Press Release: Cranford Baseball and Softball League Completes Sucessful Season

From early September through the end of October, 600 area softball players
descended on this township each weekend to play in the region's largest and most popular fall softball league. Sponsored by the Cranford Baseball and Softball League (CBSL), the Cranford Fall Softball League featured 39 teams from 16 communities in four counties, with girls ranging in age from 7 through 15 years old.

Founded in 2009 by CBSL board members Scott Wetherell and Keith Hoffman, the league initially included eight teams in two divisions, 10 and under (10U) and 12 and under (12U), from four towns: Cranford, Roselle Park, Summit, and Maplewood-South Orange. In 2010, the league expanded to 19 teams in those two divisions. Then this year, the league expanded to include 8U and 14U divisions, and exploded to its current size. Including championship playoffs for every division, the league hosted 190 softball games over its seven-week schedule, with most games being played at Cranford's three-field Adams Avenue complex, and the remainder being played at the township's signature complex off Centennial Avenue.

Although the weather was often uncooperative, virtually all of the scheduled games were played, including dozens that had to be rescheduled because of the fall's pounding rains. Area managers appeared to appreciate the volunteers’ efforts to get the games in.

"There were major tournaments that were canceled on days when this league got all its games in," said Jess Hulnik, the varsity softball coach at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School, and a coach in the Cranford fall league. Hulnik is also president of the Parkway Invitational Softball League, the area's premier summer travel softball league. "I really have to give (the league) credit for being able to get all these games played."

Talented travel teams came from as far away as Morris, Essex and Middlesex counties. But the league's participants understood that, as a fall developmental league, the focus was on having fun and getting the girls some experience at a higher level of play.

"Fall softball is all about relaxed fun with your friends, about the memories the girls will take away with them," said Hoffman. "Near the end of the season, I saw a Piscataway player taking a picture of an empty field after her game was done. She turned to her teammate and said, 'I want to remember this place.' That was pretty much my favorite moment of the season.”

All of the games were umpired by professionals from the Amateur Softball Association of America. In addition to Wetherell and Hoffman, the league was administered by Cranford residents John and Kristen Mallon, Jim Litterio, Tim Dineen, and Kathy Wetherell. Volunteer members of 14 participating Cranford families pitched in to help line the fields before games.

Cranford fielded seven teams in the league: Two at each the 8U, 10U and 12U level, and one at the 14U level, with a total of 95 Cranford girls taking part.

Hoffman said the league could not grow any further because the available field space was at its maximum use, when allowing for make-up games and a full slate of championship playoffs. Organizers were determined to keep it going for as many years as other towns were willing to come here to play, he said.

"We're not going anywhere," he said. "For the people who administer this league, it's not just about our own kids, and it's not even just about Cranford kids. When you look around on a Saturday morning in fall at three packed fields with 100 happy kids, from all over the place, laughing and kidding each other and playing softball, that's something you don't ever want to give up."

League Champions, By Division:

8U Divison

Champion - Cranford White
2nd Place - Summit

10U Division

Blue Division Winner - Elmora
Gold Division Winner - Clark

Champion - Elmora

12U Division

Blue Division Winner - Cranford Blue
Gold Division Winner - Clark

Champion - Clark

14U Division

Champion - Rahway
2nd Place - Cranford