By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
You can go back more than a decade and see that the Egg Harbor Township High softball program has had dominant pitching. From Hunter Irvin to Nicole Wisser to Tori Szrom to Haley Korsak, the Eagles have been strong inside the circle for many years, and won the 2017 state championship with Szrom leading the way.
The past four years were no different, as Korsak gave way to Madison Dollard, who continued EHT’s legacy of outstanding pitching. Dollard had a brilliant career, leading the Eagles to a couple of Cape-Atlantic League titles while guiding her team to a 25-2 record in 2022 that featured a berth in the Group 4 state championship, where the Eagles lost 2-1 to Watchung Hills in walk-off fashion in the ninth inning.
A loss like that might have derailed the career of many a sophomore, but Dollard said she used it as motivation, and went on to have an amazing career that saw her finish with nearly 800 strikeouts.
“(Sophomore year) I knew I didn’t have anybody older than me. I knew it was going to be a lot of work, but I was ready for it,” Dollard said. “The first couple games I was nervous to be by myself because there was nobody else behind me. But I had to get that out of my head, and we had a great year. I didn’t think I was ready, but I was. It kind of just all happened. I think a lot of it was the group of girls behind me, we had a great defense and we also had great bats. So if I had a bad inning they’d pick me up.
“I played a lot of travel softball, so I’ve always been used to playing with older girls. I wasn’t ready for it at first, but once I got used to the older girls and knowing that I can compete at their level I was fine.”
Dollard split time with Korsak when Dollard was a freshman, as she logged 57 innings and posted an impressive 0.73 ERA. She allowed just 12 walks and six earned runs all season while striking out 76, and that was a harbinger of things to come. She struck out 175 batters as a sophomore, then 236 as a junior and 266 as a senior to finish with 753 to go along with a 0.97 ERA in 502 career innings pitched.
Those numbers are even more impressive when you consider the type of competition Egg Harbor Township was playing every year — teams like Vineland, Kingsway, Lenape, Donovan Catholic, Audubon, Southern Regional. There were no creampuffs on EHT’s schedule, and yet Dollard still led the Eagles to a 68-14 mark the last three years.
“Once I got to know Haley Korsak and got to work with her in the bullpen, I feel like she definitely helped me mentally prepare for the beginning of my career,” Dollard said. “She’s a great athlete, but after she graduated I knew that I was going to be by myself. She helped me mentally. My sister (Kayla) was also on the team and I felt a lot more comfortable with her being there.”
“I was fortunate to work with Mary Dunlap before taking over, and she was somebody who liked to do things the right way. Corners didn’t get cut with her, rules got followed. You were expected to do certain things and maintain a certain level. That level of excellence, the players know that’s the expectation now. There were a couple of games we lost when we shouldn’t have lost and I was like, ‘I don’t know if some of you missed the memo, but we don’t lose.’ We don’t often have to remind them of that because they’ve all grown up in our program and they’ve seen it. They come in here knowing (the expectations) and want to be a part of it,” said current EHT head coach Kristi Troster. “Having a pitcher like Dollard takes pressure off you in some ways. You don’t have to have your best hitting day to win. If she’s having a really good day, you don’t have to have your best fielding day. She didn’t have many bad days, and, damn, I’ll take her on her worst day.”
Dollard didn’t rest on her laurels after success early in her career. She couldn’t afford to because of the types of teams EHT plays every year. She had to continue to get better, and she did just that, adding pitches to her arsenal as she got older so other teams couldn’t just time up her fastball.
“You have to have multiple things you can rely on all the time, and you have to do that in a very consistent fashion, and she was really good at that. She put in the work to make sure she can throw a change-up or throw some of these other pitches that get people to chase and keep them off balanced,” Troster said. “You’re not going to be able to hit your spot every time, so what else can you do to be successful? She put in a lot of work and focused on that. To be a true master of your craft, those are the things you have to do.”
Dollard gave a lot of credit for her success to the EHT coaching staff.
“My favorite part was the coaching staff. They knew exactly what they were doing. They had won a state championship, so I had a lot of confidence in them. They’re like family to me. Even now that I’m graduated, we still talk almost every day. And I know they’ll be there for me in college as well,” said Dollard, who is committed to Fairleigh Dickenson University in Hackensack. “My confidence spiked after my sophomore year. I knew that if I could make it to a state championship at that young age, I knew I could do it again. We just fell short. But I knew I was ready for it.”
What marked Dollard’s career as much as her success inside the circle was how good a teammate she was. She was constantly cheering on her teammates on offense and providing valuable leadership every day in practice.
“She’s a phenomenal kid and her teammates had so much respect for her. Just being inside the circle brought a level of comfort to them. You can’t put whatever that makes them feel into words,” Troster said. “When she was out there, most of us were thinking it was going to be a good day. You can really tell how mature a kid is in their developmental process when they are able to help younger players, especially those who play the same position. It was good for our sophomore (Gabi Jones) to learn from her and watch her work through some things. That helped her be more confident in herself.”
When asked what was most memorable about her time in the black-and-silver uniform, Dollard didn’t point to any one game or particular performance, but, rather, the people she was surrounded with the past four years.
“I’ll remember the friendships I’ve made,” she said, “and I think I’ve learned a lot as a pitcher. I’ll definitely remember all the teammates and friendships. We played really well together.”
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sullyglorydays@gmail.com.
