Softball: Skyland Conference, area UCC preseason notebook and predictions
The 2024 varsity softball season gets going Monday in New Jersey, and our local teams are raring to go. Here are some preseason notes, our preseason All-Area teams, predictions and looks ahead for the new campaign.
Softball preview index: Links to the Courier News and Home News Tribune preview package
Charity tournament expands
Last spring’s inaugural benefit for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention was such a rousing success that it’s grown tremendously in hopes of raising even more money for a phenomenal cause.
The event, which was founded and organized by Immaculata softball coach Gary Bury, featured nine teams playing at the Pingry School, raising $8,100 for their effort. This year, the event will take place at two sites with 23 teams participating, and the goal is to raise $20,000.
“I feel, as adults, we have an obligation to make sure our youth realizes there is help out there if it’s needed,” Bury said. “We are hearing far too many stories of students getting bullied and then committing suicide. That just breaks my heart.”
The plan is for this event to be played every season on the first Saturday of the campaign and to add even more clubs next year. This year’s outing is scheduled for April 6, with six games played on two fields at Pingry, and another 16 games on four fields at Singley Park in Hillsborough. Most teams will play two games.
“We are looking to grow bigger in 2025,” said Bury, who added they are looking for businesses or individuals to donate gift prizes for a raffle, tickets for which are on sale until noon on the day of the games. “Added schools means the message will be louder and cover more distance in our state. It is a goal of mine in the years to come to have the first Saturday of every high school softball season to be Suicide Awareness/Prevention Day.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Here are the players to watch in Central Jersey for 2024
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention charity softball tournament schedule
APRIL 6
AT PINGRY (two fields)
Pingry vs. Franklin, 9 a.m.
Oak Knoll vs. Brearley, 9 a.m.
Warren Hills vs. Oak Knoll, 11:20 a.m.
Kent Place vs. Brearley, 11:20 a.m.
Franklin vs. Kent Place, 1:40 p.m.
Warren Hills vs. Union, 1:40 p.m.
AT SINGLEY PARK (four fields)
9 a.m.
Bernards vs. Westfield
Bridgewater-Raritan vs. Dayton
Ridge vs. Governor Livingston
Gill St. Bernard’s vs. Union
11 a.m.
Robbinsville vs. Metuchen
North Hunterdon vs. Livingston
Watchung Hills vs. Steinert
Columbia vs. Pope John XXIII
1:30 p.m.
Pingry vs. Westfield
Bernards vs. Dayton
Gill St. Bernard’s vs. Governor Livingston
Bridgewater-Raritan vs. Ridge
3:30 p.m.
Immaculata vs. Livingston
Pope John vs. Robbinsville
North Hunterdon vs. Steinert
Watchung Hills vs. Columbia
Skyland All-Star Game set
The 2024 Skyland Conference Senior All-Star Game is scheduled for Tuesday, June 11, at Diamond Nation, featuring the top outgoing softball players in Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren counties.
Coaches will nominate their top seniors, with a committee selecting this year’s honorees.
North Hunterdon’s Anthony Rotondo will serve as the head coach for one team, with Pingry’s Chip Carver leading the other.
The coaching carousel
A new season means another ride on the coaching carousel, and this year's spin features four new head coaches in the area.
Manville and New Providence each have a new face at the top after longtime coaches moved on. Pat DeNapoli left the Mustangs after 12 seasons, while Jill Fischman departs New Prov after 11 years.
Christen Albani is the new head coach at Manville after serving as an assistant in the program for the past four years. This is the first head coaching job for the South Brunswick alum.
Chris Eckert is New Providence’s new head coach after serving as an assistant with the Governor Livingston softball team for the past two years. Eckert was the head middle school coach in Mountainside for nine seasons, and he is a health/PE teacher at Governor Livingston, where he’s served as the head varsity girls basketball coach for seven years.
Elsewhere, Matt Traynor is the new head coach at Voorhees, replacing Cara Montferrat, who departed after two seasons. The Bernards alum has spent the past five seasons as an assistant coach for the Vikings girls soccer and basketball programs, and the past two springs as an assistant girls lacrosse coach.
Rutgers Prep also has new leadership, as Matt Moore takes over for Ralph Forte after just one season. Moore is an assistant varsity girls basketball coach at powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas and the former head baseball coach at Monsignor Farrell on Staten Island.
Picking up an assist: Stars return to their high school staffs
Three Skyland Conference programs added assistant varsity coaches with impressive resumes, including two members of the 2010s Courier News All-Decade Softball Team and a former Coach of the Year.
Watchung Hills welcomes back former ace Robin McCabe – arguably the best pitcher ever to come through the program. McCabe, who graduated in 2018 and went on to pitch at Moravian, went 47-17 with a 1.72 career ERA in four seasons, pitching the Warriors to the 2016 state Group 4 championship. She joins second-year head coach Brian Figueredo’s staff hoping to impart some pitching wisdom on an inexperienced pitching group. McCabe was a three-time first-team All-Area pick, making second-team the other season.
Montgomery’s coaching staff will also feature a former local superstar, as Immaculata alum Fran Torraca joins head coach Bryan Upshaw, who was an assistant at Immaculata during Torraca’s freshman campaign, during which the Spartans went to the state finals. Last decade’s only four-time first-team All-Area honoree, Torraca compiled 149 career varsity hits and finished with a .525 career batting average while swiping 114 bases. A 2018 Immaculata grad, she was a member of Team Puerto Rico and competed in the 2017 World Cup of Softball. She played two years at the University of Washington, before transferring to Monmouth.
North Hunterdon has also added a recognizable name to its varsity staff as former Metuchen head coach Hannah Thomas joins head coach Anthony Rotondo and friends. Thomas spent five seasons at the Bulldogs helm, compiling a 67-30 record that included a trip to the sectional finals in 2022. Her team went 19-7 last year, going to the GMC Tournament semifinals. She was also the MyCentralJersey.com/Home News Tribune GMC Softball Coach of the Year in 2021.
Preseason All-Area softball team
Here is our preseason All-Area team, based on last year’s performances:
P: Caroline Colitti, Immaculata, Senior
P: Skye Cook, North Hunterdon, Junior
P: Emily Van Cleef, Hunterdon Central, Junior
P: Anna Ziccardi, Mount St. Mary, Junior
C: Grace Brouillard, Hillsborough, Senior
C: Kylie Petak, North Hunterdon, Senior
1B: Claire Marcinek, Hillsborough, Senior
2B: Delaney Swain, Pingry, Senior
SS: Gina Mahlik, Bernards, Senior
3B: Erin Doherty, Westfield, Senior
Inf.: Ella Stevinson, Watchung Hills, Senior
OF: Brooke Baisley, Gill St. Bernard's, Senior
OF: Silje Emery, Bernards, Senior
OF: Evelyn Fresco, Bridgewater-Raritan, Junior
OF: Katie Reed, North Hunterdon, Junior
UTIL: Molly Ferreira, Immaculata, Junior
Skyland realignment
The Skyland Conference has shuffled again, something the league is doing each season to ensure competitive balance, allowing the conference to consider strength of program and not merely school size when setting the divisions.
Here is the 2024 softball alignment:
DELAWARE: Bridgewater-Raritan, Hillsborough, Hunterdon Central, Immaculata, North Hunterdon, Watchung Hills
RARITAN: Bernards, Gill St. Bernard’s, Phillipsburg, Pingry, Ridge, Warren Hills
VALLEY: Belvidere, Delaware Valley, Franklin, Montgomery, Mount St. Mary, Voorhees,
MOUNTAIN: Bound Brook, Manville, Rutgers Prep, Somerville, South Hunterdon
Pincus’ picks
When it comes to predictions, I’ve always said people only remember the ones you get right. Some of these are very difficult, while some are no brainers. So here are my picks for the 2024 season:
SKYLAND CONFERENCE DELAWARE DIVISION
The favorite: North Hunterdon
The contender: Immaculata
The sleeper: Watchung Hills
Obviously, Hunterdon Central and Hillsborough are powerhouse programs, and Bridgewater-Raritan is always dangerous. I’ll be shocked if I actually get this division right.
RARITAN DIVISION
The favorite: Bernards
The contender: Ridge
The sleeper: Pingry
This division is wide open. Don’t sleep on Gill St. Bernard’s, Phillipsburg is always in the mix, even when it was in the Delaware Division, and even Warren Hills is more than capable of making a run.
VALLEY DIVISION
The favorite: Delaware Valley
The contender: Mount St. Mary
The sleeper: Franklin
I’m pretty confident in Del Val being the favorite, but MSM, Franklin and even Voorhees could make a run in this division
MOUNTAIN DIVISION
The favorite: Bound Brook
The contender: South Hunterdon
The sleeper: Rutgers Prep
Bound Brook looks great on paper, but South Hunterdon is usually in the mix, Rutgers Prep’s got some great young talent, while Somerville is going to be a lot more competitive in the Mountain than it was in the Valley the past two years. Manville can also be quite pesky.
SOMERSET COUNTY TOURNAMENT FINAL
Watchung Hills vs. Immaculata
HUNTERDON/WARREN/SUSSEX TOURNAMENT FINAL PREDICTIONS
North Hunterdon vs. Hunterdon Central
UNION COUNTY TOURNAMENT FINAL
Westfield vs. Elizabeth
Staff writer Simeon Pincus has been covering NJ sports since 1997, and has been on the softball beat since 1999. He can be reached at CourierSoftball@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @SimeonPincus
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Softball: Skyland and area UCC preseason notebook, predictions
