The road to victory in a tournament more than two hours to the south went through a local opponent.
The Montgomery Devils Red 16U softball team beat the Empire State Huskies 116U Exarchakis, 3-2, to become the 2024 Northeast champions on Nov. 17 in Jackson, N.J.

“This group is phenomenal to watch,” Devils coach Vincent Castro said. “To see how they’ve grown and what they’re able to do on the field, I think this community as a whole is seeing what can be produced in the Hudson Valley is a testament to not only the coaches from the Little league, but also the parents and the girls together as a group.”

It was the perfect cap-off to a season that saw the Devils move up from the 14U Division, where they have also had plenty of success to the 16U Division.

“We pushed the envelope a little bit,” Castro said. “We put ourselves in some stronger competition tournaments, and we were given a berth into this tournament from winning tournaments last season.”

With this tournament victory in hand, the Devils will play in the national tournament at Adventure Park in July.

The road to victory wasn’t easy, however, even after they breezed through their first four games, winning them all by an average of 10 runs per game.

They faced their first close game in the Nov. 17 semifinal against the NJ Batbusters, based out of Piscataway, N.J.

After the teams traded two runs in the first inning, the game was scored until the bottom of the sixth inning when Parker Mullarkey reached on an error, scoring Addison Freiberger with what turned out to be the winning run.

After giving up two runs in the first inning, Freiberger threw four scoreless innings before giving way to the Devils’ top pitcher Samantha Maleck (Marlboro). She was the beneficiary of the sixth inning run and got the win. She struck out four batters in two innings.

After falling behind 2-0 in the first inning, the Devils tied the game when Alanna Hayes reached on an error and a run-scoring single by Autumn Gove.

That set the Devils up against the Huskies, a local rival based out of Dutchess County.

“That final game was played against our rival and a team we have battled over the years,” Castro said. “The game was close.”

The Devils jumped out quickly taking a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Maleck drove in the Devils’ first run on a sacrifice fly, and Gove delivered a two-run triple.

That was just enough for Maleck who gave up single runs in the second and fourth innings but held on for the victory. She struck out eight. Maleck threw 17 innings over four games and struck out 27 batters. Opponents hit .054 against her in the tournament.

“I’ve had Sam for four years at this point and she continues to grow each year exponentially from where she was to where she is,” Castro said. “She’s the type of person that always commands the ball. That’s her home. The pitching rubber is where she feels most comfortable and is a dominant force.”

They will have few softball events in the coming months as the Devils will head into a break. They’ll have two indoor tournaments in January and March, and they don’t play in the spring so as not to interfere with the scholastic season from mid-March to June.
Then they’ll head into the showcase season in the summer.

“Majority of the girls are sophomores, sop they can begin to start to receive offers for schools in September of their junior year,” Castro said. “We’re at the point where the girls are attending college camps. They’re reaching out to college coaches, and we’ll be attending a plethora of different showcases and high-end tournaments.”