OCEAN CITY — There were glimpses all along that the Mainland Mustang softball team had potential.
According to head coach Brian Smith, that was true when the team started the season with a 3-13 record. It was true when the Mustangs made it to the playoffs as the No. 10 seed, and it was true in last week’s quarterfinal game of the South Jersey Group III sectional against No. 2 seed Ocean City (17-10) when they — with a better but still mediocre record of 9-12 — used a late-inning burst to beat their rivals.
Those Mustangs went on to win their semifinal two days later 6-5 over Cherry Hill West and made it to the South Jersey finals Saturday, when the lost 5-0 to No. 1 seed Moorestown.
Smith credited his three seniors — Bella D’Agostino, Denver Obermeyer and Bella Barretta, the most “unsung” of the trio. He got them together at the beginning of the season and told them, “This is about you three. You’ve been starters for four years. This is your season. You’re going to dictate how this goes.”
With D’Agostino in the pitcher’s circle, Obermeyer’s big bat prompting Ocean City to intentionally walk her three times, and a bloop single by Barretta to get things going in the top of the seventh, the seniors proved to him what their potential was all season long.
“The fact is that we saw glimpses all along,” Smith said. “We weren’t getting 10-runned over and over. We were competing with good teams. And you look at the teams we have in the Cape-Atlantic League American Division and they’re littering the top 20 in the state. Vineland, Egg Harbor Township, St. Joe’s, that’s who we’re playing against.
“It’s a grind,” he said, to be able to compete with some of the best in South Jersey, if not the state, and although they didn’t get the best result, they weren’t getting crushed.
“We cleaned things up here and there and they kept working at it. They didn’t give up on the season,” Smith said. “We had that big win against EHT a few weeks back, 4-3, on their Senior Day, and Denver hit the home run in the top of the seventh inning and we held on. That’s a sign to them their hard work is paying off. It’s a tribute to them knowing, ‘hey, we can compete. We just beat the No. 13 team in the state, so we can beat anyone in South Jersey.’
“We as coaches had to get the pieces in the right places and be on them and keeping reminding them that we’re a good team. We took our lumps but we stuck together.”
D’Agostino, a senior, and Ocean City sophomore pitcher Brooke Douglas dueled throughout the game, keeping the game scoreless through the first five innings. D’Agostino, who got her 500th career strikeout early in the contest, would finish with 13 K’s Tuesday to 10 for Douglas.
Things got interesting in the top of the sixth with visiting Mainland up to bat. With two outs and freshman Emily Garrels on base courtesy of a walk, Mustang sophomore Kaia Bergman hit a dribbler that Douglas scrambled to get but overthrew first. Garrels hustled all the way around to score the first run.
With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Raider senior Anna McCabe hit a big double. After a pop-up for a second out, Douglas earned a walk and then junior Carly Hennis walked to load the bases. With two outs, fellow junior Carlee Hiddeman sent a fly ball into right field near the line, scoring McCabe and Douglas and putting the Raiders back in the lead. D’Agostino got a strikeout to leave the other Raider runners stranded.
To start the top of the seventh, Barretta got her bloop single into the outfield. With no outs, the Raiders intentionally walked Obermeyer, putting runners on first and second. Sophomore Isabella Scittina then dropped the ball just into the outfield to load the bases.
Junior Leiloni Deleon-Carney hit a little single, but that scored Barretta and Obermeyer, putting the Mustangs back up 3-2 with runners on first and second and still no outs.
D’Agostino bunted. Although she was thrown out, she moved the runners to second and third. Douglas got another strikeout, but freshman Carly Cavacini came up and hit a double into the outfield, scoring Scittina and Deleon-Carney, making it 5-2.
The Raiders could not respond.
“First of all, I have to give credit to Mainland,” Ocean City head coach Carrie Merritt said. “It was a pitcher’s duel for much of the game, and then, you know, a few walks, a few things, and runs started slipping away.
“I saw some fight from our team. We were down, brought it back, but we didn’t hit the ball. And if you don’t hit the ball, you’re not going to win games most of the time,” she added.
Merritt said as she followed the power points during the season and considered the playoff brackets, she was concerned Mainland could be an early opponent.
“When I saw how it could happen in the second round, that’s just not who I want to play, necessarily,” she said about the rivalry that makes all games between the schools a craps shoot. “Keeping the bridge green or keeping the bridge red is a challenge for all sports programs. Today it wasn’t our day. It was Mainland’s day. Congrats to them and wishing them the best as they move forward.”
The coach noted it was a great season for her players, just not the outcome they wanted. On a positive note, she has her pitchers, Douglas and fellow sophomore Jessica Mooney returning along with much of the team’s defense. “That really gives me hope for next year,” she said.
“We see here at the end, with Bella in the circle, Denver taking her walks, which are key to getting the lineup going and Barretta getting us started, it’s a testament to them,” Smith said of his seniors. “They love playing together. The love playing softball and they have a fun time, but they’re good players. You see that. They don’t want to let it go. You see it rolling.”
“To give up those two runs in the bottom of the sixth, and have the fortitude to come back, and Bella Barretta could have struck out, but she just kept battling,” Smith said. “She blooped that one in there and Denver took her walk and some of these younger girls are stepping up.”
He noted Deleon-Carney is a junior who didn’t play last year but has come into her own this season. She led the team in doubles with 11, was second in hits with 26 and had the second highest in slugging percentage (.652) behind Obermeyer, who led in hits (33), runs scored (22), home runs (9), RBI (21) and power hitting percentage ( .971). Barretta had 20 hits, scored 14 runs and had 9 RBI.
“Those are the players we needed to believe and you’re seeing — and more importantly, they’re seeing — the hard work is paying off,” Smith said.
Smith had compliments for the rival Raiders.
“They’re such a quality program and coach Merritt is such a fine coach. They have some tremendous players over there. We knew it was going to be a battle. It was just a matter of who was going to get that little break,” he said.
– PHOTOS and STORY by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
