After the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to take 2020 off, the Ulster Fillies returned in 2021, giving girls a chance to play competitive fastpitch softball with the ultimate goal of playing in college.
The Fillies are back, but not all the way yet. While their age 18-and-under, 16U and 14U teams played over the summer, most recently in their age groups’ respective national tournaments, the 10U and 12U teams have yet to take the field. Also impacted by the pandemic, at least for the time being, is the availability of open spots in college softball programs.
“Our main purpose is trying to get girls recruited into college,” said Rick Spriggs, coach of the 18U team and coach liaison and tournament director for the Fillies organization. “Our 16 year (players) are all going, they all found college homes. But recruiting has changed. Budgets have been cut at schools and because of the NCAA giving an extra year of eligibility due to COVID coaches aren’t recruiting as many girls right now. They just don’t have the openings.”
Spriggs said he expects that recruiting will be back to normal next year. And they’ve since been able to bring the 12U team back as well.
Late last month, the 18U team returned to the Parker Athletic Complex in Salisbury, Maryland for the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) East National Championship, where they went 7-2, scoring an average of 7.22 runs per game while allowing just 3.22. They tied for seventh place overall in the 55-team tournament.
Standout 18U Fillies at the Nationals included Kelsey O’Brien (Monroe-Woodbury), who hit .607 with four home runs, four doubles and a triple; Kaylee Murtagh (Pine Bush), who hit .643 with five doubles; Jackie Rometo (Valley Central), who hit .553 with a homer and three doubles; and Christie Collins (Saugerties), who had four doubles and a triple. Murtagh, Piper Kaylor (Burke Catholic) and Maggie Habernig (Kingston) pitched through the tournament for Ulster.
The 16U team also played in the Nationals in Salisbury, going 5-3, scoring an average of 6.3 runs per game while allowing 2.6. They tied for 13th place in a field of 48.
“I’m proud of them,” Spriggs said. “They were a young 16-year team and they went down and played great.”
Also competing in Salisbury was the Fillies’ 14U team, which went 2-4, scoring an average of 3.5 runs while allowing 7. They tied for 64th place in a field of 78 teams.
The East National Championship is an annual tradition for the Fillies.
“We always go down to Salisbury,” said Spriggs. “It’s just been our home. It’s a great venue to go for the families and for the softball. It’s always good competition.”
A localized tournament
Just playing at all has been a relief within the ebbs and flows of COVID-19.
“The pandemic has opened up as far as teams being able to compete, but who knows what’s going to happen to us this fall again,” Spriggs said. “Right now things seem to be semi-back to normal with people just being more cautious.”
Though the 14U, 16U and 18U all competed in Salisbury at the Nationals, the nature of travel softball means they’re usually in different cities from one another for different tournaments. But they do occasionally wind up in the same place at the same time, including the upcoming Fillies Fall Finale, which will take place at the Cantine Memorial Complex and the Glasco Little League fields in Saugerties on October 9 and 10. The tournament will include eight teams in each of the divisions, including 10U, 12U, 14U, 16U and 18U, with three games of pool play on the Saturday and elimination play on Sunday.
“That’s typically more of just a localized tournament,” Spriggs said. “We have just teams from the Hudson Valley…We do it just as a little bit of a final fundraiser to help us offset some costs and to play local teams, because by the time summer comes around, we’re playing not as local, we’re going out and trying to get into venues that help our kids outside of the Hudson Valley be seen. And this gives us a chance to play all of our teams together, because we don’t get to do that during the year. This gets all the age brackets, and it’s more of a family atmosphere instead of, ‘Hey, you’re on your own.’”
Fillies players who’ve already committed to college programs include Rometo (SUNY New Paltz), Collins (SUNY Albany), Ava Guralnick (Wesleyan), Megan Guidry (Fredonia State), Sydney Shuta (Buffalo State) and Alyssa Barbato (Utica).
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