By Rich Chrampanis
HILLSIDE – Middletown North has enjoyed softball success over the past 30 years, from the late 1980s teams led by Nancy Deaney, Kim Yale and Danielle Mitterando, to the more recent 2015 and 2016 Shore Conference champion squads featuring Riley Kernan and the Cerbo sisters. Yet in all that time, the Lions never reached the top of the New Jersey softball mountain.
That all changed Sunday afternoon at Kean University when the 2019 Lions blanked Chatham 5-0 to earn the New Jersey Group 3 state championship, the first in the program’s history.
It takes an entire team effort to play meaningful softball in June. Middletown North no doubt was able to accomplish that but it centered around their ringleader who fittingly answered the bell in the biggest game of the year. Malori Bell has been lights out on the mound for the Lions and the senior once again delivered a dominating performance with a three-hitter. Remarkably, it was her 22nd complete game shutout of her senior season.
“We came into this game really hungry, we really wanted it,” Bell said. “They were a great team, but we knew we were going to come out on top. We were hungry for it. As a team, we wanted to get this done for our senior class, our underclassmen, our coaches, everyone.”
Bell was locked into a pitcher’s duel with Chatham’s Anna Lengner as both teams were scoreless through four innings before the Lions were able to break through in the fifth inning. With two runners on, senior Ashley Kofsky was able to belt a pitch off the wall in left-center field. Both runs came home to give the Lions their first runs of the game.
“At that at-bat, I was just trying to hit a pop fly to at least drive the runner in at third,” Kofsky said. “Instead it turned out to be something bigger and it felt good to get a bigger hit out of that. You get butterflies in your stomach and then when it comes down to the last outs we know we had it under control.”
Catcher Mia Botti roped an opposite-field RBI double to right center and would later score on a wild pitch to cap off a four-run frame. Cara McNulty would add one more insurance run in the sixth on an RBI single to round out the scoring.
“Our grind just never stops,” Botti said. “Even if we’re struggling we come back with a great play or a great hit. We always find a way to come back.”
Head coach Chris Hoffman always seemed to push the right buttons on the way to this state title. In a bold move, Hoffman elected to sit North’s starters during a Shore Conference Tournament semifinal game against Donovan Catholic, a game which the Griffins won 10-0. Middletown North’s path to a state title was one of the hardest in New Jersey with wins against state-ranked teams Northern Burlington, Steinert and Delsea to make it to Kean. Steinert won the Tournament of Champions last year and Bell delivered an epic 20-strikeout performance to send the champs home. In the state finals, there were only seven Ks for one of the best hurlers in New Jersey softball history, but it was more than enough to give Middletown North the trophy it has coveted for over three decades.
