Staff Report
The 2017 Egg Harbor Township High softball team might go down as the best in program history after going 23-1 and winning the state championship with a 2-1 win over North Hunterdon. The Eagles’ only loss that year came in the Tournament of Champions semifinals.
And while the Eagles haven’t quite been able to match that team success since, there have been a ton of great players who have come through the program. Count 2026 graduate Kaci Velardi as one of the best the black-and-silver has ever produced.
All she did this year — when everybody knew everything that she could do — was hit an almost absurd .658 with a career-high 52 hits. The shortstop not only manned the middle of the field defensively, but she was unstoppable at the plate. There was only one game her entire senior year in which she didn’t get a hit, and even in that game she had a walk and a stolen base.
Velardi — the daughter Rod Velardi, a former all-state pitcher during his time at Toms River South in the late 1980s and early 90s — had multiple hits in 15 of EHT’s 25 games this spring, and 10 games in which she stole multiple bases, including a season-high six in a game against St. Joseph Academy.
No doubt an EHT Hall-of-Fame inductee when her time comes, Velardi finished her career with 163 hits, 123 runs, 62 RBIs, 15 doubles, 14 triples, 50 walks, 127 stolen bases and a batting average of .481. She also contribute to the EHT swimming and field hockey teams during her storied career.
— Staff Writer Dave O’Sullivan
