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08/06/2014 12:00 AMIn all her years as a coach with Old Saybrook softball, Laura Westner hadn't seen her team get past the state quarterfinals and, when the Rams played in the state final this spring, the loss they suffered to Thomaston stung and a big part of that was due to the fact that Westner wanted to see her five veteran seniors win a title.
"Truthfully, what made this year so special was it was fun winning with those seniors and that's what made the loss so heartbreaking-I wanted it for them and they truly deserved it. It stinks the way it ended," said Westner. "But we definitely exceeded our preseason expectations. You always hope for a team that will make it in states. We struggled at the beginning of the season a lot more than I thought we would and had a couple of really tough losses, but then we started jelling at the halfway point."
Despite its slow start, Old Saybrook finished 14-6 in the regular season and 19-8 overall, losing in the Shoreline semifinal to eventual champion Morgan and then in the Class S final 7-6 in eight innings as the eighth seed. But it was the Rams' perseverance that stood out to Westner as being a memorable part of the season as, after Old Saybrook beat HK halfway through the campaign, the team started clicking.
"Once we played HK at HK, it was a huge win and we just played out of our minds that day and, ever since that day, they started clicking," said Westner. "I thought to myself, 'This is the team we thought we could be.' You always hope you'll do that well, but we didn't know it was possible. The last time Old Saybrook softball won states was in 1988 so we were hoping to break that streak."
Westner's talented seniors included captains Effie Gianitsos, Paige Trabucchi, and Madison Eucalitto. Gianitsos was the Rams' starting pitcher who earned Second Team All-Shoreline and Academic All-State, Trabucchi was the starting catcher who was named First Team All-Shoreline and All-State, and Eucalitto manned second base and earned Honorable Mention All-Shoreline. Seniors Laura MacLeod (center field, Second Team All-Shoreline) and Micheala Efinger (DH, right field) were also huge contributors.
"My five four-year seniors were all just the gel of the team. The captains were all great leaders on and off the field-dedicated, loyal, hard workers, and they wanted to be there," said Westner, who also graduated senior JV player Brittany Senack. "There was never a time I questioned that they were working hard and wanted to win. They were a fun group of girls who knew when it was time to joke around and when it was time to get serious. And Madison has such a good head on her shoulders; she was so self-disciplined. We'd have an indoor practice and I'd see her outside running after the full practice. And she then goes home and does her workouts after coming back from back surgery-she's such an inspiration to the other players. She never complained about being in pain and I can't say anything but great things about her."
Besides the seniors, the Rams had junior shortstop and First Team All-Shoreline and All-State player Lauren Pascoe, who was selected to play in the Junior Select All-Star Game; along with junior third baseman Emily Santamaria, junior pitcher Tina Gosselin, and junior first baseman Eilis Welsh. Additionally, Trabucchi and Pascoe played in the Senior Select All-Star Game. Westner coached her athletes in both All-Star contests.
"What's funny is we had a better record last year, but I think the difference this year was we won the really important games," said Westner. "We won under a lot of pressure and we beat Coginchaug three times-once in the regular season and twice in the postseason. We beat Morgan on Senior Day. We had a lot of big wins this year that helped boost our confidence and, once we started winning and peaked at the right time, we kept riding that wave into the postseason."
Although Westner is sad to be losing so many solid starters, she will return a strong nucleus of juniors that are starters, along with freshman right fielder Hannah LeMire.
"I'm hoping Tina puts the hard work in in the offseason. She can do it and I have confidence in her that she'll be good," said Westner. "She's been put on the backburner and hasn't had the experience as a varsity pitcher, but I'm hoping she takes the circle and runs with it, knowing she's in charge. I think her teammates will have that confidence. The one thing I do have to say-I was impressed with this year. You see teams lose and the fingers start pointing, but no one came in after that states loss and started blaming everybody. They got in a circle and hugged and it was special. They really stayed together as a team and it was nice to see that."