5 things we learned from the Morris County softball tournament
The Morris County softball tournament is complete, and Morris Catholic won its third crown in the last four seasons.
While that might just seem like more of the same, this season's edition of the tournament taught us a few things about the contenders from across the county.
With the tournament complete and the state playoffs around the corner, here are five things we learned from the 2024 Morris County softball tournament:
The Crusade continues
Despite the abundance of strong public schools in the tournament, Morris Catholic remains atop the county with its third county title in the last four seasons.
The Crusaders won their four tournament games by a combined score of 31-6 and hold an active win streak of seven in a row during the span.
Morris Catholic took momentum from the county title last season and went on a run to the Non-Public B state final. Approaching the cutoff date for this season's brackets, Morris County has a clear lead in power points to be the top overall seed again in North, Non-Public B.
Planting the seeds
Seeding for the tournament showed exactly how close some of the best teams in Morris County are to one another. The quarterfinals featured all eight of the top seeds in the bracket, but Morris Catholic was the only one of the top four to reach the semifinals.
Quarterfinal upsets by West Morris, Randolph and Montville all sent different messages. The Wolfpack earned their second-largest power points grab by beating Jefferson, putting them in contention for a top-two spot in North 2, Group 3.
A narrow margin
Throughout the tournament, we saw programs throughout Morris County be a difficult out of the tournament. Seven different games in the 2024 tournament saw a team get eliminated by a single run.
Seeing nearly one-third of the entire field narrowly eliminated provides a glimpse at what may be in store when the state seedings are completed next week. Entering the final week of the regular season, Morris County has 18 teams currently in position to make their respective brackets.
Safe at home
Of the 18 tournament games that did not take place at a neutral site, 12 of them were won by the home team, with the average margin of victory at nearly nine runs.
While a lot of that can be attributed to high seeds dominating opponents in their first tournament games, it also shows the strength of being the home team. Just ask West Morris and Jefferson, which both pulled out one-run victories in the tournament while at home.
Eight of the current state playoff teams in Morris County are also in position to host at least one playoff game on their home field. Holding a home-field advantage can prove to be crucial when there's a lot of talent in both dugouts.
Dominance in the circle
Morris County is well-known for strong performances inside the circle, so it shouldn't be a surprise that a number of aces dominated across the tournament. What is notable is how many of the top performances came from underclassmen or those that flew under the radar.
Morris Catholic sophomore Sofia Reisinger has performed well as the Crusaders' new ace, earning 50 strikeouts across four games and getting the county championship.
West Morris senior Cassidy Smith had consecutive complete game shutouts in wins over Parsippany Hills and Jefferson.
Sophomore Sydney Ribnicky struck out 18 across three games for Roxbury, defeating Morris Knolls and forcing Randolph into extra innings.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: 5 things we learned from the Morris County softball tournament
