Sports

Haddam-Killingworth Stuns East Hampton in Softball

Cougars rally from 6-1 down on Bellringers' Senior Day.

Senior Day. The field was awash with sun. Summer was in the air and a holiday weekend had begun. It was a great day for a Shoreline tournament softball game.

Add to that a 6-1 East Hampton lead heading into the sixth inning and the afternoon couldn’t really be unfolding any better.

Then Haddam-Killingworth had to go and ruin it.

Find out what's happening in East Hampton-Portlandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Cougars forced extra innings by rallying for five runs in the sixth and seventh, then won the Shoreline Conference quarterfinal game on Friday with a four-run eighth to upset the No. 2 seed Bellringers 10-6 in East Hampton.

“Disappointed,” East Hampton coach Matt Warner said. “Disappointed, not at the girls, but more of … what we had, what was right there, just kind of slipped away.”

Find out what's happening in East Hampton-Portlandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Trailing 1-0, East Hampton scored three runs in the third inning with the big hit coming from Brittany Fiederlein (3-for-3), who tripled in two runs and later scored on Madison Flannery’s single.

In the fourth, the Bellringers made it 6-1 on Fiederlein’s three-run double. Katty Robinson (3-for-5) and Ashley Chasse (2-for-4) also had hits in the inning.

East Hampton, however, failed to tack on any more runs, leaving Flannery stranded on third in the third and Shannon Law (2-for-4) stranded on third in the fifth.

That left it up to starting pitcher Emily Clausi and the defense to get the Bellringers to the finish line.

Clausi had held the Cougars in check through five innings, allowing one run, four hits and striking out four. Then came the sixth inning.

“We felt her command was good enough to hold that 6-1 lead,” said Warner, who added that the only thought to taking Clausi out would have been to rest her for the next game. “They did do a good job hitting against her, but I can see about six errors in my head. Because of all those errors, we gave away a five-run lead.

“Errors made Emily throw more pitches than she needed to. Got her tired faster.”

As the pitches increased Clausi, so did the runs for Haddam-Killingworth.

Samantha Waskowitz got the sixth started with a single and Kelly Dahlberg followed with a two-run home run to make it 6-3.

With the score 6-4 in the seventh, Kaylee Normandy hit a one-out, two-run double to tie the score.

By now, Haddam-Killingworth starting pitcher Ashley Cook had settled into a groove, seemingly getting stronger as the game went on. Cook retired East Hampton in order in the bottom of the seventh to send the game into extra innings.

To the eighth the game went, setting the stage for sophomore Taylor Burger. With one out and two runners on, Burger hit a two-run single to give H-K an 8-6 lead.

“It feels great to contribute because last time we had a tough game against them and we lost by one,” said Burger, referring to the game April 29. “It feels great to get that two-run single.”

East Hampton won that game 1-0 on a two-out error in the bottom of the seventh inning. Who knew that nearly a month later, that game would serve as a rallying cry.

Whatever motivated the Cougars, it worked. They didn’t quit.

“I thought for about two innings there we were flat,” H-K coach Jeff Talbot said. “We were kind of like, we took the punch but we weren’t knocked out. We battled back.”

Said Warner: “For them to come back from 6-1 shows their resilience.”

Perhaps there is a bright side for East Hampton. The loss will give them a chance to rest for the Class S state tournament, which will begin on Tuesday. East Hampton will host Oxford (9-11). With potential games on Wednesday and Friday should they advance, three games in four days following a weekend of conference tournament games is enough to tax any team.

“I think the nice part is that we have a few days off because everybody can rest,” Warner said. “With another emotional loss after Hale-Ray just two days ago, losing to H-K in this fashion, it’s very draining.”

Warner likes the chances his team has coming up.

“I’m very optimistic with how we can do in the states,” he said. “I think with this time they can prepare themselves mentally and really put a nice run together in the state tournament.”

Provided one thing happens.

“We got to get rid of those errors,” he said. “If we want to be able to make it deep in the state tournament, we can’t have that.”

Haddam-Killingworth will play at Coginchaug Saturday in a Shoreline tournament semifinal.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here