the roster played. Kayla Brown had two hits and two RBIs, Grace White drove in a pair of runs and Shannon Pierman had two hits (and got a game ball).

White gave the Wolverines the lead with a two-run double in the first inning, Brown had a two-run double in the second and Alyssa Baber drew a bases-loaded walk in the third.  

On the cover: Woodstown’s Tulana Mingin delivers the 132nd hit of her career in the fifth inning of Tuesday’s game against Glassboro to become the Wolverines’ all-time hits leader. (Photo by Stephanie Hill/Capture The Moment Photography)