These state champs made history: South Shore high school softball rankings

If, at the conclusion of the 2022 MIAA softball season, you were asked to pick a South Shore team that was best positioned to win a state championship in 2023, you probably would have selected Middleboro.

And you would have been right.

The Sachems came oh-so-close to a Division 3 crown last spring, losing 8-5 to New Bedford Voke in the title game. The good news back then was that Middleboro was scheduled to return almost all of the key pieces from that team.

Steeled by that near-miss, the Sachems closed the deal this time, beating Norton in this year's final to become the school's first-ever girls team state champion in any sport.

Middleboro, which was No. 1 in our first Patriot Ledger/Enterprise top 10 ranking of the season, obviously reclaimed the top spot in our final ranking. The Sachems also were No. 1 on the South Shore at the conclusion of the 2022 campaign.

Two other South Shore teams made deep playoff runs this spring with Archbishop Williams advancing to the Division 4 semifinals and Silver Lake getting to the Division 2 quarterfinals.

Here's a look at our final top 10 list of the season. (Final record and previous ranking in parenthesis.)

More: WHERE WE STARTED: Another hit parade: South Shore high school softball top 10 rankings

More: WHERE WE LEFT OFF: State crowns up for grabs: South Shore high school softball top 10 rankings

1. Middleboro (21-4, 2)

How dominant were the sixth-seeded Sachems in the playoffs? Consider their five postseason wins came by scores of 8-2 (over Hanover), 12-0 (Arlington Catholic), 8-5 (Hudson), 3-0 (Triton) and 15-3 (Norton). That's an aggregate score of 46-10. (For some perspective, that's the same score by which the 1985 Bears beat the way-before-Tom-Brady Patriots in Super Bowl XX.) Anyway, senior Alex Welch homered in each of the five playoff games, including hitting grand slams in consecutive innings against Arlington Catholic in the Round of 16. She also had a two-run blast in the final. Classmate Cassidy Machado was brilliant in the circle for a second straight season, striking out eight with no walks in the title game.

Graduation won't be kind to Middleboro, which will shed Welch, Machado, third baseman Melody Rees, catcher Paige Rooney, left fielder Maddie Ryder, shortstop Haley Puzzo, second baseman Eva Jenness and first baseman Mari Dowler. Still, this is program that's gone 61-10 over the past three seasons, so we will assume that coach Dan Sylvia will have a new crop of stars ready to go by next spring.

2. Archbishop Williams (20-6, 5)

The Bishops made it to the Division 4 semifinals as No. 5 seed, posting wins over No. 28 Blackstone-Millville (by a 2-0 score), No. 12 Waconah (4-0) and No. 4 Tyngsboro (5-1) before losing 4-3 to top-seeded Joseph Case, the eventual state champ. Considering that Case's other wins came by scores of 20-1, 6-1, 11-8 and 7-2, you could make an argument that Archies was actually the second-best team in the division. They figure to be a tough out again next spring.

Rising sophomore Jill Ondrick has almost unlimited potential; this spring she hit .589 with 37 runs and 43 RBIs while going 10-2 with a 1.15 ERA in the circle. Rising senior center fielder Alyssa Burke (.500, 5 homers, 23 RBIs) and rising junior left fielder Regan Parr (.461) are terrific building blocks, too, although senior pitcher Shelby Parr (10-3, 1.76 ERA) will be missed.

More: Seniors' sacrifice was at the heart of Archies softball’s growth into a title contender

3. Silver Lake (20-3, 1)

The Lakers finished fifth in our final top 10 of the 2022 season, moved up to third in our first ranking of 2023, assumed the top spot heading into the playoffs and now settle in at No. 3 after a run to the Division 2 quarterfinals. Seeded eighth, Silver Lake knocked off No. 25 Oliver Ames and No. 9 Grafton before losing to No. 1 Westfield, which in turn lost to eventual champ Burlington in the semis. The Lakers' regular season featured a 14-game winning streak that was halted by a 7-1 loss to Middleboro as the Sachems avenged a 3-0 loss 11 days earlier.

Departing senior Brianna Ghilardi will be missed; she hit .506 with 38 RBIs and 38 runs and was 5-1 in the circle. However, rising juniors Delaney Moquin and Madyson Bryan will be back. Moquin was the Patriot League Keenan Division MVP, batting .518 with 41 RBIs while going 15-2 with a 1.37 ERA. And Bryan batted .520 with 2 homers and 28 RBIs.

More: Another Bryan blast leads Silver Lake softball past Hingham in Patriot League showdown

4. Bridgewater-Raynham (18-4, 3)

Only Archies (No. 5 in Division 4) and Middleboro (No. 6 in Division 3) earned higher playoff seeds than the Trojans, who were No. 8 in Division 1. B-R edged No. 25 Natick, 2-1, in the first round but lost to No. 9 Methuen, 3-1, in the Round of 16. Pitcher Lily Welch gave a glimpse of what was to come when her junior-year won-loss record (10-10) masked a fine 2.16 ERA. This spring she broke out with a 17-3 record and a 1.21 ERA, striking out 228 over 144 innings while earning Southeast Conference MVP honors. Welch will leave a void in the circle, but B-R's 2024 hopes will be bolstered by the return of rising seniors Ava Selter (.484, 6 homers, 22 RBIs) and Taylor Reid (.409, 17 RBIs). Selter hit a pair of walk-off home runs while Reid was a defensive standout at catcher.

More: Selter's walk-off the highlight as B-R softball, baseball teams win first-round matchups

5. Hingham (18-3, 4)

The MIAA power rankings did the Harborwomen no favors as their 18-2 regular season only earned them a No. 18 seed in the Division 1 tournament. Hingham lost to No. 15 Chelmsford in the first round, but the early exit doesn't detract from a fine regular season in which coach Chuck Green's team beat fellow Top 10ers Marshfield and Hanover and lost only to Silver Lake (twice). Hingham's big graduation loss will be Sarah Holler, who moved from first base to shortstop this spring and won the Patriot League triple crown with a .616 average, 8 homers and 47 RBIs. She leaves as the program's all-time leader in average (.484), RBIs (115) and extra-base hits (56).

More: Legendary softball coach Chuck Green has Hingham softball sailing into historic season

6. Marshfield (14-7, 6)

The Rams dropped their opener in the Division 1 playoffs, but they did beat Hanover twice, and five of their six regular-season defeats came against Silver Lake (two), Hingham (two) and Bridgewater-Raynham – the three teams directly ahead of them on our Top 10 list. Like Middleboro and Hingham, Marshfield will have a different look next spring after graduating stars Jess Morrison and Sam Bongiolatti. Morrison hit .495 with 4 homers, 23 RBIs and 34 runs, while Bongiolatti batted .551 and drove in 30 runs.

More: Marshfield softball is leaning on 2 freshmen to win. They're coming through for the Rams.

7. East Bridgewater (14-7, 7)

The Vikings won eight of nine, while pitching five shutouts (four consecutively), during one regular-season hot streak. EB cooled off a little down the stretch, earned a No. 18 seed in Division 3 and lost by a run in the first round to No. 15 Newburyport. Still, it was a big improvement on an 11-10 finish in 2022. And the future seems bright, led by rising sophomore Maggie Schlossberg, who threw four no-hitters en route to winning 14 games with a 1.74 ERA and 209 strikeouts. Rising junior catcher Madeline Blette (.349, 2 homers, 21 RBIs, 16 runs) completes an impressive young battery that should serve EB well in 2024.

8. Hanover (15-7, 10)

The Hawks have skewed young for two seasons, and yet won another Patriot League Fisher Division crown this spring. Hanover won a preliminary-round game in the Division 3 playoffs as a No. 27 seed before losing to eventual state champ Middleboro in the Round of 16. The Hawks could be one of the best teams on the South Shore in 2024 as they should be loaded with returning talent such as rising senior outfielder Kaelyn Chase, the Fisher Division MVP who hit .622 and scored 39 runs. Rising senior third baseman McKenzie Foley is a defensive whiz who hit .449, and rising junior catcher Abba Hanna (.537, 34 RBIs) and rising junior shortstop Noey Giardina (.493, 40 RBIs) are elite.

9. Abington (14-8, 8)

Abington came out of the gate slowly, splitting its first six regular-season games, before immediately ripping off a nine-game winning streak. As a No. 13 seed in the Division 4 playoffs, the Green Wave won a first-round game over No. 20 Whittier before losing to No. 4 Tyngsboro. Two big graduation losses will be center fielder Maddie Perry (.348, 19 runs) and pitcher Shannon Varvitsiotis (11 wins, 2.27 ERA). The good news is that rising junior shortstop Brenna Howley will return after hitting .379 with 14 RBIs, and rising senior catcher Kasie Bailey (.419, 17 RBIs) should be even better a year removed from a torn ACL that sabotaged her sophomore season.

10. Braintree (12-10, 9)

Six of the Wamps' 10 losses came against Bridgewater-Raynham (21-4 record), Walpole (17-2) and Bishop Feehan (14-10), and they also were beaten by Archbishop Williams (20-6) and Abington (14-8). So a winning record was hard earned. Braintree won a Division 1 preliminary-round game before being eliminated by Feehan in the Round of 32. Senior pitcher Ally McNamee struck out 13 in a 1-0, season-opening loss to B-R that looks even better in hindsight. Rising seniors Gabby Diaute (.528, 32 RBIs) and Eva Surette (.317, 21 runs) will return to anchor the lineup in 2024, along with Catherine McPhee, who hit .532 as a sophomore with 17 steals and 29 runs.

On the bubble: Cardinal Spellman (14-11), Plymouth North (12-10), Pembroke (13-9), Notre Dame Academy (12-8), Norwell (10-9), Cohasset (9-9), Holbrook (13-5), Plymouth South (10-9)

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: South Shore high school softball rankings