By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
HAMMONTON — The St. Joseph Academy softball players and coaches had to sit around for nearly a week stewing over an 8-4 loss to Egg Harbor Township, a game in which the Wildcats had as many errors — 5 — as hits. Sour weather had wiped out the rest of last week’s schedule, which meant the team hadn’t played since last Wednesday.
The Cats took out their frustration on visiting Ocean City, one of the top teams in the Cape-Atlantic League, on Tuesday afternoon, scoring eight runs in the bottom of the first inning before cruising to a 10-1 victory in a Bunting Family Pharmacy Marquee Matchup. The win puts St. Joe just a half game behind Ocean City for second place in the highly competitive CAL American Conference, as both teams are trailing Vineland (4-1, 4-0 CAL American).
“It was tough to have all that time off after the way we played at Egg Harbor, which was the worst game we’ve played in many, many years,” said St. Joe coach Les Olson. “But we practiced hard — we even practiced in that crazy Saturday drizzle and freezing weather. They came in today with a little bit of a purpose. I told them, ‘everybody is writing you off now. They’re talking about Ocean City, talking about Vineland, Absegami in the other division. It’s time to start getting back to getting noticed again.’ So, it was good. The Egg Harbor game, I told them that wasn’t us. We just had to pack that away and just come back.
“We’re pretty young. We only have two seniors and a bunch of sophomores starting, so I knew it would take us some time,” he continued. “We did well in Florida in the preseason, but then we came back and we just weren’t hitting at all, struggling at the plate. They’re starting to relax a little bit, which is good.”
Senior third baseman Abby Willis said she and her teammates weren’t thrilled about practicing on a damp, dreary Saturday — but it may have been the jump start the squad needed.
“We haven’t had a game in a while because they kept getting rained out, so we’ve been practicing hard,” said Willis, of Monroeville. “We wanted to win this game, and that’s exactly what we did. Saturday was a rough practice, but I think we needed it. We needed to come together as a team. We’ve been struggling recently, so we needed more practice.”
“I think we just needed to get our bats going. We play as a team, not individuals,” added fellow senior Brooke Tyndale, a shortstop from Winslow Township.
It didn’t take long for the Wildcats (4-2, 3-2 CAL American) to get their bats going. After junior pitcher Elaina Portalatin worked out of a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the top of the first, St. Joseph got rolling in the bottom of the inning. Star junior center fielder Alaina Dorsey got things started with a walk, then Isabella Ramos was hit by a pitch. Dorsey raced home on a single to left by Riley Hunter, and later in the inning Portalatin helped herself with a three-run triple down the right-field line that pushed the lead to 4-0.
Three straight RBI singles by Dorsey, Ramos and Hunter made it 8-0 as the Wildcats nearly went through the lineup twice against standout junior pitcher Jessica Mooney, who had a 3.60 ERA coming in and had fanned 31 in 21 2/3 innings prior to facing the Wildcats.
“We hit more line drives today, and hard ground balls. Not too many flyouts,” Olson said. “The first couple of games this year we had maybe three or four outs on the ground and everything else was up in the air. So I think they have gotten the message.”
Willis said the team did a lot of advanced scouting, knowing the Red Raiders (6-4, 4-2 CAL American) had two of the top pitchers in the league. Brooke Douglas came on in relief in the second inning and struck out seven in five innings of work.
“We were practicing for a while knowing (Mooney) likes to throw outside and likes to throw high,” Willis explained. “So we were really in that mindset to lay off the high pitches and lay off the outside. We just really worked hard all together.”
Added Portalatin, “we prepared yesterday, we were studying what they threw. We were doing well yesterday (at practice) and that carried over into today. I’m really proud of my team.”
Portalatin, of Mays Landing, allowed just four hits and fanned six while going the distance for St. Joe.
“I didn’t feel rusty at all. I was preparing myself, I did a bullpen to work on my spins to prepare for this game. But I couldn’t have done it without my team,” she said. “We definitely felt good. We played really well today. We’ve been preparing, and it feels like we’re starting to get that chemistry as a team. It was hard (to bounce back from the EHT loss), but coming in here we didn’t let anything stop us. As a team, we picked each other up and our coaches really helped us prepare.”
Willis and Portalatin said they hope this kind of win over a good Ocean City team can propel the Wildcats to bigger and better things. The Cats have some tough games ahead to close out April, including against the likes of Absegami, Vineland and Mainland.
“I want to see a lot more chemistry,” Portalatin said. “I’m so excited for that, honestly. I love this team. Everyone is so happy and we’re really bonding together. It’s a really good team and I’m excited for this season.”
Added Willis, “this really sets the tone for the rest of our season. We were talking about that before the game, how we needed to win this one to set the tone. We want to win the CAL and we’re dedicated to that.”
WHAT’S NEXT: St. Joseph Academy travels to Absegami on Thursday at 4 p.m. Ocean City travels to Cedar Creek on Thursday at 3 p.m.
