Printer Friendly Version - East Haven Softball Wins Class M Opener, Before Losing to Griswold; Francois Takes 2nd in Long Jump at States

Victoria Heapy pitched a gem when the East Haven softball team blanked Berlin by a 7-0 final in the first round of the Class M State Tournament. The Yellowjackets later took a 3-1 loss to Griswold to finish the year with a record of 14-10. Photo by Kelley Fryer/The Courier

After losing to North Haven in the semifinals of the Shoreline Conference Tournament, the Yellowjackets kicked off the Class M State Tournament by earning a first-round victory against Berlin. East Haven then took on Griswold in the second round and lost a 3-1 contest to finish the year with an overall record of 14-10.

Freshman Tori Heapy took the hill against No. 3 seed Griswold and pitched a great game by allowing just three runs on seven hits for the 19th-seeded Easties in the road loss on May 30. Jessica Stettinger clubbed a home run in the fourth inning and was then intentionally walked in the sixth after a two-out single by Julia SanGiovanni with East Haven trailing 2-1. Unfortunately, those were the only two hits the Yellowjackets could muster in taking the season-ending defeat.

The previous day, East Haven went on the road and posted a 7-0 shutout over No. 14 seed Berlin in a first-round showdown. Heapy tossed a three-hit shutout with six strikeouts to lead the Yellowjackets to the victory. Selena Mauro, SanGiovanni, and Stettinger had two hits apiece with Stettinger hitting a pair of doubles and SanGiovanni smashing a pair of triples to go with two RBI. Mariah DeCarlo finished with a triple and drove home two runs for East Haven Ed Crisafi’s club.

Prior to competing in states, East Haven played an SCC Tournament semifinal game at North Haven on May 29 and took a 5-0 loss to the Indians. Heapy and Brianna Corrano both had a pair of hits for the Yellowjackets.

East Haven defeated Law in the qualifying round of the Class L State Tournament and then saw its season come to a close with a first-round defeat versus Hand on May 29. The Yellowjackets finished the year with a record of 10-12.

The Easties were the 30th seed in states and hosted No. 35 Law for a qualifying-round game on May 26. East Haven prevailed 3-1 behind a game-winning, two-run home run from Ryan Spano in the fifth inning. Nate Furino earned the victory on the mound in relief of Spano, recording five strikeouts. Spano and Furino combined to allow just four hits for the Yellowjackets in the win.

East Haven took on No. 3 seed Hand in the Class L quarterfinals on May 29 and lost a 18-4 decision. The Yellowjackets held an early 4-2 lead, but Hand’s offense put up five runs in the fourth inning, eight in the fifth, and three more in the sixth on the way to the win. Luis Vega, Gabe Longley, and Tristan Punzo had two hits apiece for East Haven.

Kisha Francois took second place in the long jump and finished fifth in the 100-meter dash to help East Haven score 19 points at last week’s Class M State Championship. The Easties came in 14th place as a squad at Willow Brook Park on May 29.

Francois finished second in the long jump with a distance of 17 feet-5.25 inches to score eight points for East Haven. She also placed fifth in the 100 by running a time of 12.84 seconds. Summer Onorato put forth a fifth-place performance in the javelin behind a throw of 103-11 for East Haven. Molly Mazzucco cleared 4-10 in the high jump to finish in sixth place.

Also competing at the meet for East Haven were Natalia Gentile in the 100 (34th, 13.67), 200 (42nd, 28.59) and long jump (28th, 14-8.25), Francois in the 200 (29th, 28.17), Haley Montesanto in the 100 hurdles (25th, 18.23) and 300 hurdles (13th, 50.21), and Isabella Ragaini in the javelin (11th, 95-3) and 300 hurdles (23rd, 53.91).

Jay Donaldson sprinted to a fourth-place finish in the 100-meter dash to score five points for the Yellowjackets at the Class MM State Championship. East Haven finished in 29th place on May 30 at Middletown High School.

Donaldson finished with a time of 11.09 seconds in the final of the 100 to claim fourth place. In the qualifying heat, he took fifth place in 11.15 seconds.

Other competitors at the meet for the Yellowjackets included Kaio Zanette in the 400 (24th, 58.22), Evan Damian in the 100 hurdles (12th, 16.52) and 300 hurdles (23rd, 46.42), Radames Figueroa in the 100 hurdles (15th, 16.65) and 300 hurdles (22nd, 46.40), Tom Meyerholz in the 100 hurdles (25th, 17.49) and 300 hurdles (15th, 43.97), Nathan Santos in the long jump (31st, 17-2.5), and the 4x100 relay team of Donaldson, Jordan Ingram, Meyerholz, and Mike Castellano (11th, 45.30).

The Yellowjackets’ top doubles pairing of Doug Comesanas and Seth Proto teamed up to compete at the Class M State Championship on May 26.

Proto and Comesanas won their first match over Banala Ameet and Bowen Zheng of Bethel by the final score of 6-4, 2-6, 10-4. In the second round, they took a 6-1, 6-1 defeat against Richard Flandreau and Mike Iadaraola of New Fairfield.

East Haven finished its season by competing at the Chappa Invitational Tournament at Longshore Country Club in Westport on May 24. Mike Moscato and Mike Astorino both finished with a best-ball score of 97 for the Yellowjackets, who had recently completed their regular season with an overall record of 5-15-1.

Kisha Francois continued her excellent postseason by finishing second in long jump for the Yellowjackets at the Class M State Championship. Francois also scored points in the 100-meter dash by turning in a fifth-place performance. Photo by Kelley Fryer/The Courier