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05/15/2017 12:00 AMThe East Haven softball team won three divisional games last week to improve to 12-6 overall with a record 6-1 in SCC Quinnipiac Divisional play. Entering this week, the Yellowjackets remain in contention to take their division title, and their game against Hand at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, May 17 will likely decide who wears the Quinnipiac crown. Division winners automatically qualify for the SCC Tournament, but the Easties are going to make the conference bracket either way.
“Right now, we fit fifth in the SCC Tournament. It’s just a matter of seeding,” Head Coach Ed Crisafi said. “We told the girls [before East Haven’s divisional game against Branford on May 8] that the Hand game means nothing if we lose today. They know what’s at stake. They’ve been through it.”
The Yellowjackets claimed victories versus Quinnipiac Division opponents Branford, Hillhouse, and West Haven in last week’s action. On May 8, East Haven prevailed at Branford by a 13-1 final in five innings. Starting pitcher Taylor Myers came one out away from throwing a no-hitter, ultimately striking out seven in the victory. East Haven scored four runs in the second inning and later put up a five-spot in the fifth. Megan Roberts finished the game with two hits and four RBI, while Selena Mauro had three hits, two runs, and two RBI. East Haven collected 11 hits as a team, with Julia SanGiovanni, Fallon Speers, Brianna Carrano, and Diana Kalman all adding two apiece.
“It took us until the second to get going, but Megan Roberts had a bases-clearing double,” Crisafi said. “In the fifth, we put it away with six straight singles.”
On May 10, East Haven hosted Hillhouse on Pink Night and won 15-2. Once again, Myers pitched 4.2 innings of no-hit ball, allowing two unearned runs with nine Ks. Coach Crisafi felt especially proud that he was able to get all 22 of his players into the game. The Yellowjackets pounded out 14 hits, and Roberts once again led the way with three hits, included a home run, to go with four RBI and three runs scored. Jessica Stettinger clubbed a home run as she, Mauro, Speers, and Mariah DeCarlo all had two hits.
Playing at West Haven on May 12, Mauro tossed a four-hit shutout with six strikeouts to lead the Easties to the 4-0 win. Speers had three hits and a run scored, while SanGiovanni smacked her sixth home run of the season. Mauro, Carrano, and Becca Flynn all had two hits in the victory.
“We’re hitting the ball hard right now. We have 14 home runs, but the bottom part of the order is starting to pick it up, and that’s leading to us scoring a lot of runs,” Crisafi said. “We’re letting [Taylor Myers] hit now and Meg Roberts, along with Flynn, have been hitting and getting on base. With them hitting, it makes us a lot more dangerous.”
Each member of Crisafi’s “three-headed monster” of SanGiovanni, Speers, and Stettinger is hitting better than .400 this season, and the coach has adjusted his lineup accordingly. With leadoff batter Mauro not far behind at a .395 clip, Crisafi has moved his trio up to the 2-3-4 spots to jump on teams early, instead of having the No. 2 hitter drop down a sacrifice bunt.
“We are very dangerous with those three hitting back to back to back. I don’t know of too many other teams that have three girls that can hit the ball as hard as those three do. We moved them up hoping to put all of our eggs in a basket, rather than using an out to get Selena over. We’ve been going straight to our power, which has been working well,” he said. “We’ve scored 119 runs and held our opponents to just 82, but they key has been the other girls starting to hit. A lot of our players have an on-base percentage over .385 ,and that’s what we’ve been looking for.”
Another key to the Easties’ recent success has been their pitching. Mauro and Myers have both brought their ERA down in the last six games, and the Yellowjackets have claimed victory in five of those contests.
“The last six games, they’ve given up one, zero, one, two, zero, and the Branford and Hillhouse games could’ve easily been shutouts. The only game we gave up more than two was our loss to Cheshire, and even that one was 2-1 going into the seventh,” Crisafi said. “They’re throwing strikes and keeping the ball down. They’ve both turned it around after having slow starts.”