Southington rebounds by cooling off Bristol Central
SOUTHINGTON — Since the Southington softball team lost to Masuk on May 10, the Blue Knights have been re-energized.
Wednesday, Southington, the defending Class LL champion, won its fourth straight game, 8-0, over Bristol Central in a CCC interdivisional game.
Ashlyn Desaulniers, one of 10 Southington seniors, went 4-for-4 and scored two runs for the Blue Knights (17-1) and senior pitcher Sam Sullivan gave up two hits and struck out nine in five innings for the win.
Bristol Central (16-3) had won nine straight before Wednesday.
“There’s a lot of volatility in that lineup,” Bristol Central coach Monica Hayes said. “They put pressure on you to make plays. They don’t just steal bases and bunt. They hit balls in the gaps.
“And we have good pitching. We had a bunch of errors but they had six earned runs.”
Southington was missing coach Davina Hernandez, who also missed Tuesday’s game against RHAM due to illness. Michele Boisvert, a Southington assistant, said Hernandez would be back either Thursday or Friday.
“I’ve been with Davina for nine years, I know how she coaches,” Boisvert said. “Our job was just to hold the ship, to
keep playing the way we play and keep doing what we do and we did. We bunted, stole bases and made plays.”
Desaulniers led off the game with a single to right and Elyse Picard reached on an error and both scored on Sullivan’s single in the first inning. Desaulniers doubled home another run in the second and tripled and scored again in fourth.
“Recently, I’ve been more up and down [hitting],” Desaulniers said. “In the
beginning of the season I was on fire but then calmed down a little bit and picked it up this past week.”
Sullivan gave up a triple and infield single to Bristol Central’s Leah Sklenka and had one walk.
“I just needed to get ahead in the count, then just be aggressive at the plate and score and we did that,” Sullivan.
“We did great in the field; they made the plays for me.
“I had confidence in all my pitches and they were all working.”
Southington got two runs in the third and three in the fourth. Sam Rogers also had two hits and scored two runs.
It was a long way from the way the Blue Knights struggled uncharacteristically against Masuk, losing 6-0, in Monroe last week.
“We didn’t do the best hitting that game,” Sullivan said. “Our discipline was kind of off . We weren’t aggressive. Low energy. We definitely picked it up after that and came back.
“I think the loss was good. It motivated us to go in and get the bats going again.”
Said Boisvert: “They did have a bad game against Masuk, but it makes you better. To stay undefeated is hard.”