Bordentown Regional High School softball coach Nicole O’Leary was sorting out the lineup the first couple of games as she tried to maximize the Scotties talent.
The easiest move was putting Kaci Benton in the lineup at catcher.
Benton, a senior committed to play Division I softball at Towson University, has been a mainstay in the Scotties lineup since she was a freshman. Of course, that year she played outfield before her travel coach at TNT saw potential for her to excel at catcher.
“My travel coach, he saw me throw and he was just like, ‘You have to be a catcher,’” said Benton.
Bordentown has watched Benton thrive there in the last three seasons as well as at the plate. She brings stability to a team that graduated three accomplished seniors, two of which are playing Division I softball, and has just four seniors this year.
“She is a senior and she is my starting catcher hands down as well as a leader in a captain’s role,” O’Leary said. “And she’s a force in the batting lineup. She’s just an all-around really hard-working student and athlete. She comes out every day and she’s ready to play. She’s competitive, but she likes to have fun and she just works hard and she puts everything she has out there and it’s shown in her at bats and in her presence on defense.”
Defensively, Benton has been one-half of the battery for Bordentown that has gone from catching former second-team All-State pitcher Allison Hoppe, who missed all of last year due to injury, to her sister, Katelin Hoppe, who took advantage of her opportunity to pitch last year. Benton had caught Allison in travel, and feels like she’s been catching Katelin her entire life.
“Me and Kate, honestly, we’ve been playing together since that we were eight years old,” Benton said. “So like the relationship was already there, it was just about kind of her stepping into that role of being pretty much the center of attention because her sister had been starting her freshman year. So I think just being able to step into that leadership position, that was all her. She gained that confidence as we went through and I think our defense and our coaches try to reinforce just that confidence in her by backing her up. And I think she did a really great job with that and just with how she is as a pitcher. She’s very calm like. I think just her being able to be confident and calm herself, it just works out.”
Having Benton behind the plate gives any pitcher confidence. She has become comfortable in her new role after embracing it following her freshman year of high school. Catching is a natural leadership role that she worked into after playing outfield that high school season.
“There definitely is a difference,” Benton said. “Every play is like you’re in control for the most part. Every time the ball is essentially coming to you. But I think the leadership part of it, there’s not a big difference. In center field you’re pretty much the leader of the outfield. I think with catching the biggest thing is just being big for your team and being big for your pitcher, and just knowing when there needs to be a timeout or when there needs to be a change and a change of energy and stuff.”
Benton certainly also helps at the plate as well. She was batting a career-high .514 through the first 10 games of the season, already belting four home runs (her career-high is seven in a season) to go with four doubles and a triple and 15 RBI. Benton has always been a tough out for opponents. She hit .409 in her freshman year, jumped to .443 her sophomore year and then hit .313 last year.
“My first two years I came out really hot, especially my sophomore year,” Benton said. “And then my junior year, I think it was just having to almost feel like I had to live up to my first two years and just losing the leadership that we had my sophomore year and feeling like I had to do too much. I think that was the biggest thing. I got in my head a lot and wanted so badly to produce that I didn’t produce. But by the time we got to the playoff season, I came up with the bat and stuff. I think it was just me trying to do too much and obviously not getting the results that I wanted.”
This year, Benton isn’t feeling the same pressure though she’s in a big spot as a senior captain. After committing to Towson, and having already seen success as a Bordentown team, Benton has tried to enjoy this year more while remaining competitive in every aspect.
“I have goals, like I want to get to my hundred hits this year, but I think there isn’t anything that I feel like is looming over me or I feel like I have to overachieve anything,” she said. “Even though in my junior year I felt like I had to prove so much, I think with the career with just my high school career, I just feel like I’ve like I’ve accomplished what I wanted to accomplish so far. It’s not like I have to do this and I have to be so good. I just have to stay consistent.”
After 10 games, Benton was only three hits away from her 100th career hit, a milestone for any high school player. She is also seeing the team maintain its high standards. The Scotties lost a pair of games to actually start below .500 at 1-2, but then reeled off seven straight wins.
“I do believe we are on the right path now with understanding our roles as a whole team as well as having new leadership coming from our upperclassmen,” O’Leary said. “So I do believe we are now in that that good direction. And should have a successful season.”
Benton is one of the four seniors on a team with a mix of ages. Emeline Kovac, Lillian Nucera and Lauren Scharko are also seniors. They were in the program two years ago when Bordentown demolished Central Jersey Group II for the sectional crown.
Last year, they reached the sectional final before falling, 2-1, to Delran in a heartbreaker. It’s a new collection this year for the Scotties who would like another shot. They took a small measure of revenge with a 3-2 win over Delran on April 15.
“A lot of the underclassmen have done a great job just coming in and pretty much filling up any spots that were filled in the last two years,” Benton said. “Especially with the seniors from two years ago. I feel like they’ve done a really good job stepping up and showing that they’re here.”
Benton calls on her own experiences when she serves as a senior leader to them. She doesn’t want them to feel too much pressure.
“I want them to have fun the way I had fun when I was younger,” Benton said. “Just showing them how you are supposed to be and the fact that nobody’s perfect, like I strike out, I mess up, I do things and just letting the girls know, as long as you work hard and you do what you’re supposed to do, you’re gonna be fine.”
Benton gets some of that attitude from O’Leary, whom she says takes each chance to compete pitch by pitch. She lives in the moment and doesn’t look too far ahead, and she encourages her team to do the same.
“Everybody is out there and they enjoy the game of softball,” O’Leary said. “They want to stay competitive. They know Bordentown softball has traditionally been a good program and everyone wants to continue to keep up with that and live up to that and they just come out every day and work hard. They work on the little things. They know when they’re struggling with something, they ask the questions, they put in the extra work. And they just as a whole enjoy playing together, which makes the atmosphere enjoyable and makes them want to come out every day and work hard.”
There’s no relaxing with the competitive schedule that Bordentown plays. The Scotties are in the Liberty Division of the Burlington County Scholastic League with the likes of Northern Burlington, Cinnaminson, Burlington Township and Delran.
“Three out of the five of us were in the sectional championships and the other ones were right up in there in those final semifinal games, which is great,” O’Leary said. “It’s good to have that competition all season long. So that makes you just even more prepared when you get into those long playoff rounds.”
Benton will be trying to go out on top with the Scotties before she shifts gears to preparing for the next level. Playing collegiately wasn’t necessarily a realistic goal until schools started calling her at the start of her junior year. That interest sparked her to continue to work at the game and earned an incoming spot at Towson.
“I feel like my biggest thing is just I’m want to help Towson out however I can,” Benton said. “I was recruited as a catcher. But they talked to me about outfield and catching. So honestly, I’m there for whatever they need me to be.”
Benton is looking forward to the opportunity that she sees as a challenge, one that she wants to see just what she can accomplish. Making up a lineup without Kaci Benton in it isn’t something that O’Leary wants to consider, but she is excited to see her star continue to shine as she has at Bordentown.
“She’s a very versatile player,” O’Leary said. “She’s going to play wherever a coach asks her to play, no questions asked. She’s going to work hard to be the best at that position and that’s just something that she has, that that drive to be successful and work hard and play. And I think taking that to Towson will be of value and an asset to them, having someone that is just going to work hard, play hard, listen and be coachable.”
Catcher Kaci Benton is a key player for Bordentown Scotties’ softball.,
