Pennsville rally from close calls, early deficit to beat top-seeded Audubon for a spot in South Jersey Group I softball finals; hosts Woodstown Thursday
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
AUDUBON — Two years ago Pennsville softball coach Beth Jackson stood in foul territory at the Audubon Little League complex ground fighting back tears. She was brought to tears in just about the same place Tuesday, but for an entirely different and much happier reason.
The first time her Eagles were on the very wrong end of a one-sides South Jersey Group 1 semifinal loss. On this day the tears were borne of pride and joy after the Eagles came from behind both physically and emotionally to knock off the top-seeded Green Wave, 3-1.
“I am just so proud of them,” Jackson said. “So proud of them for being frustrated and coming back, and being frustrated at the umpires and coming back.
“They make their calls. We talk about it all the time about being human and having the controllables. They rose above that and came out and had a couple big hits and Graillyn (Weber) did a great job keeping them in the game.”
The win sends the Eagles (17-7) to their first SJ Group 1 title game since 2019. They will host county rival Woodstown Thursday at 3 p.m. The Wolverines (19-8) blanked Palmyra 5-0 for their tenth straight win and first sectional final berth since 1979.
The Eagles overcame a couple difficult umpiring decisions early in the game that could have sapped their energy to win, but they overcame a 1-0 deficit and took the lead in the sixth inning offf Audubon’s best pitcher.
They trailed 1-0, but tied it on Kenzie Widener’s solo homer in the fourth and took the lead with two in the sixth.
Audubon sent Alaina Copsetta to the circle to start the sixth inning to face the top of the Pennsville order. Lily Edwards and Weber greeted the Green hard-throwing ace with a single and go-ahead RBI double to the short side of left field, respectively. They were the only two hitters Copsetta faced.
Kylie Harris met the second pitcher of the inning with an RBI single to make it 3-1. It was Harris’ 166th career hit and 116th RBI.
“They were starting to really hit Addi, even the outs we had gotten were shots to the fence,” Audubon coach Erin Small said. “We knew the top of the lineup was coming back up. We’ve been using Copsetta for those last two innings throughout the playoffs. She’s a different look. She throws a screw-rise ball, (starter) Addie (Leahan) does not. We just were looking for a different look and they got on her right away and we just decided to bring in Kylie (Cannaday) after that.”
Weber retired the Green Wave (19-10) over the last two innings with only one base runner to finish off the complete game. She allowed only one hit after the Green Wave scored their only run in the third. She retired 13 of the last 15 batters she faced. The Eagles have given up only one run in three playoff games.
“We were definitely reaching out for most of our at bats, not being patient, letting the ball get to us and it was resulting in a lot of pop ups,” Small said. “We only had three hits, one double. We definitely did not have a great day at the plate. You’ve got to give her a lot of credit for what she did on the mound. We just couldn’t produce today.”
This story will be updated
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