

ABOUT THE COVER SOUTH JERSEY
GLORY DAYS
There’s a superstition in sports that says you don’t talk about winning a championship. Speaking out loud about something like that is virtually a lock that you’ll jinx any chance you have of hoisting the trophy.

But that’s how confident the Cherokee High baseball team was this season. The Chiefs, from coaches down to the players, talked all year about their goal of becoming a state champion. Pretty bold, considering Cherokee hadn’t won a state title since George Brett was a star for the Kansas City Royals back in 1985. They backed up their bravado, however, with excellent play on the field, and after starting 20-0 it seemed the rest of South Jersey was on board with thinking this was a championship team.
But then the Chiefs stumbled in the Diamond Classic, and went through a stretch where they lost three out of five games after that red-hot start. A team meeting after a lackluster loss to Delran in late May sparked a six-game playoff winning streak during which the Chiefs allowed just seven runs. Check out Page 10 of this digital edition to read more about one of the most dominant teams South Jersey has ever seen.
General contact information: Publisher Dave O’Sullivan: Email: sullyglorydays@gmail.com On X @GDsullysays @sjglorydays on Instagram
Contributors:
Mark Trible, Senior Football Writer (@MTrible on X)
Brian Tortella, Correspondent (@tortreports on X)
Ben Hale, Social Media & Web Development
VOLUME 12, ISSUE 4/ JUNE 2025 (ISSUE NO. 174) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED





HEADLINES
PRESENTED BY BUNTING FAMILY PHARMACY
POWER 5 RECRUIT
It isn’t often that a local South Jersey kid is getting recruited by all of the top college football programs in the country. But that’s been the case for St. Augustine Prep rising senior defensive lineman Damari Simeon, who recently turned down schools such as Michigan, Texas and Penn State, instead choosing to sign with defending national champion Ohio State. Simeon is coming off a dominant junior year when he proved to be one of the best defensive players in the state, and he’s a 275-pound wrecking ball on the defensive line. The Hermits will rely on his skill and leadership this fall as they hope to make a run at a state championship.
TITLE TOWN
The folks over in Gloucester refer to their humble hamlet as “Title Town” and for good reason. The Lions are one of the best Group 2 schools in South Jersey in many sports, particularly in softball, as they now have won back-to-back state championships. The Lions finished 21-5 this season, capping the year with an 11-game winning streak.

LOSS OF A LEGEND
The South Jersey baseball community is mourning the loss of longtime Delran coach Rich Bender, who coached for 43 years before stepping down in 2019. He was the program’s first head
coach when he took over as a 24-year-old, and built the Bears into one of the top programs in South Jersey. He’s No. 7 on the state’s all-time wins list with 672. He won two state championships and five sectional titles with Delran.

LEEDS BY EXAMPLE
PRESENTED BY LEEDS BUILDERS OF MARGATE
The journey was the destination
For
Palmyra runner and tennis player Owen Jacobs, success came after thousands of miles and overcoming a lot of obstacles
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Leeds By Example is a series highlighting outstanding senior athletes who have done a lot for their respective schools. We thank Leeds Builders of Margate for sponsoring these articles on some of the best and brightest young athletes in South Jersey.)
By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
When Owen Jacobs started his high school sports career four years ago, a stiff breeze might have knocked him over. He was about 5-foot-2 and maybe about 98 pounds — “if we’re being generous,” he says.
But four years can make a huge difference in the life of a teenage boy, and Jacobs recently graduated from Palmyra High as the school’s salutatorian. He’ll also carry 11 varsity sports letters with him in the fall as his educational journey continues at The College of New Jersey, a school that his mother, Karen, graduated from more than three decades ago.
Jacobs is the kind of athlete who so often goes overlooked because they don’t have eye-popping statistics, but these kinds of kids should be celebrated because of the impact they have on their respective teams. Jacobs worked hard and trained hard for years and ultimately became the captain of the cross country team and the No. 1 singles player for the Panthers’ tennis team. He also ran four seasons of indoor track.
He was a novice in both sports when he walked through the doors at Palmyra, which makes his rise that much more impressive.

South Jersey Glory Days photo/Sully
During his high school career, Palmyra’s Owen Jacobs worked his way from junior varsity doubles all the way to first singles as a senior.
And, he learned a ton along the way. Not only about running and tennis, but also about himself and ways to overcome self-confidence issues that came along with being so small in stature when he was in middle school.
“I joined cross country because my older friends were the captains and I was like, ‘well, I can’t really go wrong
with this.’ My initial goal was just to see how much I could improve my freshman season,” Jacobs said. “Unfortunately, there was so much I didn’t know about training, so I didn’t accomplish as much as I could have. I ended up getting injured, which affected my sophomore season, too.”
He didn’t get off to a great start in
his high school career. In cross country, he was an average runner and an injury derailed his season, and during the tennis season he was relegated to doubles on the junior varsity. But af-
See JACOBS, Page 7
JUNE 2025 u SOUTH JERSEY
, From Page 7
ter that spring, he decided being average wasn’t going to be good enough. Ultra-competitive and exceedingly hard on himself, Jacobs said he knew he needed to find ways to channel the frustration of not living up to his own expectations and turn that into action instead of excuses.
“The most important thing I learned — and this is the thing I struggled with the most in high school tennis — is that you can’t let a single point derail you because it’s a long match. Even if you lose 6-0, 6-0, it’s still a long match, so you can’t let one point get to your head. When I was a freshman, I would get anxious and upset when I lost a point that I felt I should have won. By my senior year I learned that if you don’t win the point, you have to go to the next one immediately and instantly forget about the previous one,” he said. “You can’t let (a lost point) affect the next one. It was a combination of personal maturity and understanding the sport better. One thing that helped me was a speech that Roger Federer gave about his career, and about how he only won 55 percent of the points in his matches but he won more than 90 percent of the matches. Which is a crazy statistic, but it shows he didn’t worry about the 45 percent of the points he lost, he still won the match.
“(First singles) was my goal since my freshman year. Sophomore year I started to think about it and I tried (through challenge matches) my junior year, but I wasn’t at that level where I could be consistently good enough to beat my teammates,” Jacobs continued. “I wasn’t mentally consistent enough throughout the whole match. I’d win a few games, but then maybe fall in the second set. By my senior year, I learned to play every point like it was a new point. I learned how to play through an entire match — not just the technique, but how to stay mentally and physically consistent. I found ways to stay relaxed, to stay focused the whole match.”
“Last year, I loved having Owen at that first doubles position because we just ate up so many wins. We could always rely on first doubles to get
that ‘W’. And this year, he did great at first singles. It’s the most challenging position. He got his butt handed to him a little bit because we were going against some really good schools. (Going into the playoffs) he said, ‘I just want to get the win,’ and we got that win (against Wildwood), and he did great,” said Palmyra tennis coach Jeremy Nevitt. “Connor (McCann), who is our second singles, was our third singles last year and Owen was technically below him. And even on the ladder he was below Jaden (Jennings), but going into the challenge matches this spring, I didn’t know who was going to get which spot. Owen prevailed, beating both of them, and was able to get that spot so that was awesome for him.”
Jacobs flourished as a senior, blossoming into a captain of both the cross country and tennis teams. He didn’t have a great finish to his cross country career, as illness cut his season short just before sectionals, but in tennis he helped lead the Panthers into the South Jersey Group 1 quarterfinals before they ran into top-seeded West Deptford.
“With cross country, the best part of my high school career was the (Burlington County Scholastic League) championship race. Just knowing I was the captain and leading the team, and everybody had a great race that day,” he said. “And with tennis, it was probably the playoff matches. I felt like our team really represented itself well. We made it to the quarterfinals and lost to the team that eventually won the section, so I was proud of how our team performed. We fought hard.”
Playing first singles is tough, as you’re taking on the best player from every opponent, and often those players had a lot more experience than Jacobs. But, he said, it wasn’t about wins and losses. He wanted to prove to himself that he could hang with the best any team could put out there.
“I didn’t win many matches, but I was happy with the trajectory of the season because I felt like I became more comfortable with playing the better players. I became more comfortable with the idea of beating players who I thought might be better than me. It’s such a mental thing, if you believe
you’re going to beat them, that certainly helps your chances,” Jacobs said. “I was most proud of the fact that I no longer felt uncomfortable in a singles match. I didn’t feel anxious. I felt like I could trust myself, and the fact that I was able to inspire my teammates to want to improve and go after that first singles spot next year.”
“Owen was a great leader on this team. I was just saying the other day to a coach from another team, it’s great to have someone like Owen who can lead a captains practice, do drills with his teammates or lead the dynamic warmups. Having that leadership, I think, helped him get that first singles spot,” Nevitt said.
Competing in three varsity sports meant Jacobs had to have some good time management skills to stay on top of his classwork and ultimately be one of the students making a speech at the graduation ceremony. But, he said, running all those miles actually helped him stay focused.
“Part of it was not treating my sports as work, but instead treating it as the fun part of my day. During the cross country season, instead of thinking, ‘oh, I have to run 30 miles this week,’ instead I would think that’s time that I’m out training for what I need to do. The school workload was hard, especially during college applications, and a lot of high school athletes know it gets difficult. I had to make sure I was keeping on top of my sleep and my health, too,”
he said. “In some ways (training) makes school work easier because you’re thinking, ‘well, this run is the hardest part of my day, so the rest of the day is easier by comparison.’ And I always had plenty of time to think about my future and my sports journey. When it came to races, I always felt prepared because I had all that time to work through my confidence issues or any mental struggles I was having.”
“His attitude definitely rubbed off on the other kids. He’s absolutely a leader, and having him be that leader and do what you expect of a captain makes things a little easier on you as a coach because it sets a precedent. You don’t have guys goofing off. He’s able to keep everything in line,” Nevitt said. “He helped keep everyone excited and ready for matches with the intensity that he brings. I was not surprised (he became first singles). I hope he does great at TCNJ, and being a TCNJ alum, I hope he has as much fun there as I did.”
Jacobs said he plans to double major, in Economics and International Studies, in preparation for a potential career in national diplomacy. If anybody doubts he can be successful in doing all that, all he has to do is point to the last four years as proof he’s up for any challenge.
“I was surprised I got 11 varsity letters,” he said. “That’s pretty good for somebody who knew nothing about either of those sports.”


IMAGES

South Jersey Glory Days photos/Sully



VIC’S SUBS COVER STORY
When it all comes together
The Cherokee baseball team put together a season for the ages
By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
Marc Petragnani, Cherokee High’s longtime baseball coach, readily admits there are probably less days in front of the horse than riding the back of the cart when it comes to his high school coaching career.
That’s what made the 2025 season so special — it was the kind of year that a coach might wait his entire career for.
The Chiefs went 28-3, registering the most wins in a single season in school history, and won their second state championship — and first since 1985, back when a dozen eggs cost 80 cents and you could go see a movie for less than $4. They put multiple players on the nj.com All-State lists and started the season with a 20-game winning streak.
The interesting thing about this team, though, was how it approached the season. The Chiefs had the ultimate goal of putting a state championship banner in their school’s gymnasium, and they weren’t shy when it came to talking about such aspirations. Normally, coaches and players give you the ol’, “we’re taking it one game at a time” mantra, but the Chiefs said, “nope, we want to win a state championship. And we expect to.”
It wasn’t bravado or them being bragadocious, they just had a ton of confidence that the product they could put out there on a daily basis was better than anybody else in Group 4.
“I expected us to win South Jersey and I expected us to potentially win the state title,” said Petragnani, who notched career win No. 250 when the Chiefs held on for a 5-4 win over rival Eastern Regional in the South Jersey Group 4 sectional title game. “I thought we were as good as anybody in the state. I’m not trying to be cocky, but I didn’t think anybody had the pitching depth that we had and I was hoping our offense would take a step up, and I believe they did.”
In order to win a state championship in New Jersey high school baseball, usually you need two dominant starting pitchers and one reliable reliever. Cherokee had that — and plenty more. The team was led all

South Jersey Glory Days photo/Sully
Cooper Burti (facing camera) and Brett Chiesa were two key players who helped lead Cherokee to 28 wins and a state championship this spring.
year by senior starters Henry Radbill, a Rutgers University recruit, and Harvard recruit Brett Gable. The Chiefs also had standout sophomore lefty Cooper Burti to close a game out whenever they needed a few big outs.
But this team used 10 pitchers this season, and guys like Josh Litsky, Parker New and Drew Dreby were instrumental in helping Cherokee earn the No. 1 seed entering the sectional playoffs. Dreby, a junior, had a 1.05 ERA in 20 innings of work, and New contributed 20 more innings with a 2.10 ERA. Litsky, a senior, had a 2.23 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 15 innings.
“We had goals mapped out and we were on a mis-
sion to accomplish those goals. We knew we had the guys on the team to do it, and we wanted to get to it,” Gable said. “With our team this year, a lot of the guys have played together since we were 7 or 8 years old, and those senior and junior classes are what really made up our team this year. We’ve really had that brotherhood and team connection from playing baseball from little kids to where we are now, getting ready to head off to college. I think that was a huge
JUNE 2025 u SOUTH JERSEY
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factor in our success and our ability to be confident in going out and chasing a state title.”
Gable and Radbill were both virtually unhittable all season, as Radbill posted a 0.91 ERA and 97 strikeouts in just 53 innings, while Gable had a 1.47 ERA in 57 innings, allowing just 33 hits while striking out 90. Having two lefties at the top of the rotation that each threw about 90 miles-per-hour with outstanding secondary pitches made life a whole lot easier for Petragnani. There was no mystery about who was getting the ball come playoff time.
“Two starters and a reliever gets you through the playoffs, but I think we had five starters and four relievers that we could have used to help us. But when you have Gable and Radbill available, you don’t skip their starts. They are both wonderful kids, real baseball guys through-and-through, hard working and motivated. They were always looking to improve and never settled for anything less than their best. It’s been a true joy to coach them,” Petragnani said. “If you hung around them, saw how they practiced, saw how they threw bullpens and carried themselves, that has to rub off on (younger players). That becomes the expectation. The best teams are player-led, not coachled, and I believe those two guys led us in the direction we wanted to go and established that work ethic that is required to excel at this level.”

from that. Take nothing away from Haddonfield, they played excellent baseball that day and earned the win, they deserved it. But I kind of let them take their foot off the gas after beating Gloucester Catholic. And then the weather forced us to sit nine days before we played Eastern, and that was a 10-inning game that featured 33 strikeouts. I think the Delran loss woke us up because we had opportunities to win that game, and after we lost we had a team meeting and talked about the goals that were still in front of us,” Petragnani said. “We had put a lot of emphasis on ‘hanging a championship banner’ but after that loss we took the emphasis off hanging a banner and just coming to practice the next day and getting better. Our focus shifted from hanging a banner to getting better every day and doing the small things that help you get big things. We just focused on the every day, instead of the big picture, when the playoffs started.”
But as much as it seemed as though everything went right for this team, the Chiefs had a few bumps in the road. They were unceremoniously bounced from the prestigious Diamond Classic tournament in the semifinals by Haddonfield, just a few hours after one of their biggest wins in years, over top-seeded Gloucester Catholic, the
No. 1 team in the state at the time. Then came a 10-inning loss against Eastern, and a humbling setback to Delran.
“The Haddonfield loss was tough to swallow, but that came on the heels of the Glocester Catholic win. And that’s on me, I let them circle the Gloucester Catholic game on the calendar, and there’s going to be a natural bounce
“We had a tremendous start to this season, but we hit that lull with a lot of rainy weather and cancellations. We ended up losing three out of four games during that time span leading into the playoffs,” Gable added. “That was definitely a big dip in our season, but we had that team camaraderie and the leadership to where everyone said, ‘alright, that’s it. We’re going to focus in and let’s go get what we wanted

South Jersey Glory Days photo/Sully Seniors Brett Chiesa, left, and Mason Kelleher celebrate after Cherokee beat Westfield, 6-0, in June to capture the Group 4 state title.

JUNE 2025 u SOUTH JERSEY
CHEROKEE
, From Page 11
from Day One.’ We knew we were the best team in South Jersey, and we were going to prove that.”
Petragnani was looking for the offense to carry the Chiefs when the team needed it, and it didn’t disappoint in the playoffs. Cherokee beat Washington Township 6-2, Howell 10-0, Kingsway 11-1, Eastern 5-4 and Hillsborough 11-0 before blanking Westfield, 6-0, to win the state championship.
“We knew what the ultimate goal was and we knew we could reach it based on what we put on the field all season. We played the Washington Township game under some pressure and (Alex) Odud hit a three-run home run. Gable threw a runner out at the plate and (Brett) Jackson followed up the next inning with a leadoff home run, and I think that popped the pressure,” Petragnani said. “From that point on, we were very good and we thought we could beat anybody. There was definitely pressure in that Township game and it was visible, but they overcame it with the help of three players making big plays. That loosened everything up, and once we got past that game we were in good shape.
“I think we deserved the No. 1 seed, and we were the Group 4 favorite going into the playoffs. We had never been favored, and to carry it out was big for us. It was big for us to handle those expectations.”
Senior catcher Mason Kelleher had a tremendous season, hitting .391 with 31 RBIs, and Jackson, a junior second baseman, showed why he was an All-
“I think we deserved the No. 1 seed, and we were the Group 4 favorite going into the playoffs. We had never been favored, and to carry it out was big for us. It was big for us to handle those expectations.”
Marc Petragnani Cherokee baseball coach
State selection by hitting .452 with 30 runs scored and 38 RBIs.
“I’m proud of what (guys like Jackson and Kelleher) did this year. They were both huge contributors,” Gable said. “Obviously, offensively, but also on the defensive side and from a leadership position, they were huge and it’s about time they got some recognition because they really had a breakout year this season.”
Up and down the lineup, guys hit. Brett Chiesa had 34 hits and 27 runs scored; sophomore Odud hit .395 with 32 runs scored and 20 RBIs; Radbill hit .350; senior first baseman Nathan Linden quietly hit .326 with 22 runs scored and 14 RBIs; and even No. 9 hitter Steve Barbagiovanni hit .373 with 17 RBIs.
Cherokee hit .333 as a team, scoring 220 runs in 31 games, and had a team ERA of 1.48. That’s a pretty good formula for winning a state championship.
Now all that’s left to do is get fitted for rings. And try to run it back again in 2026.
“It was amazing. We put a lot of work in during
the offseason, preparing our lineup. We lost some key positions (from 2024) so we had to fill some spots and we needed some guys to step up,” Gable said. “From a captain’s perspective and as a senior, seeing a lot of guys step up and take on roles that could lead us to a state championship was amazing.”
“I’ve become ridiculously emotional since I had children. I was never this emotional in the past. My kids know it. I got emotional at the banquet a few times. It’s just the thrill of a coach’s lifetime to be able to coach a team like this, and pull off the ultimate goal,” Petragnani added. “I will never forget it. We’ll be beaming with pride to hang that banner at halftime of some basketball game in December or January, when the seniors are back. I’m sure I’ll get emotional again at that point. It makes all the work you we put in worth it. It makes your career to have something like this. Now, we have to try to figure out how to do it again, because two in a row is a different story.”

Senior of the Month BRETT GABLE u CHEROKEE BASEBALL
More than meets the eye
Cherokee’s
Gable
isn’t just a star pitcher, and he isn’t even left-handed
By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
In the movie “The Princess Bride”, swordsman Inigo Montoya uses the phrase, “I am not left-handed!” to stun his opponent as he switches his sword back to his natural right hand to continue the fight. For most of the movie, he fights left-handed, not revealing his true skill until late in the flick.
Cherokee High baseball pitcher Brett Gable has a similar secret — one that few people know. Even his coach, Marc Petragnani, didn’t know until after Gable led the Chiefs to a state championship this spring, that his ace pitcher is NOT left-handed.
In fact, pitching is one of the few things Gable does left-handed. So, how does a right-handed person throw a baseball 90 miles-per-hour left-handed? Even he can’t explain that.
“The only thing I do lefty is pitch, shoot a basketball and play pool. Everything else, I do right-handed,” said our Senior of the Month for June. “I really have no idea (how to explain it) and everybody asks my dad, ‘did you force him to become a lefty when he was younger?’ And he really didn’t. I just took up lefty (throwing) for some reason, I don’t know why.”
“That’s the legend of Brett Gable, I guess, right? It’s an embarrassment of riches,” Petragnani said. He’s not kidding, either. Gable seems to have it all — movie-star good looks, he’s an All-State pitcher, led his team to a state championship, and he’s going to Harvard, for God’s sake. Oh, and just for fun, he’s a concert-level violinist.
Yup, you read that right. A baseball player who derives enjoyment from playing a little Brahms from time to time in his bedroom and is part of the string section of his school’s concert band.
“He’s truly special. He made his commitment to Virginia Tech after his freshman year, but I never

South Jersey Glory Days photo/Sully
Brett Gable, who recently graduated from Cherokee High, helped lead the Chiefs to the Group 4 baseball state championship this spring. He’s also a concert violinist and plans to continue his education and baseball career at Harvard in the fall.
let Harvard slip from my mind. Everybody wants to send their kids to the SEC or ACC, but I always thought Harvard was a great fit for him. We had lots of conversations about it. We met at the field one day and talked for an hour about it, what he wanted, what would be the best fit for him. He took a visit to Harvard and fell in love with it. He called me the Saturday after Labor Day Weekend and told me he was going to Harvard. I almost fell to my knees in praise because I thought it was a tremendous fit for him,” Petragnani said. “He’s an unbelievable student. He was a “Gold Chief” recipient, which is one of the highest academic honors that Cherokee gives out. He’s a special kid. His brother comes to us next year and I’m hoping we can develop the same kind
of relationship. It’s never a bad thing to have a Gable on your team. Their parents are very supportive of the program; their mom is our booster club president. Anything we need to be a better program, they are advocating for.
“We tried to get him to play the national anthem one time before he pitched, but he refused.”
“I wouldn’t say I’m an accomplished violinist, but I’ve been playing since third grade. I’ll be putting that down in college, though, just because I don’t
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, From Page 14
know if there will be the time and effort to put into it. I found it interesting growing up and it was always a good diversion from baseball and academics. It was fun, it was a new world. Reading music is different than playing video games or reading a book. It’s like reading a book, but in a different language,” Gable said. “Practice-wise, I think it translated to baseball pretty well, just that repetition. You have measures in the music where it’s very difficult trying to map it out and it takes time. Over time, when you practice enough and get the right precision, you figure it out, and I kind of apply that to my pitching mechanics.
“This year we played some interesting music. We played Frank Sinatra with the jazz band, which was pretty cool with the string section. That was a cool experience, something I’ve never done before,” he explained. “I just did it for the school. There were opportunities to play for other organizations, but I never did that. I just stuck to the school, which was amazing. We have about 50 instrument players in the string section alone. We do a winter concert every year and that’s usually the bigger one with more challenging music, with an entire orchestra, then in the spring we have a concert where we do some more fun stuff.”
Gable is as humble as he is accomplished, both as a pitcher and a concert violinist. Talk to him after a game and he’ll praise the game that senior catcher Mason Kelleher called, or talk about the big hit that second baseman Brett Jackson got, or the double play senior third baseman Brett Chiesa turned to get him out of a jam in the fourth inning. It’s never about the 10 strikeouts he had, or the two measly hits he gave up.
Ironically, it was an injury that led him to where he is today. He grew up as an outfielder, but suffered a stress fracture in his back prior to starting his high school career. He knew he wasn’t going to make varsity as an outfielder on a loaded Chiefs team four years ago — one that went on to win a sectional title — so he concentrated on his pitching, knowing there would be more of

South Jersey Glory Days photo/Sully
Pitching is one of the few things Gable does left-handed and, remarkably, he can throw a baseball 90 miles-per-hour.
a chance to see varsity time on the hill than patrolling right field.
“Over the past four years I really have had the opportunity to build such a great relationship with coach P. Him taking me on as a freshman and really trusting me to compete for the varsity team — that was such an honor. I’ve really gotten close to him and that’s another huge contributor to why we’re so successful. What’s that quote — baseball is 10 percent physical and 90 percent mental? I think we had that down, with the seniors being so close to this coaching staff, and the players being so close, it was a good mix,” Gable said. “I really pushed myself to be ready for (freshman) season as a pitcher. Getting the opportunity to pitch varsity in South Jersey is serious business. So to put myself in that category was huge, and I really build my confidence for the upcoming years.”
One thing about Gable, the son of a doctor, is he’s always had his priori -
and a freshman named Brett Gable. They talked about a lot more than just baseball on those casual walks through the high grass and down to the field, and Petragnani got to know a kid who he won’t be forgetting anytime soon. “I used to always walk to practice; it was like my five minutes of solitude before practice began. I think about whatever I have to do the rest of the day or what we’re going to do tomorrow. The varsity and JV practice together so when we’re all together a bunch of kids walk up. But once the playoffs started, it was just me and him. Instead of the book (by Mitch Albom) ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ I used to call them ‘Walk-ups with Gable.’ We would just talk about life, about different things, what the future holds. I expected him to be a captain as a sophomore because of his contributions as a freshman,” Petragnani said. “It’s bittersweet to see him go, but it’s time for him to be on his path to Harvard and becoming the adult he’s going to be. He’ll be missed. We’ll stay in touch and I’ll always check on him to make sure things are alright. I was writing him a letter of recommendation for a scholarship a few weeks ago, and you get emotional because you realize the time is coming to an end. But that’s high school sports, the kids move on.”
ties straight.
“It’s definitely hard balancing heavy school work schedules (with baseball), which is why time management and making sure I prioritize what needs to get done is so important,” he said. “My family has a list of things we prioritize — No. 1 is family, No. 2 is school and then No. 3 is baseball. School always came first. It was definitely a lot harder at the end of the year, especially this year when we were making that playoff run.”
Coach Petragnani has a routine of walking the couple hundred yards from the school to the field for practice, and toward the end of the year that walk gets pretty lonely. The upperclassmen typically drive their cars over to the parking lot closer to the field, and once the junior varsity season ends there aren’t too many freshmen or sophomores left on the varsity roster making the trek out to practice.
Four years ago, it was just coach P
Gable will be moving on to bigger things as a Biological Sciences major at Harvard, but he’ll have a lot to look back on during his time spent wearing orange-and-brown.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better ending. It was a great way to cap off my four-year career,” he said. “I’ve loved this coaching staff and my teammates. There’s no better way to go out. I couldn’t have asked for a better ending, seeing coach walk out to the mound. I wanted Henry (Radbill, a senior Rutgers commit) to come in for at least an inning, he deserved that ending to close out his remarkable season and career.
“It was an emotional moment. I’ll remember that forever. The amount of fun I had playing in all these games, going out and competing against the top teams in South Jersey and succeeding with guys I’ve been playing with since we were 7 years old — I’ll remember that the most.”
SENIOR SPOTLIGHT
GRACIE RAVENKAMP / HAMMONTON SOFTBALL
Playing with confidence
Blue
Devils ace put it all together during final season
By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
Before every pitch Hammonton ace Gracie Ravenkamp delivered to the plate during her senior season, she took her stance inside the circle and stared down at her right forearm. It’s a movement seen all over high school softball fields, as pitchers get the sign from their coach or catcher and look down to see what it corresponds to on their wristband — which is usually worn on the pitcher’s glove hand.
Except, Ravenkamp didn’t wear any wristbands when she pitched. She was looking down at a single word, blazoned onto her skin in the form of a tattoo in her father’s handwriting. It reads, simply, “CONFIDENCE.”
It’s a subtle reminder, Ravenkamp said, that no matter what is happening around her, if she focuses in on her talent and the hard work she put in to get where she is today, she can find a way to be successful. It’s like a built-in reset button, right there on her forearm.
“Most of the time when I went to the circle it was just to say, ‘believe in yourself, you’ve got this.’ She’s harder on herself than any coach could be, and I think (the tattoo) reminds her of all the hard work she’s put in and knowing that she has the ability to do well,” said Hammonton head coach Eric Shulman. “When you’ve had success your whole life, and now all of a sudden you face some adversity — any human being is

South Jersey Glory Days photo/Sully
Gracie Ravenkamp finished her outstanding Hammonton career with more than 200 strikeouts, and helped lead the Blue Devils to the sectional semifinals this spring.
going to have moments of self reflection and doubt. And I think that was kind of her reminder, like, I’m here for a reason. You know, let’s get the show on the road.”
“It says, ‘confidence’, and it’s something that I constantly look at and con-
stantly allows me to keep going. It’s actually written in my dad’s handwriting, so it plays a big part in my heart.
He’s always been there through my whole softball experience from when I started when I was 5 years old. And he’s still cheering me on as I’m going to college. It’s just a little reminder that there are going to be bumps in the road and stuff doesn’t always work out,


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but it’s going to be OK,” said Ravenkamp, who recently finished up a stellar career at Hammonton and plans to continue her softball career and education at Shenendoah University in Winchester, Va., this fall. “I always had a focal point on my glove that I would constantly look at as something to allow me to reset myself. Like, let’s take a step back. Maybe I should have been out of that inning, maybe there was an error in the field, but it’s OK. I wanted to put that on me in a permanent way, that confidence is something everyone should have. Confidence is something that, even in tough situations, just take a step back, take a breath and pause for a minute. We’ll get out of it one way or another.”
Things didn’t always come easily for Ravenkamp. She broke onto the scene as a freshman, and even though she had an outstanding season as a hitter, she still struggled to fit in as a 14-year-old on a mostly veteran team that was coming off a sectional championship season.
“Freshman year was definitely challenging,” she said. “My goal was to just make varsity, that was my No. 1 goal. I knew that a lot of the positions were primarily taken, I was just doing my best, putting 100 percent out there and giving it my all. I was definitely grateful enough to be given an opportunity to start freshman year. I was given opportunities in the lineup and it was great.”
She hit .383 that year, racking up 23 hits, 26 runs scored, 18 RBIs, 10 walks and six stolen bases. That was a harbinger of things to come, as she hit .316 for her career with 85 hits, 68 runs scored, 54 RBIs, 28 walks and 20 stolen bases. She only pitched seven innings that year, though, and got knocked around, to the tune of a 9.55 ERA.
“She came to us in 2022 as a freshman and we were coming off a fantastic year in 2021 and, for the most part, had everybody back. But you could tell right away she was a good player, it was just a matter of where she was going to fit in. She was a middle infielder and pitcher by trade, and after four or five days the coaching staff, we kind of looked at each other and said we had to figure out where we could get her on the field. We asked if she had ever played first base and she said, ‘yeah, when I was about 11.’ So she played there as a freshman and things only got better from there,” Shulman said. “Physically, she was just 14 years old. Mentally, I think she was OK, but that’s a big jump when you’re a 14-year-old kid pitching against 17- and 18-year-old women. It’s rare that you have a freshman come in who can be a standout inside the circle. She didn’t throw many innings that year, but then April Lewandowski graduated, and we knew when Gracie was in the circle she was going to give us everything she had. I can’t
remember too many times I had to pull her out of a game because she was getting hit around. Her focus was always to go seven innings and give us a shot to win the game.”
Ravenkamp had to overcome some adversity sophomore year, too, as the Blue Devils were in the midst of a rebuilding year and she took over as the No. 1 pitcher. Her offense took a hit, as she batted just .185 in 54 at-bats, and she had the highest ERA of her career — still a respectable 3.60. Ravenkamp said she had to learn how to get through that adversity early in her career, and that ultimately led to the “confidence” tattoo.
“It was a little overwhelming. I was still a sophomore, I had only been there for one year. I had watched (the previous pitcher) evolve. I wanted to see if I would ever be able to fill her role, if not make it bigger,” she explained. “That year, I was given the opportunity to throw consistently and it was tough mentally, if I’m going to be honest. But I knew that was just the beginning of something that would be much bigger.”
The Devils went 8-13 that year, then struggled through a 6-19 season when Ravenkamp was a junior. She put a lot more work in during the offseason leading up to her senior year, and showed she was ready, as she won eight of her first 11 starts, including a 10-strikeout performance in a 12-0 win over Holy Spirit, a sectional semifinalist in Non-Public B.
“My confidence has grown. Sophomore year, I was still a baby and was trying to understand my defense behind me. I had to trust that if a ball was hit in the gap (my fielders) were going to bust their butts and be able to get to the ball instead of allowing runners to advance to extra bases. I feel like this year really allowed me to look back at my defense and be like, hey, they have my back and I have their back, and we’re going to be able to get through it,” said Ravenkamp, who said she plans to study exercise science in college. “You have a short time in a season, but it was awesome to see how much of a connection the girls had. My senior year, everybody was so close, so much like a family. I feel like a big part of that was making it happen in the beginning of the season rather than waiting until midseason, hoping there would be a connection.”
“She’s an interesting kid. (Off the field) she’s just like she is on the field, very driven. She’s hard on herself because she expects so much of herself. I don’t want to say she puts pressure on herself, but she knows what she’s capable of and, if in her mind she feels like she’s not living up to that, she can be tough on herself. This year, we saw her loosen up a bit. As a freshman, she listened twice as much as she spoke because she was the new kid, but every year, a little more, she opened up. She got to the point where she enjoyed all parts of the game and it was fun that she got to show she wasn’t all business, all the time,” Shulman said. “One thing you worry about
with pitchers is, when they are throwing a good game and there is a ball in play that should be an out (but is an error), how are they going to respond? This year, as a senior who has put in as much time and done everything she’s asked to do, Gracie earned the right to be upset. But at no point was she ever like that. One of the things we, as a coaching staff, were so proud of is Gracie is the ultimate competitor. If you try to run for her when she gets on base she gives you the death glare.”
Shulman said he’s proud of the progress Ravenkamp made during her career, both on and off the field. He said she became more at ease with showing her personality on the field and in the dugout as she progressed through her high school career.
“Last year, we were young and struggled and we put a lot on her plate because of her experience. (In the offseason) she worked her tail off and she came in that first day in March and she looked different, physically. She put in a lot of work and it was awesome to see the jump she made,” Shulman said. “To see a kid achieve the things she did as a senior, that’s one of the things that makes you smile and say, ‘here’s a kid who played as a freshman, look how hard she worked and over the course of four years, look where she ended up.’ Shenendoah is going to be an awesome fit for her. I think she’ll do really well there.
“Gracie is a little hard around the edges, but she just wants to win,” he continued. “There were a couple times this year when our 3-year-old came to the game and she’s on the field playing with Gracie. She has that competitive side, but there’s that other side where she’s a caring person. She’s just a really good kid.”
Being able to bond with teammates, coaches, opponents, fans — that’s what Ravenkamp said she loved most about high school softball.
“I’ll remember that the most, the connections that we made. At the beginning of last season we ended up making vlogs (video blogs), and that might sound silly — and, don’t get me wrong, they were silly — but I feel like stuff like that was something everybody looked forward to,” she said. “I had 200 strikeouts (during my career) and made All-Conference my senior year, and those are nice things, but I wouldn’t be able to do those things if it wasn’t for my team behind me and if the girls I played with weren’t so connected.”
If things ever start to go sour at Shenendoah for Ravenkamp, she has “confidence” she can get through any adversity. All she has to do is look down at her forearm.
“I probably should have gotten the tattoo sooner,” she said. “I feel like there’s something every pitcher should definitely have to allow them to take themselves down from 100 miles-per-hour to zero and reset.”
STATE OF THE PROGRAM: Hammonton Softball Ready for more
Blue Devils excited to have a ton of talent coming back in 2026
By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
Coaches always talk about striving for consistency, and the Hammonton High softball team was one of the most consistent Cape-Atlantic League teams all season this spring. The Blue Devils won 19 games and had just one losing streak the entire season.
Head coach Eric Shulman said he’d love nothing more than for his team to take the next step, advance past the sectional semifinals and maybe hoist one of those coveted blue NJSIAA South Jersey Group 3 championship trophies.
It’s going to be a big challenge to do so in 2026, however, as Hammonton is losing it’s star pitcher, Gracie Ravenkamp, to graduation. She posted a 2.45 ERA in more than 130 innings this spring, striking out 106 and allowing just 46 earned runs all season. The only returning pitcher with varsity experience will be rising junior Alyssa Sebazco, who threw just five innings this season.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” Shulman said, when asked how he’s going to replace a pitcher who logged more than 350 innings during her career. “We like where we were at toward the end of this year. We had two down years (in 2023 and 2024), which is not what we expect with our program. We have a lot
coming back — we had some really good freshmen and some who in other programs might have had the opportunity to play varsity, and they did some good things at the JV level. We like where we’re headed. Obviously, when you lose a pitcher like Gracie, you have to find somebody to replace her.
“We think we think we have some young kids in the program who can help us out,” he continued. “Are they going to throw 100 innings? We don’t know. But we like what we have and we like to think
Kamryn Barker was one of several Hammonton rookies to hit better than .300 this spring. South Jersey Glory Days photo/Sully

Freshman
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that those kids are just going to keep getting better.”
One thing that could make things more difficult on Shulman might be a bad thing for his program but a good thing for the school in general. Hammonton now has varsity teams in both girls lacrosse and flag football, giving younger athletes more options when it comes to playing a spring sport. Girls flag football will be an official varsity sport next spring, too. Sometimes it’s easier to find varsity playing time in those sports because there is simply more players on the field at once, creating more opportunities. A player may be tempted to switch sports and play at the varsity level rather than having to play softball on JV.
“We’re in a strange situation. We’re young, and hoping the kids who will be sophomores and the incoming freshmen don’t see (flag football and lacrosse) and decid they don’t want to come out because they may have to wait their turn (in softball),” Shulman said. “We do have a solid young group and we hope kids keep coming out, keep stacking up good players like (freshmen Kamryn) Barker and (Leah) Alexander, and those players can lead the next group and we can get back to a nice cycle of talent. We want to continue the pipeline.”
While the Blue Devils are losing their ace pitcher and standout left fielder Lauren Potter, the cupboard is hardly bare. Barker and Alexander had tremendous seasons, hitting .341 and .391, respectively, and combining for 55 RBIs. They are two of the top freshmen in South Jersey, and junior first baseman Layla Cuneo-Snouffer hit .321 with 18 RBIs. Sophomore shortstop Vivianne Wilson hit .349 with 27 runs scored, 15 RBIs and nine stolen bases.
“We’re going to lose Lauren Potter in left field and she’s a .360 career hitter, so that will be a tough pill to swallow. I think our biggest challenge is going to be finding a leader,” Shulman said. “We had three captains this year — Gracie was the
strong-handed captain and Cheyenne Krisak, our center fielder, was the wrap-her-arm-around-you and give you a hug type of captain. (Junior) Alexis Vellucci was kind of in the middle. I think finding the leadership that Gracie provided is going to be a challenge. She was such a competitor, but she knew when it was time to have fun and she could flip that switch. That’s probably a challenge in every program, that’s not unique to us.
“And just finding the right pieces that are coming up to varsity and keep them involved so they are making contributions. You don’t win conference and sectional titles with just a two- or three-player show. It has to be a program-wide operation.
Shulman said he wants to get back to the kind of softball the Blue Devils were playing in 2021, when they went 20-2, won a sectional title and were one win away from playing for a state championship. Going 19-9 this spring with a run to the sectional semifinals could springboard Hammonton to another great season in 2026.
“We have some good kids and we’ll have to mix and match. We got into the Cape-Atlantic League Tournament this year for the first time and we lost a one-run game to Absegami,” he said. “One of the things we always talk about in the playoffs is trying to line up as many home games as possible. This year, we were fortunate to go on the road and beat Pinelands, but you want to try to get a high enough seed where you can play a couple of games in front of the home fans. Now that these kids have that experience, we want to be taking the next step and making a sectional final, and winning a sectional final.”

SENIOR SPOTLIGHT
ALYSSA BAILEY / ABSEGAMI SOFTBALL

ABSEGAMI’S SOFTBALL SAVIOR
Bailey helped lift the Braves from four wins a couple of years ago to a conference title in 2025
By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Staff Writer
On X @GDsullysays
Barbara Dell’Aringa took over the Absegami High softball program right after the covid pandemic, and in 2021 the Braves put together just four wins.
The following season, same thing. Four wins against 17 losses, including an eight-game losing skid to finish the year.
Dell’Aringa and the Braves may not have known it back in 2022, but the savior they were looking for was already wearing brown and Vegas gold. They didn’t need some star transfer to come in to right the ship. They had Alyssa Bailey.
The Braves may have won only four games her freshman year, but Bailey announced her arrival as a budding star by hitting .403 with 27 hits, 26 runs scored, 24 RBIs, seven home runs, seven doubles, nine walks, eight stolen bases and a slugging percentage north of .800.
Those would be impressive numbers for a senior with four years of experience, much less a rookie. Bailey’s drive, determination, smarts and work ethic began to rub off on the rest of the girls in the program, and things started to change. The Braves went 12-12 in 2023, and two years ago Bailey’s battery mate, pitcher Meghan Johansen, came on board and the team began to take off.
Last year, Absegami had a 15-7 record, ripped off
a seven-game winning streak at one point, and made entry into the Cape-Atlantic League and South Jersey Group 3 tournaments.
“She, by far — and I’ve said this to other coaches — she’s one of THE best players I’ve ever coached, and this is year No. 35 for me. I’ve coached little girls, high school, travel, and she has everything. The whole package. She’s so smart in the classroom, she’s present in everything. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing, she’s there. She’s someone you can literally trust your life with,” Dell’Aringa said. “She’s
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not very vocal, but she can talk to people and still get the point across. She’s clutch, she never complains, plays injured. You can correct her and her feedback is always pleasant.”
“Can you ask for anything better? I can’t tell you enough how she did everything the way she should have done it. She has a gift, but she worked hard with that gift. She improved immensely, and she makes everyone around her better because of who she is,” said legendary Buena Regional coach Pam Pickett, who now is helping out the Absegami program as an assistant coach. “She and the other seniors — this nucleus grew with coach Dell. They knew what they needed to do to get better. Alyssa helped lead them, but they were leaders with her. I can’t be any more proud of her career. She makes sure that everyone feels comfortable.”
“I’m so proud of all these girls, especially the seniors. It’s been a really long four years for us. My freshman year, we won four games, but every year we got more and more talent, and every year more girls put everything they had into the game. It’s been an absolute honor to be a part of a program that came so far,” said Bailey, who’s committed to play at the next level at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. “The bond this team had is so much farther above any team I’ve ever been on. Even the underclassmen, they are so amazing and they have so much more to show off the next couple of years.”
If you thought Bailey couldn’t improve much on her eye-popping freshman season numbers, think again. She hit .606 as a sophomore with 43 hits and 27 RBIs, then, as a junior, all she did was bat .623 with career highs in hits (48), runs scored (40) and RBIs (44). For some reason, when she was a senior, opposing pitchers continued to pitch to her. In her final season she hit .500 with six homers and 42 RBIs while leading Absegami to a 21-7 record, a Cape-Atlantic League National Conference title, and a berth in the sectional semifinals.
With Bailey leading the way, Absegami won 11 of its final 14 games of

South Jersey Glory Days photo/Sully
Senior catcher Alyssa Bailey finished her Absegami softball career with 163 hits and 137 RBIs while batting .534.
the season, including playoff victories over Deptford and Ocean City. Bailey had three hits, three runs scored and six RBIs in Absegami’s three state playoff games.
And check out these career numbers, they look like video game stats: A .535 average, 163 hits, 133 runs scored, 137 RBIs, 47 doubles, 12 triples, 18 home runs, 39 walks, 34 stolen bases and a .944 slugging percentage.
“Everything has been working toward college. I’ve had a really good stretch the last couple of years, and I’m excited to bring that momentum to college,” Bailey said. “We had some issues earlier in the season with some injuries and some girls wanting to go a different way, but we really bounced
back from that and we came back stronger and completely blended as a team.”
“You wouldn’t know what kind of situation we were in if you walked up to a game, because she’s calm and comfortable whether we are up or down. She just plays the game the way it should be played,” Pickett said. “(Johansen) knew that Alyssa was with her, good or bad, and she knew she could talk to Alyssa. Alyssa was open to hearing her. She’s probably been with many pitchers throughout her career and she has a ton of knowledge, but she never discounted Meg or her ability. They worked amazingly well together.”
Dell’Aringa said it’s going to be a real challenge trying to replace Bailey
next year, both in the lineup and behind the plate.
“We did an exercise earlier in the year where I had everybody go around and say one thing about each other person — you know, what could they come up with in a couple of words? And the majority of people talking about her said, ‘she’s a leader.’ When we talk about what a leader is, she comes to mind, and that’s how you want to be,” the coach said. “You don’t have to be cocky, you just go and get your job done and let your play speak for itself. She probably holds about 10 school records now. She’s just amazing in every way. I say I don’t have favorites, but …”
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South Jersey Glory Days photos/Sully


