By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
Barbara Dell’Aringa took over the Absegami High softball program right after the covid pandemic, and in 2021 the Braves put together just four wins.
The following season, same thing. Four wins against 17 losses, including an eight-game losing skid to finish the year.
Dell’Aringa and the Braves may not have known it back in 2022, but the savior they were looking for was already wearing brown and Vegas gold. They didn’t need some star transfer to come in to right the ship. They had Alyssa Bailey.
The Braves may have won only four games her freshman year, but Bailey announced her arrival as a budding star by hitting .403 with 27 hits, 26 runs scored, 24 RBIs, seven home runs, seven doubles, nine walks, eight stolen bases and a slugging percentage north of .800.
Those would be impressive numbers for a senior with four years of experience, much less a rookie. Bailey’s drive, determination, smarts and work ethic began to rub off on the rest of the girls in the program, and things started to change. The Braves went 12-12 in 2023, and two years ago Bailey’s battery mate, pitcher Meghan Johansen, came on board and the team began to take off.
Last year, Absegami had a 15-7 record, ripped off a seven-game winning streak at one point, and made entry into the Cape-Atlantic League and South Jersey Group 3 tournaments.
“She, by far — and I’ve said this to other coaches — she’s one of THE best players I’ve ever coached, and this is year No. 35 for me. I’ve coached little girls, high school, travel, and she has everything. The whole package. She’s so smart in the classroom, she’s present in everything. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing, she’s there. She’s someone you can literally trust your life with,” Dell’Aringa said. “She’s not very vocal, but she can talk to people and still get the point across. She’s clutch, she never complains, plays injured. You can correct her and her feedback is always pleasant.”
“Can you ask for anything better? I can’t tell you enough how she did everything the way she should have done it. She has a gift, but she worked hard with that gift. She improved immensely, and she makes everyone around her better because of who she is,” said legendary Buena Regional coach Pam Pickett, who now is helping out the Absegami program as an assistant coach. “She and the other seniors — this nucleus grew with coach Dell. They knew what they needed to do to get better. Alyssa helped lead them, but they were leaders with her. I can’t be any more proud of her career. She makes sure that everyone feels comfortable.”
“I’m so proud of all these girls, especially the seniors. It’s been a really long four years for us. My freshman year, we won four games, but every year we got more and more talent, and every year more girls put everything they had into the game. It’s been an absolute honor to be a part of a program that came so far,” said Bailey, who’s committed to play at the next level at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. “The bond this team had is so much farther above any team I’ve ever been on. Even the underclassmen, they are so amazing and they have so much more to show off the next couple of years.”
If you thought Bailey couldn’t improve much on her eye-popping freshman season numbers, think again. She hit .606 as a sophomore with 43 hits and 27 RBIs, then, as a junior, all she did was bat .623 with career highs in hits (48), runs scored (40) and RBIs (44). For some reason, when she was a senior, opposing pitchers continued to pitch to her. In her final season she hit .500 with six homers and 42 RBIs while leading Absegami to a 21-7 record, a Cape-Atlantic League National Conference title, and a berth in the sectional semifinals.
With Bailey leading the way, Absegami won 11 of its final 14 games of the season, including playoff victories over Deptford and Ocean City. Bailey had three hits, three runs scored and six RBIs in Absegami’s three state playoff games.
And check out these career numbers, they look like video game stats: A .535 average, 163 hits, 133 runs scored, 137 RBIs, 47 doubles, 12 triples, 18 home runs, 39 walks, 34 stolen bases and a .944 slugging percentage.
“Everything has been working toward college. I’ve had a really good stretch the last couple of years, and I’m excited to bring that momentum to college,” Bailey said. “We had some issues earlier in the season with some injuries and some girls wanting to go a different way, but we really bounced back from that and we came back stronger and completely blended as a team.”
“You wouldn’t know what kind of situation we were in if you walked up to a game, because she’s calm and comfortable whether we are up or down. She just plays the game the way it should be played,” Pickett said. “(Johansen) knew that Alyssa was with her, good or bad, and she knew she could talk to Alyssa. Alyssa was open to hearing her. She’s probably been with many pitchers throughout her career and she has a ton of knowledge, but she never discounted Meg or her ability. They worked amazingly well together.”
Dell’Aringa said it’s going to be a real challenge trying to replace Bailey next year, both in the lineup and behind the plate.
“We did an exercise earlier in the year where I had everybody go around and say one thing about each other person — you know, what could they come up with in a couple of words? And the majority of people talking about her said, ‘she’s a leader.’ When we talk about what a leader is, she comes to mind, and that’s how you want to be,” the coach said. “You don’t have to be cocky, you just go and get your job done and let your play speak for itself. She probably holds about 10 school records now. She’s just amazing in every way. I say I don’t have favorites, but …”
