PLAYER OF THE YEAR
It wasn't so much that Allie Bridgman's 2019 season for the Hightstown softball team came out of nowhere. As a sophomore last year, she was a Times all-Colonial Valley Conference honoree.
It’s that the jump Bridgman – and not so coincidentally, her team – made in 2019 has vaulted her to the top of The Times’ softball honors and the Rams to within two wins of being the best softball team in the state.
When you go 21-3 in the circle and roll up 48 hits with 20 doubles and five homers and drive in 52 runs, all while helping your team to the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions semifinals and heights unprecedented in program history, you’re a solid pick for The Times’ softball Player of the Year.
The lineup the Rams sent out for the T of C semifinal had eight freshmen and sophomores with Morgan Fleisher as the lone senior and Bridgman as the only junior. With just four juniors and seniors overall on a roster of 14-player roster, Bridgman knew her role would be critical in determining how far the Rams would go. Fleisher and fellow senior Caitlin Walsh were a part of the 2016 team that made the Central Jersey, Group 4 final, but outside of those two players, none of the Rams had been a part of a team with a single NJSIAA tournament win.
"She knew early on that because we were so young, there were going to be games where she knew that she was going to pitch a two- or three-hitter, let up two or three runs, and we could lose 2-0 or something like that," Hightstown coach Pete Lestician said. "(What) every at bat meant was, hey, I might get a hit here, I might be the only one to get a hit the next three innings. If there was a girl on third, her concentration level at the plate was so different than last year. Last year was, I'm going to swing and I'm going to do what I can, and this year was, if there's a girl on third, I might have to hit a sac fly."
Allie Bridgman is The Times' Softball Player of the Year. (Scott Faytok | For NJ Advance Media)
As it turned out, those 2-0 losses were quite rare. Hightstown, at 26-5, averaged nearly eight runs a game in 2019 and allowed just more than two. Bridgman, who had a strong 1.56 ERA in 2018, dropped that to 1.07 in 2019.
That Bridgman, who has announced a commitment to Fairfield University, was so reliable in the circle helped teammates still adjusting to the high school game.
“If you guys make two plays an inning, Allie will get a strikeout,” Lesitican said of balancing the reliance on Bridgman with needing those behind her to carry the team. “That took a lot of pressure off of the young, young girls in the field.”
While Bridgman ended up throwing more than three-quarters of the innings on the season, sophomores Katie Scheid and Gina Zappola and freshman Isabella Benitez picked up the rest. Bridgman, though, was ever present.
“On some days, she was our leader by example on the field,” Lestician said. “Other days, when she was 0-for-3 at the plate, or maybe she wasn’t pitching that day, or she was pitching OK and she was not having a good day in the field, she was the one that was encouraging the other kids and not giving up and keep playing hard. Some days, she was our leader by example. Some days she was our leader by voice. She did something every game, either with her bat, her legs, her glove or her pitching, something every day to show that she was a leader of the team.”
Once bracket season came, the ball belonged to Bridgman. In pursuit of the Rams’ first-ever Mercer County Tournament title, and in the team’s first appearance in the county final since 1996, Bridgman struck out 13 and gave up a run on three hits and two walks in a 1-0 loss to Steinert which went on to make the Central Jersey, Group 3 final.
In the first three games of the Central Jersey, Group 4 tournament, Bridgman threw a combined 19 shutout innings, giving up 10 hits and two walks, striking out 25. Then came the sectional final against Montgomery, where she gave up nine hits and two walks but just two runs, enough for Abby Bell to step in with her two-run walkoff homer to deliver Hightstown its first sectional title in 43 years.
The two-game Group 4 tournament saw her strike out 17 in 14 innings of work, allowing four runs on 12 hits and a walk. Then, in the T of C opener against the same Middletown North team that beat Steinert in the Group 3 final, Bridgman fanned 11, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk. The run ended against Cedar Grove in the T of C semis, despite Bridgman striking out six and allowing three runs, all unearned, on five hits and four walks.
Bridgman’s breakout season came despite her recovery from a shoulder injury. That led to a relatively quiet preseason, but it also hatched a plan for Hightstown when the 2020 season – with so many players returning from its historic 2019 – gets set to unfold.
“We didn’t pitch her in the preseason until the very last week,” Lestician said. “We ramped her up, and that’s actually our plan next year, to get some other girls some work early in the season so she’s fresher as we get later on.”
Bridgman may be fresh when the stakes rise as spring 2020 rolls on, but thanks to what Hightstown was able to accomplish in 2019, she and her teammates will be seasoned, too.
NJ.COM'S POSTSEASON SOFTBALL COVERAGE
• Full Postseason Honors | Final Top 50
• First Team All-State | Second Team All-State | Third Team All-State
• All-Group 1 | All-Group 2 | All-Group 3 | All-Group 4 | All-Non Public
TEAM OF THE YEAR
A Mercer County Tournament final, a Central Jersey, Group 4 title, a state Group 4 title, a win in the Tournament of Champions, and being the last area team standing gets Hightstown the honor as The Times' softball Team of the Year.
But it was more than the wins themselves that makes Hightstown the pick for the team honor. The Rams hadn’t won an NJSIAA tournament game since 2016 and hadn’t appeared in an MCT final since 1996, making it to the county semifinals last in 2017. Those numbers are all outdated now, thanks to a captivating 1-0 battle against Steinert in the MCT final, the program’s first sectional title since 1996, first-ever state group championship, and first appearance in and win in the three-year-old T of C.
The roster skewed heavily toward underclassmen, with 10 of the team’s 14 players as freshmen or sophomores. Junior Allie Bridgman, who threw greater than 75 percent of the innings on the season, made the jump from a 5-7 record in 2018 to 21-3 in 2019 and accounted for a quarter of the team’s runs batted in. But the NJSIAA tournament brought an intriguing peek into what 2020 and beyond might be like, now with more experience for a team that has had a taste of championship celebrations. Abby Bell, a freshman who drove in 18 runs and had 18 hits on the season, had a postseason that sounds like the stuff of tall tales, hitting a walk-off homer to win the sectional title, a two-run homer in the sixth inning to turn a 5-4 lead into a 7-4 lead over Mount Olive in a Group 4 final the Rams went on to win 9-4, and a ninth-inning grand slam for the first runs of the game in a 4-2 win over Middletown North in the T of C opener.
Despite losing lone senior starter Morgan Fleisher, who had 31 hits and drove in 37 runs, with the RBI total good for second on the team behind Bridgman’s 52, Hightstown is able to bring back four of the five players who had at least 20 hits this season, including Bridgman, rising juniors Izzy Hulme (48) and Jackie Masone (44) and rising sophomore Sydney Busa (27). In the circle, to give Bridgman some relief, the Rams are able to return all of their innings from 2019, with rising juniors Gina Zappola and Katie Scheid and rising sophomore Isabella Benitez all back after logging time in the circle this season.
COACH OF THE YEAR
Hightstown sweeps the honors with the job second-year head coach Pete Lestician was able to do in 2019, making a lot of history in a little time to capture The Times' softball Coach of the Year recognition.
The Rams entered the season without much reason to think, at least from the outside, that 2019 would turn out to be as successful as it was. Hightstown had a roster light on experience, had played one game under the lights in the Mercer County Tournament in any of the current Rams’ careers by making it to the 2017 semifinals, and had little connection to the team’s run to the 2016 Central Jersey, Group 4 final.
Pete Lestician is The Times' softball Coach of the Year. (Scott Faytok | For NJ Advance Media)
Lestician, who stressed defense throughout, saw junior Allie Bridgman win more than four times as many games in the circle in 2019 as she did in 2018, nearly double her hit total from last year from 25 to 48, and more than double her RBI total from 25 to 52. And while Bridgman’s jump was worthy of area Player of the Year honors, the contributions from underclassmen were essential as well. Jackie Masone and Izzy Hulme each had 40-hit sophomore seasons after combining for 36 hits as rookies. Sydney Busa had 27 hits in her Hightstown debut, and fellow rookie Abby Bell rose to the moment with three late-game homers in the Rams’ last five postseason games.
Now, the Rams will go from having little outside expectation, especially having entered 2019 in the shadow of Steinert and Robbinsville in their Route 130 neighborhood both as 2018 T of C teams, to having eyes on them in 2020 with only one senior starter gone and all of their pitching innings able to come back after a county final appearance, sectional and group titles and a win in the T of C.
All-Area Team
Haylei Archer, Northern Burlington, Jr.
Archer had another solid season for the Greyhounds, going 9-3 with 143 strikeouts and with 16 hits and 16 RBI for a team that finished at No. 14 in the NJ.com Top 20.
Allie Bridgman, Hightstown, Jr.
Bridgman went 21-3 in the circle and drove in 52 runs while getting 48 hits in helping NJ.com No. 7 Hightstown to the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions.
Rachel Carney, Notre Dame, Sr.
Carney was second on the Irish with 43 hits, adding 22 RBIs and swiping 69 bases on the season.
Leah Churinskas, WW-P South, Sr.
Churinskas closed out her Pirate career with another strong year, getting 38 hits, driving in 32 runs and stealing 24 bases, all team-high totals.
Izzy Hulme, Hightstown, So.
Hulme's 48 hits tied her for the Hightstown lead with Bridgman, and they more than doubled her freshman-year total of 22. Hulme added 23 stolen bases this year.
Kayla Kilmer, South Hunterdon, So.
In leading South Hunterdon to the Central Jersey, Group 1 title, Kilmer went 12-7 in the circle and added 30 hits and 30 RBI at the plate.
Samantha Mallen, Montgomery, So.
Mallen was the hits leader for the Central Jersey, Group 4 finalists, getting 37 hits while driving in 19 runs and stealing 26 bases.
Chelsea Manto, Robbinsville, Sr.
Manto excelled at getting on base, leading the NJ.com No. 19 Ravens with 59 hits and adding nine walks to that total, swiping 29 bases once she was on.
Jackie Masone, Hightstown, So.
Masone's 44 hits were third on the Rams and more than tripled her freshman-year total of 14. She also drove in 32 runs, more than double her rookie total of 15.
Olivia Moser, Robbinsville, Sr.
Moser topped 30 hits and 30 RBI for Robbinsville with 37 and 33 to close out her Ravens career.
Annabella Pisapia, Bordentown, Jr.
Pisapia went 13-5 in the circle for the state Group 2 finalists, adding 21 hits and 17 RBI at the plate.
Bella Truelove, Steinert, So.
Truelove drove in 51 runs for the Spartans and had 36 hits for a big breakout sophomore season.
Shea Walsh, Robbinsville, Sr.
Walsh had 47 hits for Robbinsville and added 25 RBI to finish up an accomplished career with the Ravens.
Kaylee Whittaker, Steinert, Sr.
In her final run with the Spartans, Whittaker shared the pitching duties and went 11-2 for the Central Jersey, Group 3 finalists, adding 26 hits and 14 RBI.
Devon Witt, Robbinsville, Sr.
Witt, another member of a Ravens senior class with lots of wins to its credit, reached 40 in both hits (44) and RBI (40).
Rachel Zingerman, Notre Dame, Sr.
Zingerman led Notre Dame with 46 hits and drove in 53 runs, leading the team in RBIs by 21. She added 26 stolen bases.
Player of the Year: Allie Bridgman, Hightstown, Sr.
Team of the Year: Hightstown
Coach of the Year: Pete Lestician, Hightstown
All-CVC
Allie Bridgman, Hightstown, Jr.
Rachel Carney, Notre Dame, Sr.
Leah Churinskas, WW-P South, Sr.
Morgan Fleisher, Hightstown, Sr.
Ashley Giampolo, Notre Dame, So.
Brynn Hopkins, Robbinsville, So.
Izzy Hulme, Hightstown, So.
Priyanka Kaul, WW-P South, So.
Chelsea Manto, Robbinsville, Sr.
Jackie Masone, Hightstown, So.
Olivia Moser, Robbinsville, Sr.
Bella Truelove, Steinert, So.
Shea Walsh, Robbinsville, Sr.
Kaylee Whittaker, Steinert, Sr.
Devon Witt, Robbinsville, Sr.
Rachel Zingerman, Notre Dame, Sr.
Player of the Year: Allie Bridgman, Hightstown, Sr.
Team of the Year: Hightstown
All-Prep
Hanna Babuschak, Hun, So.
Alyna Balewitz, Lawrenceville, So.
Jasmine Bright, Lawrenceville, So.
McKenzie Bunnell, Lawrenceville, So.
Meghan Donohue, Hun, Sr.
Erin Harrigan, Hun, Sr.
Allison Haworth, Lawrenceville, Fr.
Ciara Hoover, Lawrenceville, Jr.
Lindsay Kucker, Lawrenceville, Sr.
Gia Massari, Lawrenceville, So.
Emily Matcham, Lawrenceville, Jr.
Sydney Sassin, Peddie, So.
Nora Shea, Hun, Fr.
Gigi Venizelos, Hun, Jr.
Maddie Zeleznik, Lawrenceville, Jr.
Abby Zucatti, Hun, Jr.
Player of the Year: Lindsay Kucker, Lawrenceville, Sr.
Team of the Year: Lawrenceville
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