NEWINGTON - The Newington girls joined the Northern Connecticut Girls Softball League 13 Team High School Division in 2014 and immediately demonstrated that they were a force to be reckoned with, going 11-3 during the year before losing in the tournament championship Game 3-2 to Enfield. For the 2015 team, made up of 18 Newington softball players, this year would be even better.

       The team went 13-1 during the year in the 11-team league, winning the West Division, and they saved their best efforts for the six-game tournament this past weekend at the Pratt and Whitney Fields in East Hartford. First, in the positional rounds on Saturday, they survived a long day, winning two games--11-5 over Hebron and 7-5 over Glastonbury--before losing a tight game to East Hartford, 5-4, in the final Saturday game. Their loss dropped them to the number three seed Sunday, but this would not hinder them as they put it all together with wins of 10-1 over Coventry, 7-2 over Enfield and finally exploding offensively in the final game and cruising over Stafford 13-3 to win the championship.

       The Newington team is made up of girls who will be entering grades 9-12 at Newington High School this fall. The team was lead during the year by the stellar pitching of Katerina Lagace, who was 13-1 overall and was named regular season West Division MVP. The hitting of junior Haley Blais, .524; incoming freshman Cyan Gonzalez, .514; sophomore Kacey Blais, .475; sophomore Katerina Lagace, .473; junior Val Dunsing, .423; and junior Alyssa Belizzi, .400; led the team offensively. Three other players, juniors Kaitlyn Bernacki and Syvanna Peck and incoming freshman Rachel Thureson, also batted well over .300.

       In the first game against Coventry, Newington started off slowly, scoring two runs in the bottom of the second before Coventry scored on in the fourth on a two-out double to tighten the score to 2-1. Newington went ahead 3-1 on a Haley Blais two-out single and a steal of second base before being knocked in by Kat Lagace’s double. They would make 4-1 in the fifth inning on a long double by Rachel Thuresen and then score on another double by Freshman Morgan Steigmaier. Lagace shut down Coventry in the sixth inning with her sixth and seventh strikeout and Newington woke up after there were two outs, notching six-straight hits highlighted by Kat Lagace’s double, Alyssa Belizzi’s double and a walk-off home run by Rachel Thureson as Newington completed the mercy win with a 10-1 drubbing. Newington was led by Haley Blais’s three hits, Katerina Lagace’s two hits and Rachel Thureson’s long double and home run. The defense of Newington did not make an error.

       In the second game against Enfield, Newington had the chance to avenge their loss in the championship game in 2014. Newington was the visiting team and they picked up where they had left off against Coventry. Lead off Cyan Gonzalez started things off with a single, which was quickly followed by a Kacey Blais single. Haley Blais’ long sacrifice fly brought in the first run, Lagace’s single brought in the second run and Thureson’s two-out single brought in the third run. Enfield got one run back in the bottom of the first off of Lagace with two hits, but she quickly shut the door with a strikeout. Newington would put some distance between them and Enfield with a three run third when Kacey Blais led off with a double, an error and a walk loaded the bases. Alyssa Belizzi’s fly ball brought in one run and catcher Kinsey Delbuono had a two-out clutch single, driving in two runs for the 6-1 lead. Lagace would make that stand up striking out seven in five innings while giving up five hits and no walks to a well-coached Enfield team. Cyan Gonzalez and Kacey Blais each had two hits. Newington again did not make an error during the game.

       In the final game against Stafford, Newington looked a bit tired and Katerina Lagace, pitching her fifth game in two days, started off slowly. Stafford hit the ball hard in the first inning, going ahead 3-0. Newington would get back one run on three hits by Kacey Blais, Haley Blais and Lagace’s two-out RBI. Newington would score again in the bottom of the second on a couple of errors to close the gap to 3-2. In the bottom of third, Newington began to figure out the Stafford pitcher and erupted for five runs on hits by Yasmin Rincon, Kacey Blais, Katerina Lagace, Alyssa Belizzi and a two-out, bases loaded single by Kinsey Delbuono that brought the score from a scary 4-3 lead to a much more comfortable 7-3. Lagace found her rhythm in the top of the fourth as she struck out her eighth batter of the game and shut Stafford down. Newington notched eight-straight hits, including another walk off hit by Thureson, a long double that ended the game per the 10-run mercy rule.

       Kacey Blais and Katerina Lagace each had three hits and Haley Blais, Alyssa Belizzi and Yasmin Rincon added two hits each. Once again, the Newington team did not make an error.

       The tournament was led by the pitching of Katerina Lagace, who went 4-1, and Cyan Gonzalez, who was 1-0. Katerina Lagace with 11 hits, Kacey Blais with 10 hits and Haley Blais with nine hits led the tournament hit parade for the team that batted .456 during the tournament. Haley Blais had four extra base hits and Rachel Thurseon had three extra base hits. Haley Blais and Cyan Gonzalez each had five stolen bases to lead the aggressive Newington running team. Katerina Lagace had 11 RBIs and Kinsey Delbuono added seven RBIs.