The decision for Ava Del Salto turned out to be an easy one.

Del Salto, a senior on the Marlboro softball team announced on Oct. 28 that she plans to continue her academic and athletic career at St. Thomas Aquinas College, where she will pitch for the Spartans’ Division II softball team starting in spring 2023.

She is also thinking of doing a double major in childhood elementary education and foreign language.
“I felt really comfortable on the tour,” Del Salto said. “And it was kind of similar to Marlboro and it’s only an hour away from home. It wouldn’t be that long of a commute to my house if God forbid something happened.”

She plans to join a Spartans team that took a large step forward in the fifth year of coach Kristen Sullivan’s second tour of duty as the Spartans’ coach.

Last season they registered the most East Coast Conference victories (16) and reached seventh place in the weekly NCAA East Region poll, their highest ever and they made the ECC championship round for the first time. It was their second straight ECC appearance after only appearing once between 2001 and 2018.

After taking two of three from Molloy in the semifinals, they suffered two straight losses to Bridgeport to end their season. They finished the 2021 season, 24-13.

“I heard that was a really tough loss for them, but I noticed that they played very well throughout their entire season,” Del Salto said.

While the school had the academic programs she was looking for, playing softball was also key factor in Del Salto’s decision.

“It was everything to me,” she said. “I wanted to make sure I could play at the collegiate level because I love this sport. It’s my sport and I wanted to make sure I can do that.”

Del Salto will bring with her – along with her strong right throwing arm – the Dukes’ tradition of winning.

She helped guide the Dukes to a Section 9 Class B championship during the abbreviated and compressed 2021 COVID-19 season, avenging the loss in the championship game in 2019. The season was postponed due to the pandemic in 2020.

She has her sights set on helping the Dukes to a repeat in 2022.

“I enjoy being the glue that holds the team together because if you’ve got a good pitcher, it can really motivate the team to be like, ‘oh, we’re in this; we’ve got this’,” Del Salto said. “Of course, it’s a team sport, but

I feel like if you have a good pitcher, the confidence of that team can really go up.”

After the Dukes won the section championship in June, Marlboro coach Ray Leduc described her as the team’s rock.

“Watching her operate on the mound is nice in the dugout when I’m calling pitches, and I know that she’s there and she’s going to deliver,” he said.

Del Salto will join what she called an athletically inclined campus and while the smallness of the campus reminds her of Marlboro, she said most of the people on campus are athletes, even if they don’t all do the same sport.

“It’s a shared interest of sports,” Del Salto said. “And I heard that people go to each other’s games because everybody is intertwined with another sport, whether they’re watching or participating.”

She’s also expecting a challenge. She’s been prepared for it by her two previous and upcoming third season with the Marlboro softball team and she plays her travel softball with the Kingston City Royals since she was 14.

But she is still expecting an uptick in competition from what she’s seen before.

“It’s such an age gap between the ages of 18 and 21 to 22,” Del Salto said. “The difference between those is tremendous. So, I think that’s going to be a culture shock in a way, but I’m going to try my hardest to get to where I need to be for this team.”