New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
A Sister Act
Danielle, Bri Floyd lead No. 7 Cheshire past No. 5 Southington
CHESHIRE — One of the biggest matchups on the softball calendar turned into a sister act with the game on the line.
The Floyd household is going to be full of extra energy after a pair of siblings delivered a key win.
Trailing by two runs entering the bottom of the seventh, both sophomore Danielle Floyd and senior Bri Floyd had clutch moments in delivering Cheshire a win over one of the top programs in the state.
Danielle Floyd’s two-run single to tie the game led to a game-winning hit from Bri Floyd four batters later, sending the No. 7 Rams past No. 5 Southington, 4-3, in a titanic clash between Class LL heavyweights Tuesday afternoon.
“Those two girls are such hard workers and they’re deserving of this moment,” Rams coach Kristine Drust said. “When your back is up against the wall some players just do better in that situation.”
After being unable to score in defeats to No. 2 St. Joseph and No. 4 North Haven, the Rams’ offense finally came alive in a key moment to down the Knights, who had their five-game win streak snapped.
The first two Cheshire (10-2) batters reached base in the seventh, and moved
to second and third after a key wild pitch. Danielle Floyd laced a ball to the outfield for the biggest hit of her young career to tie the game at 3-3.
“I just reminded myself what my coaches were telling me, to be simple, and just going with it,” Danielle said.
She was then at third after a sacrifice and a groundout. An intentional walk to Mia Juodaitis set the stage for Bri Floyd, who hit a hard ball to center that just evaded a Southington glove and sent her team into delirium.
“At first I didn’t even know they walked Mia until coach told me.” Bri said. “I got up there and felt everyone yelling and screaming, and the energy was so high. I knew I was going to get a hit just because of that.”
The Knights had just one hit — a solo home run — prior to the top of the seventh, but exploded to take the lead. UMass-Amherst bound Abby Lamson hit a two-run homer with no outs to give the visitors a
3-1 advantage. Southington — which had quality at-bats throughout — was unable to add to the advantage, which proved costly.
“We had some really quality at-bats with lots of foul balls and made (Cheshire pitcher Bri Pearson) work,” Knights coach Davina Hernandez said. “The first thing I said to them was that we have to get better with runners on base. You can’t always hit when no one is on base.”
The game was a pitchers’ duel between Pearson and Southington’s Julia Panarella through six innings. The teams had just four hits combined before the wild seventh inning.
BATTLE TESTED
Many of the top 10 teams in the GameTimeCT Top 10 Poll have scheduled one another in preparation for the postseason. Southington and Cheshire have met three times in the last five (2014, 15, 17) Class LL tournaments and are more likely to run into one another again than not.
“This is exactly why we have this game on our schedule to get this tournament feel,” Hernandez said. “We’re trying to have postseason type of experience at least once or twice a week. We’ve been able to do that with the schedule we’ve had.”
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Bri Pearson, Cheshire: Hit a solo homer in the second to put the Rams on the board, then got several key outs down the stretch to keep her side in the game.
QUOTABLE
“We saw our mom and dad over there jumping up and down screaming,” Bri Floyd said. “Our dogs were going crazy.”
“After seeing (Panarella) a couple of times we knew what we needed to work on and adjust to,” Danielle added.