By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP —

The thing about winning is, it breeds confidence, from the starters right down to the last player on the bench. The Egg Harbor Township softball team came into Wednesday’s South Jersey Group 4 championship game against Rancocas Valley as the No. 1 seed and having won 46 of its last 47 games. So, even when the Red Devils rallied for five runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a 7-6 lead, there was no concern in the Eagles’ dugout.

The Eagles answered that rally with four runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth to retake the lead, 10-7, and went on to win 13-8 to remain perfect on the season at 22-0 while capturing their second straight sectional title. EHT hasn’t lost a game on its home field the past two seasons and has won 45 of its last 46 games, and will take on Central Jersey champion Montgomery on Thursday at 4 p.m. in the Group 4 semifinals at Rowan-Gloucester County College.
“It feels great, obviously. With this team, there is never falling behind and thinking we’re not going to come back. We always have the mentality that we are going to come back, no matter what. We were down, and there was no thought in my mind that we were going to lose this game,” said senior left fielder Bri Lagroteria, who missed part of the season with a leg injury. “I think a lot of it has to do with confidence. Especially with the underclassmen, I’m so proud of them. They’ve done an incredible job this entire season. We’re the type of team when someone isn’t doing so hot, there’s somebody else to pick them right up. They’ve done that for us. The underclassmen have picked me up as a senior, and it’s amazing. I don’t know if you can find that on another team, and I think that’s what makes us so special.”
“I never have a doubt in this team. We always find a way to come back. People don’t have confidence in us and thought we wouldn’t be able to do it again, but we proved them wrong,” said Alexa Preziosi, who had the biggest hit of her career during EHT’s fifth-inning rally.
With two runners on and one out, Lagroteria sacrificed both runners in scoring position, giving Preziosi the chance to tie the game. She did better than that, ripping a two-run double to right-center field that scored courtesy runner Sandy McKinley as well as Elisabeth Alicea, and the Eagles took an 8-7 lead.
“With one out, I bunted the ball and then looked at Alexa and said, ‘those runners are in scoring position and I have so much faith in you right now that you are going to score them.’ And she did it. I love this team,” Lagroteria said.
“I was trying not to be (too nervous). I was just thinking that the next pitch I had to hit it, and it felt pretty good,” Preziosi added. “Everyone contributed to this win. Even though we have players who didn’t play, everyone contributed and we all make it happen.”
Two batters later, Alyssa Martini ripped an infield single off the glove of Rancocas Valley third baseman Shyla Pastore to make it 9-7, and starting pitcher Tori Szrom helped her own cause by stroking an RBI single to plate Emily Biddle (MacNeil) as the Eagles stretched their lead to 10-7. EHT pushed the lead to 13-7 in the bottom of the sixth, scoring a run on an infield error before Martini drove home two more with a bloop double to right.
“I can honestly say, to the seniors this is something special. For the past two years we haven’t lost a game on this field. We’ve been wanting this for a while, and we just had to tell each other we have to fight, show the fight in yourself, show the fight within each other and just keep picking each other up. It means a lot to us, to be able to defend our school like this and to win South Jersey Group 4 titles two years in a row,” said Biddle, who went 3-for-4. “(This title) shows how much potential we have as a group. We’ve been playing together since 2011. We’ve all known each other and we have that connection. It means a lot to us to be able to defend this school, and whatever the record is we don’t really pay attention to that. We just come out and play each game.”
The Eagles (22-0) took a 1-0 lead in the first on a Szrom single, but the Red Devils (20-4) responded with an RBI single from Jali Young in the third. After Rancocas Valley briefly took a 2-1 lead, Egg Harbor Township went ahead 5-2 with four runs in the fourth, as Szrom, Ella Glenn, Marissa Varela and Alicea all knocked in runs. EHT eventually built a 6-2 lead before things got wild in the fifth inning. The teams combined for eight hits and nine runs in that inning, which also featured a catcher’s interference call, a hit batsman that drove in a run, a near grand slam, and four straight hits by EHT that produced four runs.
“Once we get one runner on, we know we’re going to have a rally. Most of the hits we had this game, and most of the runs we had, were with two outs. That just shows we are good under pressure and that we can execute when it’s crucial,” Biddle said. “We’re a gap-to-gap hitting team and we like to put pressure on the defense. Me, personally, as a slapper, that’s what I do. I’m supposed to put pressure on the defense, and they had four overthrows against me alone. We like to take extra bases whenever we get the chance. An extra base is a step to another run scoring.”
Lagroteria said she couldn’t have imagined what has transpired the past two years when she first began her high school softball career.
“Coming in my freshman year, there was no thought of this happening. I didn’t even know what a sectional title was my freshman year, to be honest,” She said. “I’m just so proud of every single person on this team.”
Biddle said she’s confident her team can bring home an overall state title, something that eluded the Eagles a year ago when they went 24-1 but lost in the Group 4 championship.
Said Biddle, “It’s ours for the taking, we just have to fight for it.”
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays