E

very season I internally debate which sports are my favorite to cover here in Rhode Island. Typically, it’s football in the fall, basketball in the winter and softball in the spring. This young softball season has already delivered and is making me wonder if this is my favorite sport to cover altogether.

What helps is that our teams here at Beacon Media are all enjoying great starts. Pilgrim, Toll Gate, Cranston East, West and Johnston are all shaping up to be playoff teams and any of them could find themselves playing at Rhode Island College in June.

As of this writing, Pilgrim is 8-0 and in second place in Division I behind defending champ La Salle. Pilgrim has arguably the state’s most well-rounded player in Genna D’Amato and a dangerous sophomore duo in Madison Tuirok and Skylar Hawes. The Pats will be making a deep playoff run, no doubt.

West has been stellar and is right in the thick of things as well, as Mia Crudale is a sharp as ever in the circle and girls like Siena Nardelli and Payton Wells, among others, are producing at the plate each night.

Johnston was locked in as the favorite to win it all in Division II and despite taking its first loss against St. Ray’s, the Panthers have all the ingredients of a championship team. They have an elite pitcher in Haley Boudreau, who is also the best lead-off hitter in DII. Bella Boudreau is also on her way to being an all-division player as well.

With a 7-6 win over East Greenwich on Monday, Toll Gate has emerged as a dark horse in DII. Delaney Wilson and Reagan Motta are a legitimate 1-2 punch in the circle, and the Titans have a scrappy lineup that can hit from batters 1-9. After taking Pilgrim to deep waters and beating the Avengers, who moved down from DI, every team in DII should be taking Toll Gate seriously. The Titans are 4-0 as of this writing and in first place, yet no one seems to be talking about them.

Finally, the defending DIII champion East is off to a big start as well. Despite losing their ace last year in Isabella Souza, who transferred to St. Ray’s, the Bolts haven’t missed a beat as Lexi Montalban has more than held her own in the circle. Nevaeh Fatorma and breakout star Cydnee Meekins have been dynamite at the plate for the Bolts as they look like a strong bet to repeat as well.

You know how it goes, though. The playoffs are a whole other animal and rarely do the odds-on favorites waltz their way to championships. That said, though, the softball playoffs are shaping up to be fantastic theater across all three divisions, and the fact that we will have teams in all three races is exciting. I’m looking forward to a busy June.

In Division I, it looks like the Rams are a shoo-in to at least reach the finals. Between the Pats, Falcons and Coventry Oakers, the second spot in the finals will be up for grabs and any of those four teams are capable of getting the job done.

DII will be super competitive. The Panthers, along with Toll Gate, St. Ray’s and West Warwick will all be beating up on each other the rest of the way. East Greenwich and Barrington are no joke, either.

Although watching East complete the perfect season last year as it won its first-ever championship was great, I am looking forward to seeing how things play out this time around as the DIII competition has improved. Tiverton is unbeaten and handed the Bolts their first league loss since 2023 and Davies is a better team than it was last year as well.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe the Bolts are and should be considered the top dog in the division, but it will be intriguing to see how they respond this time around with a field that is deeper and more experienced.  

It’s early, I get it. There is still a lot of regular season to be played and then the long playoff tournaments. The sample size, though, is enough to get a feel for what our teams are capable of, and this is probably the best group of teams I have ever covered. Five teams, almost certainly five playoff berths, with all five having reasonable shots at championships. Unreal.