On Wednesday, May 15 Coginchaug girls softball faced Class LL powerhouse Middletown on the Blue Devils’ senior night. Coginchaug celebrated four seniors: Caroline Fournier, Kate Cummings, Alex Grenier, and Bailey Zettergren. The girls have played Middletown on senior night the past few years, making it a tradition. In the past, they have typically lost on senior night.
“Middletown has been a very good team for years,” Grenier said. “Their short-stop Dominique Highsmith is an all around player and definitely the one we had to be the most cautious about. Coach intentionally walked her the rest of the game after her homerun in the first to not let her have any RBIs.”
Middletown’s Highsmith hit a homerun off of the third pitch of the game. The girls battled back, making the score 2-1 by the bottom of the first inning. Senior co-captain Alex Grenier hit a gap in right-center scoring the two runners in the bottom of the first inning.
Middletown fought their way back, scoring three runs in the top of the fifth, putting them ahead 4-2. In the bottom of the fifth, Fournier started off with a single followed by Zettergren’s RBI, scoring Fournier. Amalia DeMartino scored Zettergren and then scored herself on a hit by McDermott to put them ahead 5-4.
“It was really exciting for us to come up in the bottom of the fifth ahead of Middletown,” DeMartino said. “Obviously, we knew the game wasn’t even close to over, but it gave us some comfort and allowed us to play solid defense without the anxiety of being behind.”
In the bottom of the sixth, Fournier threw a bomb to home, preventing the runner on third from scoring. Pitcher Kelly Boothroyd closed out the inning without allowing any runs.
Middletown quickly got all three outs in the top of the seventh, then came into the bottom of the inning with their bats determined to take home the win. K. Boothroyd struck out the first batter, followed by a catch from Zettergren in right for the second out. K. Boothroyd battled back from a tough at-bat and struck out the last batter.
Photos by Jennifer Zettergren
