The road to the New Jersey State Little League Softball Tournament and beyond goes through Bordentown this summer.
The Bordentown Little League’s bid to host the Section 3 Tournament was accepted, giving the 12-year-old all-star team a chance to host the five district qualifiers starting July 2 for the opportunity to go to the state tournament in Clifton. The District 12 winner is scheduled to play at the Groveville Road field 6 p.m. on July 3, and Bordentown is hoping that it is the one representing District 12.
Getting to play in the section tournament on their home field has been incentive all spring.
“When we got out in the beginning of this season early on in February and March and we put our names in the hat to be able to host, I took it as an opportunity to maybe push the girls a little bit more,” said Bordentown manager Mike O’Connor. “It was like, ‘you’ve got to get through this, sections on our home turf this year. You guys have to fight just as hard, if not harder this year.’ It’s a great opportunity if we make it through districts.”
Unlike years ago, when the host team automatically would have the chance to play, only the district winner earns that right. “You have to win to be able to get to that next stage,” said O’Connor.
He went into the district tournament held at Robbinsville expecting plenty of community support from Bordentown. It’s just the sort of thing to alleviate some of the pressure of having to win.
“We’re bringing everybody — Grandma, Grandpa, everybody — right into Robbinsville,” O’Connor said. “You’re going to think it’s a Bordentown home game at that point.”
The Bordentown group brings confidence into the summer tournament season. They have had previous success, and that gives them a lift.
“I have probably the 12 most competitive girls in the tri-state area,” said O’Connor. “We practice a lot. We have four- or five-hour practices. And they never quit. The fight is very tough with this particular group of girls.”
Bordentown has a balanced group of players with a blend of four older 12-year-old players in their final year of eligibility with Little League softball, plus eight players who are eligible to return next season. But they don’t want to wait until next year to make a big summer run.
“When we get through districts, the whole roster will move to sectionals,” O’Connor said. “And when we get through there hopefully we get an opportunity to play at regions, where we go to Connecticut and play on ESPN. So hopefully we win there and then we move on to the World Series and go down to North Carolina. We want to try to keep this group of 12 Little League girls together playing all through the summer.”
The Bordentown roster consists of: infielder/catcher Toryn Fiasco, outfielder/catcher Ruby Floyd, infielder/outfielder Natalie Katz, outfielder/pitcher Amber Kirkpatrick, outfielder/infielder Leah Martinez, outfielder/infielder Emily Militch, catcher/infielder Haven O’Connor, infielder Ava Santoro, pitcher/infielder Aine Smillie, infielder Emma Stefani, catcher/infielder Madison Vaughn and pitcher/infielder Kenzie Weckenbrock, Assisting O’Connor with coaching are Matt Shaffer and Rob Smillie.
“We’ve gotten a lot better over the years at becoming a team and playing together as a team,” the elder O’Connor said. “Unlike one-on-one sports, in softball you could have a great all-star, but they’re only going to get one or two chances to bat. And they only maybe see the ball in the field one or two plays a game. You really have to take the game and change it to a complete team sport and realize that now there are nine players on the field, and three kids that are going to be in the dugout.
“That dugout atmosphere, you got to be out there cheering. You gotta be out there seeing things that your teammates need you to be looking at. That’s teamwork. That teamwork needs to be there.”
On top of that message from the coaching staff, the players are also getting expert advice from lead instructors Erin Hoppe, Alison Hoppe and Brianna Fischer. The former Bordentown softball players have been helping to mold the team’s skills and strategies.
“Bordentown softball is a great organization,” O’Connor said. “And we have three college students that are DI softball players that are currently helping us practice. You don’t really get that in a lot of other towns, but Bordentown softball is like a family.”
The trio is inspiring a group that already has proven it can play at a high level. They have twice advanced out of district tournaments in the past to make the section tournament. And they can score runs a variety of ways to win.
“We do have quite a few big hitters on the team,” O’Connor said. “But we also play a lot of small ball. If the big hitter gets on second base, we also have to get that girl over to third and score her home, so we choose strategically to play that small ball game a lot and it causes a lot of chaos when there’s people running around the bases and a lot of things going on.”
The range of player skills becomes important for the team’s success. They use each player to aid the offense in a different way.
“We have a very good group of older 12s that will be there last year in Little League that are that are the big hitters that put the ball to the outfield and hit doubles and triples,” O’Connor said. “But we have that core group of girls that are the first-year 12s that will be playing next year that play that small ball game and score those runs and advance those base runners. It’s a team. We can’t just depend on one hitter hitting home runs. It’s only one run. You got to depend on 12 players playing together to score as many runs as we possibly can.”
The offense doesn’t have to score a lot if the defense can play its best. Bordentown also has a lot of confidence in its pitching and defense.
“Our pitching is very good,” O’Connor said. “We are led by Aine Smillie, who has been the starting pitcher for two years now. She led us in districts for our first two years and she’s looking to do that again. There’s isn’t anybody more competitive than that girl.”
It’s not all Smillie though.
“We have eight girls behind her,” said O’Connor. “We have a great center fielder in Amber Kirkpatrick. We have another older person at shortstop, Ava Santoro, and second base is another second-year 12-year-old, Natalie Katz.
“First base is going to be Emma Stefani, and each one of those older girls are leaders and show the younger girls how to play and don’t give up. Our defense is very good this year, probably one of the best defenses that I’ve had the opportunity to coach.”
The Bordentown group is a strong representative of the area. The district pinned them up against a couple of townships that have had to combine forces to make teams. Florence and Lawrence have combined to make a Florence team. Robbinsville and West Windsor have combined to make a Robbinsville all-star team.
“We’re quite aware of the rivalries,” O’Connor said. “We’ve played several games against them in the interleague in the regular season. It’s always a battle.”
The district tournament is the only route to sections. Knowing that could add pressure to the district tournament, but Bordentown has tried to alleviate some of that but keeping the focus on each step, not the big picture.
“Obviously too much pressure and that’s not going to go well,” O’Connor said. “So we take it one game at a time. Our next game is the beginning of districts, so we play Florence on Monday (June) 24 so our eyes are on that game. Obviously they’re kind of maybe thinking about, all right, well, we have to do good here to be in sectionals, but I haven’t really talked about it as much because I don’t want them to focus on sectionals. I think that putting that on the back burner and focusing on our next component is the way to take some of that pressure off.”
There is a target on the Bordentown team. They’ve won districts twice to earn that high regard. They’ve already been to a pair of Section 3 tournaments, falling just short of extending their season in both of the last two seasons.
This year, they want to go a bit further, passing through districts, through Bordentown and onto states regardless of the teams and conditions in their way.
“These girls are battle tested,” O’Connor said. “They know what it’s like to compete at high levels and they know what it’s like to play in 100 degree weather and come out on top.”
Bordentown Little League softball 12-year-old all-stars are (back row) Ruby Floyd, Ava Santoro, Toryn Fiasco and Kenzie Weckenbrock; (third row) Amber Kirkpatrick, Aine Smillie, Natalie Katz and Leah Martinez; and (second row) Haven O’Connor, Emily Militch, Emma Stefani and Madison Vaughn. In the front row are lead instructors Erin Hoppe, Alison Hoppe and Brianna Fischer. Coaches are (from left to right) manager Michael O’Connor, assistant Matt Shaffer and assistant Rob Smillie.,
