By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
X @GDSullysays
VINELAND — Back on April 22, the Vineland High softball team took it to Egg Harbor Township senior pitcher Madison Dollard, rapping out nine hits in seven innings and scoring six runs in a 6-3 win. The Fighting Clan’s offense has been hot seemingly all season, averaging 10 hits per game and scoring 178 runs while piling up a 21-1 record and a No. 8 ranking in the nj.com state Top 20 heading into Thursday’s Cape-Atlantic League Tournament semifinals.
Vineland has six players with 20-plus hits and the Clan have smacked nearly 50 extra-base hits.
But when the lights shine brightest — in postseason softball — so does Dollard. She limited a team that came into Thursday’s game with 221 hits to just one infield single, striking out seven in a masterful performance. Egg Harbor Township cruised to an 8-0 win and earned a spot in the league championship game. They’ll await the winner of St. Joseph Academy vs. Middle Township. That semifinal is set for Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in Hammonton.
“I prepared a lot. I knew they were coming for blood. They beat us once, then they beat us a couple days ago (a 9-6 Vineland win on Tuesday). I slept good (on Wednesday night), I watched film. I was hitting my spots and I was spinning the ball. They can hit, so I knew I couldn’t leave the ball over the middle,” said Dollard. “They’ve given it to us, so I felt like we owed them something. This game proved it because these are the games that matter most, not the regular-season games. We’re moving on and I feel like that proves a lot.”
EHT got all the offense it needed in the top of the fourth inning when the Eagles loaded the bases, and with two outs junior Laura Mack — who had one career hit coming into this season — smoked a two-run single into left-center field. That gave EHT a 2-0 lead, and in the fifth the Eagles rallied for six more runs to put the game away. That inning featured RBI singles by Dollard and Briana Pope as well as run-scoring doubles by Mack and Mary Del Re.
“I just wanted to get the ball down. I was trying to let all my nerves get out of the way and just hit a line drive. I hit a home run the last game and I was thinking to myself, ‘don’t think about hitting a home run, just hit a line drive,’” Mack said of her bases-loaded heroics. “I think there was pressure (on the pitcher and myself). I definitely felt the pressure because it was bases loaded with two outs and I knew I had to get something down. I just tried to zone it all out and focus on each pitch, one at a time.”
The story of the game was Dollard, though, as the senior delivered the kind of postseason performance that has come to define her career. She has struck out more than 700 batters in her career, has a 0.98 ERA and has led her team to Cape-Atlantic League and South Jersey Group 4 championships during the last three seasons.
“When she’s on, she’s on,” Mack said of Dollard. “Obviously it was nice to get eight runs and it was such a team effort, but with the way she was throwing today there was no doubt (two runs would have been enough).”
EHT lost a lot of talent from last year’s team that went 23-2 and made it to the sectional semifinals, but the Eagles seem to be ready to make another run at a sectional championship, and with a pitcher like Dollard nothing is impossible.
“I feel like we’re playing well at the right time,” Mack said. “We’ve had some tough losses this season, but right now is the best time to be doing what we’re doing. We’re all coming together, making the adjustments. I think we’re going to do well going forward.”
Added Dollard, “we were just ready. We had some good mojo from the weekend games. Our bats were there but there were just a few things we had to tweak, and I think we got it. This is the time to come alive. This is the time when we need to come together and that’s exactly what’s happening. We’re getting our mojo back. I feel it. This team is there for me.”
WHAT’S NEXT: EHT vs. either St. Joseph Academy or Middle Township in the Cape-Atlantic League championship game, date and time TBD.
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sullyglorydays@gmail.com
