Spring Sports Previews: Chatham Softball Looks to Break Out the Bats

Despite getting a slow start to preseason with four of its basketball players still in season, the Chatham High School softball team is now raring to go.

The Cougars took the field outdoors last week for their first scrimmage of the year. Head Coach Alexis Davies said it was a great start for what she hopes to be a successful season with someone who she considers the best player in the county leading the team in senior Alex St. Romain.

"It's unbelievable," Davies said. "She's such a good catcher. She frames the pitches well. She kind of controls the whole game from back there. She's so good people very rarely try to steal on her so it's huge. If you ever come and watch us play, you'll notice it right away—the impact that she has."

St. Romain is Chatham's first ever player to reach the Division I level as she is headed to Dartmouth College to play for the Big Green in the fall.

She was a first-team selection for all-Group 2 last season and is one of only two seniors on the squad this year. The other is captain Caroline Murphy.

Davies said it is the team's balance of youth and veterans that will help the Cougars perform well.

"Offensively we're going to be pretty strong and we've got a nice mix of leadership and younger kids," she said.

Despite having such a young team, Davies is confident that Chatham will live up to its expectations in its new conference—the New Jersey Athletic Conference—but she said the Cougars will miss the Iron Hills Conference, where they previously played. She said she thought it had prepared her team well for the county tournament.

"We have a couple of new teams, like we're playing Pequannock, which is probably the best team in the county, in my opinion, so that's a great opportunity to play them twice, and Morris Catholic's going to have a good team," Davies said. "So we've picked up some good competitive teams, but top to bottom the Iron Hills Conference was probably a little bit stronger."

Davies said the one disadvantage to the new conference is the athletes will have to deal with facing new types of pitching.

For opponents, though, it's the Cougars' strength on the mound that will give them trouble as they return lefthanded sophomore Amanda Fazio. Fazio went 13-9 for the Cougars as they went 15-9 and advanced to the quarterfinal round of the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 2 championships last year before losing to Rutherford High School, 4-0.

Davies said the team is looking to make another run at the state tournament and hopes to be one of the more competitive teams in the NJAC.

"We are confident," Davies said. "We're not a cocky group. We are just really excited to play.

"This is a team that has a lot of the sophomores, and a couple of freshmen have played together since fourth grade, so they are a tight-knit group," she continued. "And they play well together, and our team chemistry is going to be a huge plus. So we're expecting some really big things."