By Hal Levy, Shore Line Newspapers
Special to MaxPreps.com
If it was form you wanted, the CIAC state softball tournament had plenty of it. For surprises, the baseball tournament was the place to be.
State champions were crowned in four divisions each in baseball and softball last weekend as the season’s first heat wave sent temperatures into the high 90s and the heat and humidity forced postponement of the state open track meets.
The softball finals included a no-hitter by Masuk-Monroe’s incomparable Rachele Fico and four one-run championship games, three of them decided by 1-0 scores and the fourth in extra innings. The champions included two second seeds, a fifth seed and a seventh seed.
Contrast that with baseball where only one team seeded fourth or better even got to a state final, meaning teams with 15 of the 16 best records in the state failed to advance to championships. Try voting in a top-10 poll after that.
In softball Masuk, the second seed in Class LL, beat four-seeded Naugatuck, 1-0 as Fico completed a 27-0 junior season in which she allowed two earned runs all year. She struck out 14, walked two and hit one in the win. Sam Barbessi’s third-inning single scored Holly Dorne with the lone run of the game.
In Class L, second-seeded North Haven took eight innings to beat eighth-seeded Waterford, 5-4. The Lancers also lost in last year’s Class L final, while North Haven won its first softball championship ever. Brittany Cretella singled with two out in the bottom of the eighth to score Kelli Griffiths and give the Indians a walk-off win. Cretella and Griffiths each had three hits and winning pitcher Jenn Cruver capped a 19-3 campaign.
In Class M, Fico’s best regular-season pitching opponent, Bridget Gates of Lauralton Hall-Milford, threw a one-hitter and struck out six in a 1-0 win over Suffield. Lauralton, the seventh seed (three of its losses came to Fico) was in its fourth final in five years but got its first title since 2005.
Coach Theresa Napolitano, who came to Lauralton from Amity Regional-Woodbridge, when former coach Tom McDonald retired after the 2005 season, got her fifth state championship and first at Lauralton. Gates retired the first 16 batters she faced and also scored the winning run. She singled to lead off the second, went to second on a bunt by freshman Becca Napolitano (the coach’s daughter), stole third and scored on a squeeze bunt by Kiley Baird.
The Class S title went to Coginchaug-Durham for the third time in four years under coach Anne Moscovics. The one time Moscovics didn’t win, her team lost to Lyman Memorial-Lebanon, 3-2, in 10 innings in the finals. This year the Blue Devils got a measure of revenge with their 1-0 win over Lyman.
Britt Hill threw a one-hitter for Coginchaug, the fifth seed, which won its 10th softball state title overall. Coginchaug scored its run in the second inning, Tori Delvecchio hit a 220-foot double off the fence in left, went to third on Brittany Lane’s bunt and scored on a wild pitch by Katie Fitton.
In baseball, the Class LL title went to Westhill-Stamford, the seventh seed, 12-1 over Masuk-Monroe, seeded 13th. Masuk eliminated top-seeded Stamford, 7-4, in the semifinals and Westhill knocked off No. 2 Simsbury (13-6) and third-seeded Amity Regional-Woodbridge, the two-time defending champs, 1-0 in the semifinals.
Greg Smith’s sixth-inning grand slam homer put the cap on the evening for the Vikings, who eventually earned the top ranking in the New Haven Register media and coaches’ poll. Bobby Migliazza had four of Westhills’ 14 hits as T.J. Hockey got the win with relief help from Steve Rivera.
In Class L, the biggest Cinderella team in a year of upstarts won the title. Jonathan Law-Milford came into the tourney with a 9-11 record and a fourth-place finish in the five-team Southern Connecticut Conference Hammonasset Division. Granted, the three teams which finished ahead of it all made state semifinals (Guilford, Foran-Milford and Daniel Hand-Madison), but the Lawmen were still seeded 20th.
It made no difference in a 7-1 win over Fairfield Ludlowe on the finals. Law’s big game was a 6-3, eight-inning win over top-seeded and defending state champ Guilford, a team which pounded Law twice in the regular season. James Ineson threw his second complete game in five days and was backed by a two-run homer in the first from Matt Ramos.
The highest seed to win a title was Plainville, ranked fourth in Class M. The Blue Devils had to come from behind to beat Holy Cross-Waterbury, 5-4. Along the way, Plainville beat the teams which had eliminated it from the last three tournaments, Waterford, top-seeded and previously unbeaten Seymour and then Holy Cross. A two-run single by Mike Thomas was the key hit for Plainville in a four-run sixth-inning rally which wiped out a 4-1 Holy Cross lead.
The title was the first since 1999 for Plainville. Look for both the Blue Devils and Holy Cross to be back. They graduate only eight seniors between them (five for Plainville).
The Class S gane also featured a grand slam home run and this one won the contest for fifth-seeded Thomaston, 6-5 over 10th-seeded and defending champion St, Bernard-Uncasville.
With his team trailing, 3-2, in the fifth inning, Nick Johnson belted a shot to left center for the game-winning runs. The title was Thomaston’s first ever. A two-run single in the sixth by Jeff Nossek got the Saints close but the Bears’ Dave Fredlund held on for the win.
