Steinert primed for another deep state tournament run
The official pairings were released on Friday for the NSJIAA state softball tournament that gets underway next week and as usual a host of area teams are primed for deep post-season runs.
Among the teams that certainly appears ready is Steinert, which is coming off a remarkable and stunning victory over Notre Dame in the championship game of the Mercer County Tournament on Thursday night. It wasn’t so much that Steinert won that was shocking, but rather the fact it did by the score of 13-1 in five innings.
It was almost certainly the first time an MCT final ended on the run rule and another example of why the Spartans have clearly established themselves as one of the premier programs in the entire state.
The nine runs it scored in the fourth inning against Notre Dame brought back memories of the nine-run explosion it had in the Tournament of Champions title game in 2018 when Steinert ended up as the No. 1 team in the state.
It also was another classic example of how Steinert has the ability to produce its most impressive performances at the biggest moments. Making it even sweeter, of course, was Thursday’s triumph was against its biggest rival and resulted in the Spartans winning two out of three games against Notre Dame this year.
Steinert is now up to No. 3 in The Trentonian’s Area Ratings with just three losses. One was to No. 2 Bordentown, a second was to Notre Dame and the third was a loss to Hunterdon Central in which it did not use No.1 pitcher Isabella Bonacci, who is the cousin of former Robbinsville pitching great Lauren Fischer.
Moving forward, Steinert has received the No. 1 seed in Central Jersey Group III (see below) and has emerged as the favorite in a field that includes No. 2
Middletown North, No. 3 Wall, No. 4 Robbinsville and No. 5 Allentown.
A lot of people might not realize this, but Steinert has reached the sectional final a very impressive eight straight times. And should the Spartans navigate their way through this year’s sectional field, they will play at home in the next round because it’s Central Jersey’s turn to host the South Jersey teams in the state semifinals.
While the destruction of Notre Dame was a special kind of moment for a special kind of program, it’s entirely possible the Spartans could make a lot more history before this season is finished.
The same can be said for the area as a whole because New Egypt and Bordentown have also received No. 1 seeds. In addition, Florence is a No. 2 seed, and Lenape, Burlington Township and Notre Dame will all enter state tournament plays as No. 3 seeds.
Still sailing along at 20-1 with its only loss against the state’s top-ranked Donovan Catholic, Bordentown is a huge favorite to come out of Central Jersey Group II. As such, it’s easy to envision the Scotties possibly entertaining Haddon Heights and its freshman pitching phenom Sophie Bordi under the Bordentown lights in the state semifinals. New Egypt and Florence, of course, are both part of the Central Jersey Group I bracket and when they played earlier this year New Egypt barely prevailed, 5-4.
Florence, by the way, is the last Burlington County team to win a state title in 2007. Ocean County’s New Egypt has five state championships to its credit.
Making it even more promising for area teams is some of our Pennsylvania teams are also all locked and loaded.
Ranked No. 1 in the area, Pennsbury is now 16-1 and just clinched a Suburban One League National Division title. The Falcons are strong in all areas and will entertain arch-rival Neshaminy this Wednesday after their game was rained out the previous week. In their first game of the year Pennsbury beat Neshaminy, 10-3.
Although Pennsbury has already locked up a league championship, its last three games are important in order to remain the No. 1 seed in the rugged 24-team District 1 Class 6A bracket. Neshaminy currently sits ninth and a capable Bensalem team led by pitcher Maggie Formichelli and shortstop Megan Klein is 18th.
Also in District 1, Villa Joe Marie (13-3) remains atop the
Class 4A bracket after picking up all kinds of points by beating Neshaminy earlier this week. VJM is the defending District 1 Class 4A champion.