Sports

Pennant Fever Growing for Watchung Hills Softball Team

Team is making history advancing towards a state championship.

When the Watchung Hills Regional girls softball team faces Livingston tomorrow in the Group IV semifinals, the team will be facing a tough foe.

Head Coach Michael D'Alessandro said about all he knows about the team is that "they are very good," boasting a no. 2 state ranking (compared to Watchung Hills' no. 13).

But his team is used to being the underdog, beating up on the higher-ranked teams through much of this tournament season.

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"We’ll be the underdogs, but we don’t worry about those things," he said. "We just prepare to play our game and execute our plan to the best of our ability."

And, he noted, "that approach has served us well."

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It has—after clinching the regionals last week, the team's growing list of accomplishments is making converts of many. With last week's win over North Hunterdon is believed to be the team's first regional title since becoming a Group 4 school (the 1995 softball team got as far, but the smaller school competed in Group 3 then, D'Alessandro said).

But he's happy to point out the team's 24 wins (so far) is a school record.

The team is back on the practice field, getting ready for tomorrow's game in Nutley. Team ace Abby Cline will be pitching, and D'Alessandro notes she's proven the ability to "rise to the occasion in the big games." 

"We’ll work on some things in practice today and, hopefully, we can keep this going for a couple more games!" D'Alessandro said.

If so, they could meet up with some familiar faces in the state finals: Hillsborough, who Watchung Hills beat for the county championship, is playing in a semifinal match against Washington Township, at New Egypt, Tuesday.

Game time is 4 p.m.—we'll post the results on our Facebook page, and on Twitter, as soon as the game concludes, with complete coverage to follow.


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