Rachele Fico is the real deal.
Fitch High School girls softball coach Jon Grossman said that to me on Friday and I'm not about to disagree with him after watching the sophomore dominate a pretty good hitting Norwich Free Academy squad. Fico's effort gave Masuk a 1-0 win over NFA in the Class LL softball state championship Saturday afternoon at DeLuca Field in Stratford. It was Masuk's first softball state title in 33 years.
Fico struck out 17 and allowed only a single to Hillary Schnip while pitching a shutout for the 25th time in 27 appearances.
"I think she's actually a little bit better than what I had expected," NFA coach Jim Cotter said after the game played on a drizzly, breezy and very cool Saturday afternoon.
Cotter had only one hope, keep the game going as long as possible so that a little familiarity with her pitches might help his hitters.
Unfortunately for the Wildcats, in search of their first state championship in softball, an infield error ended those hopes of extending the game beyond the normal seven innings as Masuk pushed a run across.
The only chance for a run for NFA came in the fifth inning when Schnip singled, went to second on an error and pinch-runner Marissa Ruiz went to third on a ground out. That's where she stayed as a pop out ended the threat.
Waterford didn't get a chance to play Bristol Eastern in the first game as rain forced a delay and it was a delay the Lancers couldn't afford. The Senior Prom takes place at Waterford tonight and the Lancers didn't want to start any later than noon time today. When that couldn't be accomplished, the agreement was to postpone their Class L title game with Bristol Eastern until Sunday at 4 p.m. in Stratford.
Congratulations do go out to St. Bernard as they rallied for a 6-4 win over Northwest Catholic in the Class S baseball championship. It was the only baseball title game played on Saturday as rain doused the final two.
Good thing the Saints got it in, St. Bernard holds graduation ceremonies on Sunday and couldn't have played again until Monday.