By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
The West Windsor 10-year-old softball team would love to still be playing Little League games this summer, but a familiar roadblock kept them from advancing from the District 12 tournament.
Robbinsville stopped West Windsor twice to win the championship and they have gone on to win the Section 3 title as well. West Windsor staked its claim to the second-best team in the district with a pair of convincing wins — 17-6 over Bordentown to open the tournament and 16-2 over Florence in an elimination game after their first loss to Robbinsville.
“I think they played great,” said West Windsor manager Todd Russell of his team. “They all played hard. They showed up ready to play. We had a tough time with Robbinsville’s pitcher and they had some heavy bats.”
West Windsor did not manage a run against Robbinsville in two games that were shortened by the 10-run rule. The offense that was so potent against Bordentown and Florence was shut down by a strong Robbinsville thrower.
“She made the difference without a doubt,” Russell said. “We didn’t get many hits. I think our last game, only one girl got a hit off her.”
Members of the West Windsor team are: Ella Bernheisel, Parvati Casalena, Hannah Christopher, Kayla Christopher, Gianna DiGiacchino, Julia Dorfman, Samantha Kandel, Emma Kim, Kayla Krausse, Ruby Madia, Julianne Russell, Marissa Whitney and Madison Young. Assisting Russell were coaches Mike Madia and Paul Whitney.
“One of our strengths is many of the girls have played together for a few years,” the elder Russell said. “We’ve been together since they were 8. Most of them play travel softball together. They do know each other. Being their coach the last couple of years, I have a general idea of where they should be playing. We did prepare for this tournament. We practiced every night for about three weeks or a month.”
The practice helped prepare West Windsor for a traditionally strong district. As a team with the West Windsor Ninjas travel program, they have done well and been challenged by the toughest opponents. They knew what sort of challenge the district would present, but they had built toward it.
“You can see them improving throughout the year,” Russell said. “They play travel. We have winter practices. We only take a few months off during the year. You can see the improvements, not only offensively but defensively.
“We have two pitchers. One (Marissa Whitney) in particular has worked hard to get better. A little more work and she’ll be an above average pitcher. She’s getting the ball over the plate. Our other pitcher is Kayla Krausse. She’s also improved quite a bit over the last six months.”
The team provided plenty of run support against Bordentown and Florence. They took advantage of walks and swung the bats well to average 16.5 runs per game in those two contests.
“It was a combination of both walks and hits,” Russell said. “There were walks that led to people getting on base and then when you start hitting, you just keep going around and around. There were some timely hits. I would say we had more on the hitting side. Our bats were alive against those two towns.”
What changed things against Robbinsville was their pitching was tougher, and they also hit better to put pressure on West Windsor.
“We did well against the other two towns,” Russell said. “Robbinsville’s hitting was fast and furious. We could have done better defensively. We had some hard shots hit at us that we could have played better. If we had played better defense, it could have been a closer game. They hit some to the outfield too, some gappers that were tough to track down.”
It was a learning experience to take on Robbinsville, and the West Windsor players can use it as motivation as they prepare for next summer. This year’s West Windsor team is a mix of 9- and 10-year-olds. Almost 75 percent of the team is eligible to stay and play at the 10s level again next year, while the rest will move up to compete with the 11/12 age group.
“We were on the younger side,” said Russell, who will move up with his daughter. “We’re mostly 9 year olds. I do hear our older 8 year olds are a good team. When they join up next year, they’ll have a good team.”
It was a good showing for West Windsor in the district tournament, and it’s a young group that figures to only improve as they play more. The focus now will be on getting the players up to a higher level over the next year.
“What I suggested is we have to focus on hitting,” Russell said. “That seems to be the thing. It’s being able to handle fast pitchers. Those two pitchers we have, regular practice is not enough. They need private practice to maintain their pitching. Regular practice won’t do that. Marissa has done that. We have to hit better to get to the next level. There are private hitting coaches and they’re going to those and will continue. And more and more repetition.”
