Pictured: Catcher Dana Boothroyd meets her sister at the mound after Kelly Boothroyd finished off a one-hit shutout of Thomaston on Saturday.
By Paul Augeri
middlesexcountysports@gmail.com
DURHAM – Thomaston softball coach Kelly Finlay knew her hitters had quite the challenge in front of them in facing savvy right-hander Kelly Boothroyd of Coginchaug.
“You try to do your best to prepare, but definitely at this stage of the game you face pitchers than can throw hard,” Finlay said after Saturday’s CIAC Class S quarterfinal, “and she has a lot of pitches and a lot of movement. Unfortunately we’re not really used to that coming from the Berkshire League. We see a couple of hard throwers, but we don’t see a lot of movement.”
Coginchaug coach Steve DeMartino was more to the point after watching his senior ace finesse her way to a one-hitter and the Blue Devils advance to the semifinals with a 5-0 victory over the Bears.
Boothroyd hasn’t allowed a run in two tournament games.
“I actually scouted them the previous game and knew Kelly was going to mow them down today,” he said. “I know they had never faced anybody that moves the ball like that. Even though Kelly has that speed, she moves it. What happened was exactly what I expected to happen. I thought Thomaston was going to struggle to hit.”
No. 4 seed Coginchaug (18-3) will play in its second straight Class S semifinal, where it will meet No. 1 Notre Dame of Fairfield (Monday, 7pm, DeLuca Field in Stratford). The Devils were runner-up in 2019 with Boothroyd on the mound in a 3-2 loss to Somers.
Boothroyd struck out 12 and allowed just two base runners. She gave up a two-out single to Kristen Foell in the first inning before retiring the next 14 in a row. She walked Emma Sanson in the sixth with one out, then got out of the inning on a groundout and liner.
See the full story in the Middletown Press.
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No. 1 Notre Dame-Fairfield 11, No. 8 Cromwell 1
Cromwell’s best season in years ended in the Class S quarterfinal round in Fairfield. Notre Dame totaled 12 hits, with MacQuarrie Stone-Folmar going 4 for 4 with a two-run home run and two runs scored.
Grace McMarlin had two of the Panthers’ six hits. Shoreline Pitcher of the Year Lily Kenney took the loss.
“What can I say besides we ran into a good team?” Cromwell coach Angelo Morello said. “My girls fought to the end, never put there heads down. We had runners on base all day but just never came up with that big hit to make the game a competitive one. We tip our caps to Notre Dame, they were better today. We will learn from this and be better for it.”