Notre Dame is team to beat in Mercer County Tournament
With the regular season rapidly winding down and the cutoff for the NJSIAA state tournament on Wednesday, the high school softball season is entering the home stretch.
Before taking a preliminary glance at the New Jersey and Pennsylvania playoff picture, there’s also the matter of the Mercer County Tournament that got underway earlier this week.
The quarterfinal round match-ups are No. 8 West Windsor at No. 1 Notre Dame, No. 5. Robbinsville at No. 4 Allentown, No. 6 Hopewell Valley at No. 3 Hightstown and No. 7. Lawrence at No. 3 Steinert.
All of these games were scheduled for Saturday, but because of a forecast calling for rain, at least three of them as of Friday afternoon had already been pushed to Monday.
Following the quarters, all the action will swing to Ewing’s Armstrong Park. The semifinals are set for Tuesday with a double header beginning at 4:30 p.m., followed by the championship game Thursday night.
Although it lost to Immaculata this week when it did not use its No. 1 pitcher Rylee Michalak, Notre Dame remains the big favorite. You can say that in part based on its victory last Saturday over state power Mt. St. Dominic, which is the only team to beat top-ranked Pennsbury this year.
This was just an incredible game in which the very young Notre Dame team fell behind by the score of 6-2, only to stun the North Jersey team with an amazing five-run rally in the bottom of the seventh that featured one clutch hit after another.
While ND (14-3) is the team to beat, there promises to be plenty of drama along the way. A winner of five in a row, Robbinsville appears to have at least temporarily put things back together and is looking to avenge a 4-0 loss to Allentown. Should the Ravens prevail, they almost certainly will face Notre Dame.
The last time those two played Notre Dame crushed Robbinsville, 16-0, in three and a half innings and the Ravens were not at all happy Notre Dame deliberately and brazenly ran up the score.
“I wanted to end it as fast as I could to rest my pitcher,” said Notre Dame coach Marty Schafer, who also made it known this was a payback for Robbinsville canceling a game against the Irish the previous year.
In the bottom part of the bracket, Steinert should reach the final. But note the operative word there is “should” because as in the case with just about everyone else, the Steinert hitting comes and goes, witness its 1-0 victory over Allentown earlier this week.
Should the seeding hold up and it’s Steinert against Notre Dame in the final, it will be their third meeting of the year. Steinert won the first game, 5-4, before Notre Dame bounced back with a 3-1 victory.
In addition to Notre Dame being part of a South Jersey Parochial A bracket that includes the state’s top-ranked Donovan Catholic,
two sectional brackets that will feature a lot of local interest are Central Jersey Group II and III.
Although there are a couple of other teams with big records, Bordentown is a huge favorite in C.J. Group II. The secondranked Scotties have played a much tougher schedule than anyone else in the field, and the fact they are 18-1 speaks for itself.
C.J. Group III looks wide open. As of Friday, Wall (14-3) is the top seed, followed by Steinert and last year’s Group II state champion Robbinsville. No. 4 Middletown North and No. 5 Allentown are also in this bracket and how the seeding shakes out could very well be determined by which teams grab the power points available in the next two rounds of the MCT.
There are plenty of other area teams in a strong position to possibly make a state tourney run as well. These include surging Burlington Township (second in S.J. Group III) and Lenape (third in S.J. Group IV). Lenape’s Maya Knasiak (nine runs allowed, 107 Ks in 76 innings) is one of the more underrated pitchers in the entire state.
Also keep your eye on New Egypt and Florence in C.J. Group I. Something tells us those two are capable of beating anyone in their section as well. PIAA District 1 Following its thrilling extra-inning victory over formerly undefeated and defending state champion North Penn last Friday, Pennsbury (14-1) now sits atop the PIAA District 1 Class 6A power points chart.
While Pennsbury is riding high, there’s plenty of formidable competition. This includes current No. 2 Spring Ford (16-0), No. 3 Haverford (15-0), No. 4 Dowingtown West (141), No. 5 North Penn (151) and No. 6 Quakertown (13-1).
There’s simply nothing quite like the 6A tournament when it comes to depth and competitive softball.
Look for Bensalem and Council Rock South to make the 24-team bracket as well. Both of these capable teams have winning records and are ranked in the top 10 of the area. They will play each other at Rock South Thursday.
By the way, Pennsbury’s game against Neshaminy on Friday night was postponed by rain and has been moved to May 18. Instead of being played on a neutral field at night, it will now be at Pennsbury during the afternoon. Neshaminy, of course, will be in the playoffs and is currently eighth on the District 1 Class 6A power points chart.
Also in District 1, Villa Joe Marie is the No. 1 seed at the moment in Class 4A and Bristol is No. 2 in Class 2A.
Coach of Week
No need to embarrass anyone, but this goes to the coach who was informed by the umpire his No. 1 pitcher would not be allowed to enter a game while it was in progress.
What happened was the pitcher started the game as the DP and the coach was so used to using a courtesy runner for her he had already twice inserted pinch runners for her after she reached base. Once he pinch ran for her a second time, she was automatically out of the game.
Oops!
PARENT OF WEEK
This goes to the mother who wrote and complained that her daughter was not given credit for a home run in a published article in The Trentonian.
Sorry, mom, but when you get a hit to right field, the ball rolls through an outfielder’s legs and an ensuing relay throw sails 20
feet over the third baseman’s head, it does not go in the book as a home run.