The season, which has been an unbelievable wild ride for the Woodstown High softball team, ended on a rollercoaster that was just as wild.
The fifth-seeded Wolverines weren’t having much luck against top-seeded Audubon in the semifinals of the NJSIAA South Jersey, Group 1 Tournament Tuesday in Audubon. Woodstown didn’t get onto the scoreboard until two outs in the sixth when it tied the game with three runs.
Woodstown then took the lead in the top of the seventh only to surrender two runs in the bottom half of the frame. Senior Kathryn Brook singled just inside the right-field line to allow the Green Wave to eclipse the Wolverines, 5-4.
“People have been asking all year, ‘What is it about this team?’” head coach David Wildermuth said. “There’s something about this team that’s intangible, that you can’t see on a piece of paper or a stat sheet. They just have something about them. I don’t know. They just make things happen. We didn’t win it in the end today, but we sure gave it a heck of a try.”
Woodstown trailed, 3-0, going into the sixth. It tied the game at 3-all. In the seventh, the Wolverines pulled ahead, 4-3. Junior Gigi Guardascione reached on an error and got into scoring position on an error. Sophomore Cara Delia doubled to the fence in center.
In the home half, freshman Adrianna DeValerio and senior Dana Medlar led off with singles. Junior Alyson Yurcaba tied it with an RBI single. Brook walked it off with a base hit.
“Just give (Audubon) credit,” Wildermuth said. “Their top of the order got on base (in the seventh). That’s what happens. Get a couple of baserunners on and get a little flare to right field ... what was it fair by a foot? That’s the game of softball and baseball. It’s a game of inches, they say sometimes.
“I’m very proud of my girls. This is my first year coaching these girls. I really didn’t know much about the landscape of South Jersey softball. People told me, ‘You’ve got some pretty good players.’ What they have done for me, I can’t thank them enough. They have taken me on an unbelievable ride this year, winning the conference for the first time in 43 years.”
The Green Wave (17-5) owned a 3-0 lead. Medlar doubled and scored on Yurcaba’s fielder’s choice for a run in the first inning. Audubon pushed across two runs in the third. Senior Alexandria Holton was hit by a pitch, stole second and took third on a wild pitch. DeValerio walked and stole a base. Senior Emily McCutcheon plated Holton on a groundout while Yurcaba singled in McCutcheon.
“At first, we were kind of down,” senior first baseman Alexis Boultinghouse said. “We weren’t as energetic as we usually are. We weren’t as loud, as pumped up and ready to go. Throughout the game, we got better and started scoring some runs. Eventually, we took the lead, but you really can’t do anything but give them credit. They hit the ball and got it back. It was a really great game, but it was a tough one too. But it is what it is.”
The Wolverines (14-5) rallied for three runs with two outs in the sixth inning. Delia and sophomore Kayla Brown, who each had two hits, opened with singles. Freshman Hannah Hitchner came on to run for Delia. Freshman pinch-hitter Adyson Stewart reached on a fielder’s choice as Hitchner was safe at third. Boultinghouse got Woodstown on the board with an RBI single. Audubon committed an error at short which allowed two runs to score.
“I thought we could be here,” said Boultinghouse who had three hits. “After opening day, we had a really tough game against Schalick, and we beat them. After that, I knew that we would be good this season, but it is still surprising. We had to play a lot of hard games to get here, but I always knew that we could do it.”
McCutcheon (10-2) earned the win with one earned run allowed on 11 hits with one walk, a hit batsman and no strikeouts. Sophomore Olivia Boultinghouse (7-3) suffered the loss, allowing five runs on 10 hits with a walk, a hit batter and three strikeouts. Sophomore Tulana Mingin also had three hits for the Wolverines.
“She’s awesome,” Wildermuth said of the older Boultinghouse. “She’s a leader. She’s a great hitter. She’s a great fielder. She fields her position at first base well. She hasn’t made an error all year. I’m proud to be her coach. I wish I had her back for one more year, but I don’t. She will always be a part of this team as long as I am coaching. Hopefully, there are good things to come in the future for this program. She helped set that up.”
Audubon advanced to Friday’s final where it will face second-seeded Clayton, a 10-2 winner over third-seeded Gloucester City. The time is to be determined.
“It feels amazing,” Brook, who was 0-for-3 until her game-winning at-bat, said. “There are no words for how excited and happy I was. I was in a little batting slump. I am just so happy that I ended it in this game. All that was going through my mind was, ‘See the ball; hit the ball.’ I was relaxed up there. I knew my team had my back no matter what happened.”
Medlar, DeValerio and freshman Abigail Tole each had two hits for Audubon. The Green Wave are returning to the sectional final for the fourth time in the last five seasons (excluding 2020 when there was no season due to COVID-19). They have come up short the previous three tries.
“We had been playing incredible defense through five innings,” head coach Erin Small said. “We made a couple of mistakes; they had some timely hitting. They put it together and scored those three runs. In the top of the seventh, we made a mistake, and they ended up scoring a run, but I knew we had our top of the order coming up. Our top of the order is strong. I just felt if we could get our leadoff batter on, we could make something happen.
“We know that Clayton is going to be a tough opponent. We have seen them play. They are very talented. They are the defending Group 1 state champions. Overall, we are going to do what we do well: play good defense and hopefully be able to get some timely hitting and put some runs across. We have to just control what we can control.”
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