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)

UPDATED
Schalick, Weber post early, wait out the field, win team title and medalist in South Jersey Group I golf championship; Woodstown, Schermerhorn T-2

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CREAM RIDGE – The hardest part was the waiting.

Jaxon Weber and the Schalick golf team did everything they thought they could in the morning wave of the South Jersey Group I Golf Championships to have a chance Tuesday, then had to wait for the rest of the field to finish to discover if it was good enough.

It was historically good enough.

Weber and the Cougars rose up the leaderboard steadily throughout the afternoon as several teams had trouble on Cream Ridge GC’s back nine and eventually claimed titles. The team came from as many as 12 shots back with six holes to play to win their first sectional title in more than 20 years by nine shots and Weber’s 10-over-par 82 won medalist honors by a stroke.

The Cougars went out early, posted a 349 team score and then waited …. and waited … and waited for nearly three hours as the rest of the field finished.

Some teams checked out. The Cougars hung around, got something to eat, chipped and putted and talked to the coaches about how nervous they were, all the time checking the scoring app on their phones for updates.

Even the searching created some anxious moments as there was a glitch in one of the contender’s groups and everyone had to wait for the physical scorecards to determine those results.

“It was terribly nerve-wracking,” Weber said. “I saw myself at the top and I was just, ‘Please, Lord, let me win and please, Lord, look down on us and help us with this.’ At the end He came through and He let us win and I’m super grateful.”

“It was really rough,” Cougars coach Sean Collins said. “It seemed like there were a lot of little twists. We were all checking our phones every minute, letting each other know what was happening as if the other person didn’t check their phone, too. I’ve been a part of other athletic events before and that was a very unique experience.”

The Cougars shot 349 as a team. In addition to Weber’s 41-41—82, they counted Lance Creighton’s 40-45—85 (fourth place), Ryan Johnson’s 45-44–89 (T-10) and Seth Fisher’s 45-48–93. Elijah Johnson shot 51-45–96. 

Weber, a sophomore, got off to a rough start, going triple-double (8-5) right out of the box. He played the rest of the side even par with birdies at 5 and 6. He also was a little clunky coming home, playing the last four holes in 5-over with two double bogeys, and was two off the lead when he posted, but all the other contenders fell off on the back nine to bring him to the top.

“I came out the first two holes and didn’t really shoot the best and thought to myself I’ve got to pick it up from here,” Weber said. “I realized I couldn’t get out of my head because it was only two holes. I knew I had a lot of golf to play.

“I think today it was really keeping my cool after those first two holes. When I was a freshman I probably would’ve blown up and gotten angry at myself and probably would have taken myself out of the whole match. I feel like I’ve matured a lot over the past year and realized what golf is really about. It’s not about how you start, it’s about how you finish.”

And the Cougars finished on top when it counted.

Woodstown finished tied for second with Lower Cape May (358). They were three shots better than fourth-place Audubon.

Wolverines senior Jacob Schermerhorn shared second individually with LCM’s Alex Sekela at 83.  The Wolverines also counted long-hitting first-year player Kyle Brainard’s 48-40—88 (T-6), Jeffrey Covely’s 49-43–92 and Joe Olbrich’s 46-49–95. Max Webb shot 115.

Among the top three teams, Woodstown’s four counters played the back nine the best (173) and had a 12-shot differential between the front (185) and back (173).

“I was happy, I was definitely content,” coach Kieran Keyser said. “The goal is always to do a little bit better than the previous year, which we did, and that made it that much sweeter. It was a good day. I was happy with our guys and I’m looking forward to the last two weeks of the season to try to finish strong.”

And that would be the Salem/Cumberland County Championship and the Tri-County Championship, two events that will be played under some non-traditional tournament formats.