Mater Dei Prep surged to the sectional finals in the state softball tournament, continuing to show signs of a big turnaround from the team’s early-season struggles.
The Seraphs, a young team with up to three freshmen in the starting lineup, hit a few bumps in the road this spring. In addition to some injuries, Mater Dei had to overcome inexperience on the field. Meanwhile, the Seraphs were eliminated in the first round of the Shore Conference Tournament, where they were ranked 19th.
So if Mater Dei (15-5) was picked to appear in the NJSIAA Non-Public South B championship, would that have come as a surprise?
“Without question,” head coach Jeanne Dickinson said. “We’re young, and we’ve made young mistakes. We took our lumps in the preseason.”
Dickinson went on to explain that it took some time for Mater Dei to find its footing. Now the Seraphs look like “a completely different team,” she added. “I couldn’t be prouder of them.”
Mater Dei’s bats came alive in the sectional semifinals against Wardlaw-Hartridge School of Edison. Freshman shortstop Tyrah Graves led off the game with a single, followed by a double off the bat of senior third baseman Emilie Boman. An errant throw on the next play allowed both runners to score.
The fifth-seed Seraphs added a run in the third inning and scored three more in the fourth, taking a 6-1 lead. Run-scoring singles from seniors Erin Batz and Stephanie Sudziarski made it 8-1, and sophomore Maggie Klatt added an RBI single in the sixth.
The 9-1 victory propelled Mater Dei to the championship game against No. 2 St. Joseph High School of Hammonton. The teams were scheduled to play on June 4 at Northern Burlington County Regional High School, meeting for the first time since the 2008 title game.
“My whole approach is we have nothing to lose and everything to gain,” Dickinson said. “We’re playing with house money.”
Mater Dei grew stronger as the team got deeper into the season. Freshman pitcher Paige Fernandez quickly developed into a promising starter, while the veterans used their experience to help the newcomers along. The Seraphs are coming off a 24-4 season in 2013.
In the South B semifinals, Fernandez held Wardlaw-Hartridge to just one earned run despite giving up nine hits. She also struck out five. Fernandez improved to 15-5 on the season with a 1.63 ERA and 104 strikeouts.
“You can’t just be a chucker. You have to be a pitcher at this level. She has really learned how to pitch,” Dickinson said.
Dickinson, who is in her 34th season coaching softball, said her players had the athletic ability to succeed from the start. It was the fundamentals that needed to be squared away.
“We spent a lot of time learning how to run the bases and where the cutoffs are,” the head coach said. “I really haven’t had to go back to that point before.”
In a surprising twist, Mater Dei’s youth turned out to be an advantage for the team. With that inexperience came mistakes, but the players were rarely fazed by them.
“They’re too young to be intimidated,” Dickinson said. “They always bounce back.”