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Courier Post Article - Mullica Twp. in the World Series
It's a special time for Mullica Twp.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
By CELESTE E. WHITTAKER
Courier-Post Staff
Mullica Township is a rural and wooded township of some 6,000 people
that sits about 20 miles from Atlantic City.
It is located in the heart of the New Jersey Pinelands and is known for
its famous river, the Mullica River. It was formerly called the Little
Egg Harbor River.
Now, the township has another claim to fame: It has a team that will
play in the 2005 Babe Ruth Softball 12-and-under World Series.
"It's really exciting," said Mullica Township softball player Jen
Pilallis. "No one thinks Mullica can do that kind of stuff. They all
think of us as hicks from the sticks, basically."
Mullica Township won the Babe Ruth District 4 championship for the
second year in a row, which is an accomplishment in itself, then
advanced to the state tournament where it defeated Hamilton Township
(Mercer County) in the championship.
That victory gave Mullica the Southern New Jersey title and since the
World Series is in South Jersey this year, Mullica Township received an
automatic berth in the World Series.
"It's pretty amazing," Mullica Township coach Mark Chamberlain said.
"Normally, once we won the Southern New Jersey states, we'd have to go
to Mid-Atlantic Regionals. But, we won, and because it's in South
Jersey, that's how we got the bye right into the world series."
"It's good for the kids, too, because they're burned out. We started
practicing in February indoors, hitting and throwing and all that stuff.
It's been a long year. Normally, we're done by this time of year.
Because we had an automatic bye, I gave them off from practice for two
weeks straight."
Chamberlain's team will play host team Cherry Hill at 5 p.m. Friday at
the Robert A. Connor and Family Complex in Cherry Hill. Both teams are
in the American Division, which includes Washington, Connecticut and
Louisiana. The National Division is made up of California, North
Carolina, Indiana, Sparta (New Jersey) and Missouri.
For Mullica Township to get to this point is impressive. Their district
includes teams such as Egg Harbor, Bay Shore, Galloway and Toms River.
"We won the district tournament for the second year in a row,"
Chamberlain said. "To me it is quite an accomplishment for a small town
like ours. Then we went to the states. Last year we went to the states,
and didn't win it. We won our first game and lost the next two. This
year, went to states, won our first couple of games, went to the
championship round against Hamilton Township."
Chamberlain has been a head coach in the recreation program for four
years. The team that is going to the World Series is kind of a
tournament team from the township.
Most of the girls Chamberlain has coached almost every year, or every
other year.
"We're a very small township," he said. "We only have two teams in each
age group (in Babe Ruth Softball) regularly."
Said Mullica Township assistant coach Tom Higgins: "That's all we have
and we work the girls pretty good. They have a lot of instructional ball
early on, they start from T-ball all the way on."
They stay in instructional for like two or three years. Evidently,
something worked this time."
Higgins' daughter Janey is the "dominant" pitcher on the team,
Chamberlain said. "She's awesome. From what I've seen, she's the best
pitcher out there, except for the kid on Sparta's team. Our other
pitcher, my other daughter (Sarah), she's good also."
Janey is thrilled to have the opportunity to pitch in the World Series.
"It's really, really exciting," she said. "I don't think any of our
teams from Mullica have ever come this far. Our team's very excited.
We've worked very hard to get where we are now."
"We wanted to travel and stuff, but it's also good that it's kind of
close to us. A lot of our friends and family can come see us play."
The team has two sets of sisters, Chamberlain's daughters Carly and
Sarah and the Pilallis sisters, Jen and Erica.
"I just think it's really great for our team and it's great to be able
to represent our schools," Carly said. "All of us have been playing
together for a long time. It could be our last year to have the
opportunity to go to the World Series."
Carly plays shortstop and catcher for Mullica Township and likes the
idea of playing in the big event not far from home.
"It's really nice, you're at home and you feel secure," she said. "Of
course it would be fun to travel places, but you have all your friends
and everybody from Mullica coming to cheer you on."
Catcher and third baseman Melissa Senese said, "Even if we don't go far
(in the World Series), it'll be a great experience. It's a great
feeling."
Other team members include: Alicia Falciano, Elsa Graebener, Jazmine
Ortiz, Felicia Henry, Kaylyn Lockwood and Shannon Stevens.
Friday night, Mullica Township's World Series-bound softball team was
honored in Camden before the Camden Riversharks hosted the Atlantic City
Surf. They were honored along with the Cherry Hill team.
The Mullica crew showed up in their green uniforms, laughed and talked
with each other, and took pictures. They took a group photo with
Riversharks mascot Finley. And, they all had plenty of family members
around them.
Chamberlain is hopeful for fan support.
Chamberlain is hopeful that his team will get plenty of fan support
since the World Series is being played so close to their homes, but he's
uncertain with all the games being played during the day.
"The only difficult thing is they don't have lights," he said. "All the
games are in the day, so people have to take off work to come. We'd have
even more fans if it was at night."
Still, Chamberlain is proud of his team and hopes they keep pulling out
the wins.
He said they've really begun to gel getting that big hit or that big out
when needed and their timing couldn't be more perfect.
"We're a small community," Chamberlain said. "And a lot of these kids
have been playing together for many years now. Since they were in third
grade, some of these kids were playing better than the fourth and fifth
graders, easily.
"The coaches knew if they stuck together and continued to get better,
something like this would be possible. It just all came together here
this year."
Indeed.
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