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05/07/2014 12:00 AMThe North Branford softball team improved to 8-3 with three decisive victories over Shoreline Conference opponents last week. The eight wins have earned the T-Birds a berth in the state tournament.
"It's a good feeling," Head Coach TJ Schatz said. "We seem to be hitting our stride midway through the season and we want to keep it going."
On April 28, the T-Birds came away with a 7-5 division victory over Valley on the road. Freshman Julia Haeckel picked up her third win of the year on the hill, striking out eight batters. Offensively, first baseman Kayla Nowak led the charge with three hits and two RBI. She also belted a home run.
"Kayla is heating up," Schatz said.
Sabrina LeMere also went deep against Valley and drove home two runs.
North Branford then beat Haddam-Killingworth on April 29 by a 7-1 score with Nowak and LeMere doing more damage offensively. LeMere led off the game with a triple while Nowak hit another shot out of the park and knocked home four T-Birds. Lindsay Golia gained the win on the mound, allowing just three hits and striking out nine hitters.
Golia also grabbed the win in North Branford's 12-0 triumph over East Hampton on May 4 for her fifth victory. She allowed just one hit and struck out six batters.
"Lindsay is improving every day," Schatz said. "She was good to begin with, but she seems to be getting better every game."
Freshman third baseman Emily Muzyka had four hits and four RBI in the win and LeMere contributed with more hits.
"Sabrina has been great all year," Schatz said. "She had another triple today. She's swinging a really hot bat right now."
North Branford has now won four straight contests and Coach Schatz was quite impressed with his unit as a whole as they crushed East Hampton.
"It was definitely a good performance," he said. "We had no errors today so it was another solid defensive effort."
It's been a big turnaround as North Branford struggled defensively early in the season and Schatz is seeing a lot of recent success by mixing and matching his lineups to keep the whole team strong.
"We only have 11 varsity players so we try to keep everybody involved and everybody has been contributing," he said. "We're going to hit the good strong part of our season and, hopefully, by Shoreline [Tournament] time, we're in full gear."