The West Haven softball team is in unfamiliar territory. Not to worry, the Westies could get used to the position.
With three more wins this past week, West Haven remained undefeated and moved into the state Top 10 softball poll in the tenth position.
Silenced for six innings, the West Haven softball team was looking at the end of an unbeaten start to the season. Then the seventh inning took place.
Scoring four times in the seventh, West Haven rallied for a 4-1 victory over Jonathan Law in Milford Friday afternoon. With the win, the Westies improved to 7-0 on the year.
“We found ourselves in unfamiliar waters this year,” West Haven coach Joe Morrell said. “It was the first time in seven games we were behind at any time during a game. It was nice to see the girls did not panic and they stayed on course. We scored four runs in the top of the seventh and proved we can come back when we need to. Ivy (Santos) kept us in that game.”
Gigi Perkins opened the seventh inning with a walk, Morgan Peryer followed with a single to right, and Ashlynn O’Keefe followed with a single to score Perkins with the tying run.
Veronica Lynn reached on an error to score Peryer, and Kailey Carrano hit into a double play to score O’Keefe. Santos singled with two outs, and Kasey Marron followed with a double for a 4-1 lead.
Law got a one-out single in the bottom of the inning, but Ivy Santos got the last two outs to preserve the comeback. Santos went the distance, allowing one earned run on seven hits, while walking two and striking out four.
The Westies stranded runners throughout the game and looked as if they would suffer their initial loss of the year.
O’Keefe singled and stole second in the first, Marron singled and Paige Buerer walked in the second, and Carrano singled and Marron walked in the fourth, but all were stranded.
An error and a wild pitch helped Law take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning, before Peryer singled and stole third, but was left stranded in the fifth. Santos and Marron each singled with one out in the sixth, but the Westies could not capitalize.
Prior to the win over Law, It just kept getting better for the Westies. Led by the pitching of Santos and some timely hitting, West Haven topped Amity 3-0 in a Southern Connecticut Conference contest in Woodbridge Wednesday afternoon.
“It was a huge win for us,” Morrell said. “They were a Top 10 team. The girls wanted to prove something: that we can compete with the best teams in our league. We went out and played very well. Obviously, Ivy pitched tremendous. We didn’t make any errors and we got timely hitting.”
Santos picked up her sixth win of the season, tossing a complete game shutout, allowing three hits, while striking out seven.
With Santos blanking the Spartans, the West Haven offense did the rest. O’Keefe, Carrano and Dianesse Rodriguez each had a pair of hits, while Carrano scored twice and Kasey Marron drove in a pair.
West Haven took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Carrano led off with a homer to center. The Westies increased the lead to three runs in the third inning.
O’Keefe led off with a single, Carrano hit a one-out single and Marron hit a two-out double to left to score O’Keefe and Carrano for a 3-0 advantage.
Santos did the rest as she allowed just two runners the rest of the way, including a leadoff single in the seventh.