The Golden Eagles hopes to improve on last year’s postseason finish under new head coach Chrissy Gerber.
The Seneca High School softball team only lost a few key players from last year’s team, but those losses were huge.
The Golden Eagles lost two solid hitters, Jordan Wahrenberger and Kendra Decker, to graduation, and then received even worse news when sophomore Madi Walker, who had a breakout season as a freshman in 2016, suffered a knee injury late in the Seneca girls basketball season and will miss all of 2017.
Despite the losses, first-year head coach Chrissy Gerber is confident this year’s team has the talent to defend last year’s Olympic Conference National Division title and make a deep run into the postseason.
Gerber, a former assistant, takes over as head coach this year after former coach Marty Devino retired in the offseason. Gerber plans to continue building the family-like atmosphere Devino promoted during his tenure.
What will be tougher for Gerber is building a lineup without Wahrenberger, Decker and Walker. With one-third of last year’s starters gone, Gerber said she is looking to hitters such as Angela Haines and Kristen Szunley to have big years.
One hitter who impressed last year was Madison Melvin, who was strong getting on base out of the leadoff spot.
“She’s on base all the time,” Gerber said. “She’s a contact hitter and had three game-winning hits last year. As long as she continues to improve, she should be OK.”
The good news for Seneca offensively is they may not need to score many runs to win games. Senior pitcher Eliza Sweet enters this season as one of the top pitchers in the Olympic Conference. Sweet has compiled more than 300 strikeouts in her high school career and has helped guide Seneca to a number of upset wins over top-ranked teams the last two years.
“She’s been in the high-pressure situation,” Gerber said. “Nerves won’t be an issue. She should do well, and we should do well.”
Sweet doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of pressure on her entering this season. She is confident in her abilities in the circle and has spent time in the offseason perfecting her pitches.
“I’ve really just been perfecting my pitches and trying to get my situational awareness better,” said Sweet, who plans to attend The College of New Jersey next year. “Since I’m going into college, I know I have to work on that better.”
Sweet is confident she will receive more than enough run support this year. Despite losing three key hitters, Sweet said her teammates are embracing the challenge before them.
“Everyone in general has to step it up because we are losing a lot of good offensive players,” Sweet said. “But I think we’ll be fine.”
Despite winning the Olympic Conference National Division last year, 2016 ended on a disappointing note for Seneca. The Golden Eagles lost at home in the South Jersey Group III quarterfinals to Mainland Regional High School in a game Gerber feels the team was capable of winning.
“We didn’t go as far in the playoffs as I thought we should have,” Gerber said. “The game we lost in the playoffs, I thought we were a better team. But they beat us.”
Sweet said the returning players are determined to improve on last year’s postseason finish.
“We all want to at least get to the semifinals,” Sweet said. “If we get past that, it’s awesome.”
