​Pictured: The PA Chaos celebrate another big play as part of the team's 5-1 record at the Team NJ Fall Showcase.

The Team NJ Fall Showcase wrapped up Sunday after three days of games and one heck of a competitive cook-off (more on that in a minute).

While there were many top teams from as far away as California and many strong local teams from New York and New Jersey, most scouts we spoke to felt the top program in terms of talent was from next door, representing the Keystone State.

“The top team team, hands down on the strong Edison Complex was PA Chaos," said one college scout. "Joe (Spina) does a great job at game day prep and knowing what players he has.”

Event Director Jim Barsalona agreed that Chaos—which went 5-1 over the weekend with wins over other highly touted teams like the Rhode Island Thunder and Jersey Intensity—was formidable.

“The Chaos is playing like a Bill Conroy (Beverly Bandits) or a So Cal Choppers team,” he said.

The Chaos showed it can beat its opponents with its offense or defense as the team batted .379 with 55 hits in the six games including 10 home runs, outscoring opponents 42-11. The pitchers also were on top of their game, limited opponents to a .188 average.

The only game the Chaos lost was against the Lady Lightning Team Miken, which also had a strong showing going 4-2 with additional wins over the Thunder, Intensity and NJ Pride.

Several FloSoftball Hot 100 players shined included pitcher Sidney Nester, a 2018 commit to North Carolina State who Chaos coach Joe Spina admiringly said, “hand-cuffed us and was exceptional.”

Also shining for Coach John Corn was 2018 outfielder Faith Jarvis and junior shortstop Chandley Garner, who is also a verbal to NC State.

Another player that drew a lot of attention is 6-foot-1 lefty pitcher Grace Fagan, a 2018 commit to Mississippi State who plays for the Witches gold team out of New Jersey.

Though committed she still had a lot of college coaches watching her closely.

Speaking of college coaches—and there an estimated 145-160 from every major conference—Barsalona noted that “there was a lot of activity at Field 5 on the Edison Complex,” which is where many of the 16U elite teams were in action.

Drawing raves was the Central PA Outlaws—part of Warren Wolf’s Outlaws program that includes the Ohio Outlaws—which one scout said “is a damn good 16U team, as good as they were in the summer, if not better.  They’re very well coached.”

At the 14U level, the Jersey Intensity Nationals team overpowered a bunch of good opponents but one team that was a formidable opponent was Team Long Island led by 2020 shortstop Jenna Laird, whose father, Jimmy, is one of the team’s coaches.

“She has a spectacular game,” said one admiring coach. “She has tremendous athletic ability, hand-glove coordination and base running instincts.”

After 2 ½ inches of rain on Friday, the weather turned out to be So Cal-like as the temps were in the high 60’s and low 70’s.

Barsalona was able to add some games to the schedule for out-of-state teams who wanted the additional competition after Sunday’s scheduled games concluded.

One of the signs the event was a success was that the coaches wouldn’t stop talking to Barsalona.

“They all told me they had a great time—it was stacked and packed—and I couldn’t get out of there on time,” he laughed.

One thing that made the college coaches very, very happy was the remarkable food they were served as part of the “cook off” between the EC Elite and the NJ Gators.

“There were over 90 coaches who voted,” explained the event director, “and it was a very close vote.  The Elite had smoked meat including ribs with amazing jambalaya and the Gators made pulled pork sliders with a spicy slaw and hot sauce.”

“You should have seen the lines and how far back the college coaches stood in line to eat!”

In the end, the NJ Gators, coached by John Biasi, won the cook-off and will get to play on the main complex next summer at the Team NJ Summer Tournament.

But the word out of New Jersey over the weekend was that everyone—players, teams, club coaches and, especially, the college coaches—all came out winners.

***

Here are the day-by-day scores for each of the three complexes:

​TEAM NJ FALL SHOWCASE SCORES:

Edison - Friday



Edison - Saturday



Edison - Sunday



Bridgewater - Friday



Bridgewater - Saturday



Bridgewater - Sunday



Chimneyrock - Friday



Chimneyrock - Saturday



Chimneyrock - Sunday