SOFTBALL: Bernards’ Leslie O’Connor is the Courier News Coach of the Year
Leslie O’Connor started working on the current edition of the Bernards softball team long before any of the players reached high school.
The Mountaineers veteran coach, in her 16th season at the helm, recalls the current core of players coming to her softball camps and clinics since they were in fifth grade, and their commitment and drive never waivered. They returned for camp after camp, clinic after clinic, before taking it a step further, joining travel teams and club programs, making an early commitment to their chosen sport.
So, when the bulk of the current group arrived at Bernards as freshmen last season, O’Connor knew she had something special. She just didn’t realize how quickly they would prove it.
The Mountaineers went 11-12 last season, starting six freshmen, just a year after COVID-19 wiped out the 2020 season, and just three years removed from a 0-21 campaign. There were signs there last year – finishing a game under .500 was better than the young team could have hoped for – but this season, joined by a new crop of rookies, and with an established senior in Ashely Levine embracing her leadership role, the Mountaineers surpassed even their coach’s expectations.
Bernards went 17-6, its first winning season since 2015, earning just the second conference championship in team history, and showed it can roll with some of the bigger programs in the Skyland Conference. The Mountaineers found another gear in the postseason, pulling off a pair of dramatic comebacks in the North 2 Group 2 quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, coming within an extra-innings loss of the program’s first sectional title in 33 years.
“Last year, seeing them come in as freshmen, and in an unprecedented season – we didn’t know how the season would go – there were glimpses of what this team could possibly be,” said O’Connor, the 2022 Courier News Softball Coach of the Year. “We knew this group was going to be talented, but I think we exceeded our expectations for this year. We’re almost ahead of schedule, in a sense.”
With Levine handling the leadership, and providing a spark atop the batting order, hitting .420 with 13 stolen bases and 30 runs scored, and junior Katherine Adee also providing a veteran presence, the young Mountaineers did the rest. Powered by a sophomore group that included returning starters shortstop Gina Mahlik, third baseman Maddie Rivetti, first baseman Alex Pagonis, catcher Risa Rivetti and pitcher Maddie Lardieri, who was joined by junior Caitlin Sebastian in the pitching rotation, Bernards impressed from the start.
O’Connor added a couple of Group 4 Delaware Division powers to the early-season schedule to give her young team a taste of some stiffer competition, and they not only responded on the field – they played two hard-fought games against Bridgewater-Raritan and Montgomery, losing by two runs to each club – they were quick to embrace the challenge, which also impressed their coach.
“The best part about this team is they were up for a challenge and constantly seeking a challenge,” said O’Connor, whose players had just two days notice that they’d be taking on Montgomery. “At practice, in a game. They’re competitors. When I told them were picking up a game against Montgomery, they we’re, like, ‘Bring it on.’ They wanted the challenge and they were up for it.”
And it wasn’t just that they accepted the challenge, they answered it, showing they were capable of playing above their weight class, something that would serve them well later in the year.
“That gave them a glimpse of what the team could possibly be when they’re firing on all cylinders and playing the way they need to be playing” O’Connor said. “They had each other’s back, if there was one error it didn’t lead into two – someone picked the other up. And when they’re playing like that, they were really a dangerous team.”
Bernards won eight straight after the Montgomery game, as some of the 2022 crop of rookies started getting into the act, including sophomores Silje Emery and Julia Karpinski, and freshman Marley Beers. The Mountaineers were 8-0 in divisional play, but like all young teams, there were still some lessons to be learned.
The biggest lesson came April 28 against Pingry, a team Bernards had blanked 2-0 the first time they played. The Mountaineers came into that game with some other things going on, off-the-field stuff that was clearly a distraction, and they paid the price, losing 13-3 in five innings.
“We were on a tear for a while and it was one of those things where that day there were other things happening and they couldn’t focus back in,” O’Connor said. “I think when that happened, they realized they need to stay focused and they can’t let outside things affect them, because they bring it out on the field. That was part of their growing pains, and I think they needed that. Because after that, they turned it back around. I think it happened at a good time for us.”
A clear wakeup call for a team whose only losses the rest of the way would come to eventual-champ Hillsborough in the Somerset County quarterfinals, to a high-quality Gill St. Bernard’s club in a late-season regular-season tilt that came during states, and in the sectional final.
“Starting as freshmen is not easy. I’m expecting a lot of maturity from freshmen at the varsity level,”
O’Connor said. “And that was tough. But this season, they grew into those roles. There were definitely some growing pains, but I think they needed that in order to figure out who they were as a team and as players, their roles and expectations, and how to play softball as a team. It’s not easy. It’s an individual sport disguised as a team sport.”
When the state tournament came, Bernards really impressed. After blanking Hackettstown 3-0 in the opening round, Bernards played host to Passaic Valley, and after being stunned for three runs in the top of the first inning, a thunderstorm moved in, forcing the game to be suspended to the following day with the Mountaineers trailing 3-0.
And their coach was worried. The game was set to resume late afternoon on a Saturday, and O’Connor admits she was concerned about the mindset of her team coming into a game of that magnitude after doing, in her words, ‘God knows what’ during the day. But as they had all season, this team showed maturity beyond their years.
“They came out ready to go,” said O’Connor, whose team gave up three more runs in the top of the second inning and trailed 6-0, but never lost its intensity. “Ashley (Levine) said, ‘Coach. I’m getting the little girls ready,’ and she was getting them pumped up. They looked up to her and they wanted to win it for her.”
O’Connor said, even down 6-0, her squad never sat on the bench. They were up on the fence the entire time, just cheering each other on. And the attitude spilled out onto the field, where Bernards scored five times in the bottom of the fifth inning to cut the deficit to 6-5. Passaic Valley added a run in the top of the sixth, but the Mountaineers mounted another uprising, notching three in the bottom of the seventh inning to win it 8-7.
“We talked all season about passing the bat and that pressure is privilege,” O’Connor said. “Accept it. Own it. And they were screaming it the entire time, ‘Pass the bat! Pass the bat!’ and it was contagious. No one wanted to be the last out. Nobody was scared about being the last out. They were just going to pass the bat. It was awesome to watch them. They didn’t need speech from me at all. They were up and ready to go. You couldn’t tell they were down 6-0.”
Bernards executed another dramatic late-inning surge in the semifinals at top-seeded Madison, scoring two runs in the top of the eighth inning to win it, after the Dodgers netted the tying run on an error in the bottom of the seventh.
With Levine the only players being lost to graduation, Bernards could be primed for even bigger things in 2023. This season ended on a bit of a sour note, with the Mountaineers losing to Hanover Park in extra innings in the sectional final, despite leading 5-0 early in the game and 5-2 headed to the bottom of the seventh. With everything they accomplished this year, and a stacked roster set to return, the excitement is already building.
“The girls are hungry already,” O’Connor said. “They play during the summer, so they’re excited. They might not have been completely ready for that moment (before this year) but they’re ready for it now.”
Simeon Pincus can be reached at CourierSoftball@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @SimeonPincus and at www.Facebook.com/SimeonPincusCN.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: SOFTBALL: Bernards’ Leslie O’Connor is Courier News Coach of the Year
