Chemistry, talent spark O’Brien Tech to special season

ANSONIA — In a sea of sophomores and freshmen, two seniors returned for O’Brien Tech softball this year with a handful of juniors. They’d suffere1some tough seasons here and had seen what team chemistry could mean.

“How close we are, we wanted to be that close to everybody else,” senior Amaya Hernandez said Thursday. “It was just so important for us to just make each other comfortable with each other.”

Whether through chemistry or through an infusion of talent or a combination, this has been a special season for the Condors (13-0), who have already secured their first winning regular season in 13 years. They came back to win 5-3 at Platt Tech on Wednesday, and they defeated Wright Tech 20-1 in five innings on Thursday.

“Going into this year, I didn’t think we’d do that great until I saw the talent,” said the other senior, Alexis Vienneau. “Then I was like, I know we can definitely get somewhere this year. I’m hoping we stick this out and try our very hardest for every single game, because if we do, we can end up hopefully getting a banner for our school.”

Platt Tech is the defending CTC champion from 2019 — everyone lost last season to the pandemic — and is frequently among the state’s best tech-school teams. Wednesday’s victory, in which the Condors rallied from a 3-2 deficit in the top of the seventh with some aggressive baserunning and a bit of luck, meant something.

“We’ve worked so hard to try to beat them. It meant so much, especially because it was league game. That puts us up there,” Vienneau said.

“It was such a good game. We went in there kind of nervous about everything because it was such an important game.”

The pitching has helped keep opposing offenses in check: Sophomore Victoria Casey has been the team’s No. 1, and junior lefthander April Nowinski allowed just one hit Thursday, a topper in front of the plate in the fifth inning.

“We’ve always, for the most part, struggled with pitching, and this year we have two pitchers that we can rely on,” coach Sue Schryver said.

“Actually, we have two that we rotate, but we even have a couple more after that. We have a freshman (Stephanie Tamburrino) that we prefer to keep at shortstop.”

Tamburrino led off the bottom of the first with a home run on Thursday and doubled twice, with four RBIs in three at-bats. Vienneau also homered in the first inning.

“Just a hard-working team,” Schryver said. “I’m so happy and blessed to have a team like that. And they’re doing well.”

Hernandez and Vienneau, the coach said, are leaders who can have fun but also know when to be serious.

They’ve worked hard to bring the team together at a time when togetherness can be at a premium.

“We’ve done a lot of allteam stuff, like come over

to my house, camp fires, beach days,” said Hernandez, who was an All-CTC Nutmeg Division player as a sophomore. “We’ve done a lot of that stuff, so that’s helped (to bring) people closer to each other.”

Even at 13-0 there’s plenty to work on, Schryver said, but even a lot of the younger players arrived with a good understanding of the game.

The eight-team CTC tournament runs May 24-28.

“We can’t be thinking we’re going to come in and beat them (because) we beat them before,” Hernandez. said. “These teams are getting better as the season’s going on. It’s just constant competition.

“We’ve got to think like winners, and we’ve got to be winners.”

WRIGHT TECH 100 00—1 1 1 O’BRIEN TECH 773 3x—20 24 1 Records: Wright Tech 0-7; O’Brien Tech 13-0. Batteries: WT—Eva Kenny (L) and Bethsabelle Bellamy; OT—April Nowinski (W) and Julia Dota. Home runs: OT—Stephanie Tamburrino, Alexis Vienneau.