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06/30/2016 12:00 AMLindsay Golia was a fixture on the mound right from the outset of her career with the North Branford softball squad. Lindsay split time as a freshman, took hold of the starting pitcher’s role in her sophomore year, and has since become one of the elite pitchers in the area.
Lindsay was utterly dominant against Shoreline Conference opponents throughout her T-Birds’ tenure and that’s why she was named the conference’s Pitcher of the Year for her junior and senior seasons. Lindsay went 21-4 with a 1.51 earned-run average as a junior and finished 19-2 with a 1.31 ERA this spring, while helping North Branford take the Shoreline title each year.
“That was honestly amazing. I wasn’t even expecting that. I was just trying to make myself better, along with the team,” says Lindsay on being named the league’s top hurler. “It was amazing to get that because it showed how hard I’ve played and how much work and time I’ve put in to keep improving. It meant a lot to get that. I’m really grateful.”
Lindsay features seven different pitches that always kept the opposition guessing. The southpaw’s arsenal includes a four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, a dropball, screwball, a curve, changeup, and a riseball.
“I’m pretty confident in most of them. My change has been the hardest thing for me. I always struggle with slowing down the ball,” says Lindsay. “We like to keep them off-balanced, so I won’t throw two of the same pitch in a row unless they’re not catching up to my fastball. I like to strike them out and my catcher was amazing this year and always knew if a batter was ahead or behind a ball. We’d throw away and inside and that’d help keep batters off the bases.”
Lindsay applauds the way catcher Sabrina LeMere has called her games the past few years. That helped Lindsay rack up the strikeouts and she ultimately broke the school record with 565 career Ks. Lindsay fanned roughly one out of every four batters she faced during her time with North Branford softball.
“Being a left-handed pitcher definitely is a key part of that. The ball moves differently and she has a different release point from what a lot of opponents are used to seeing,” says Head Coach Nick DeLizio. “Lindsay’s ability and confidence to throw on the inner half of the plate because of the certain movement her ball would make, that’s a huge aspect to her strikeouts.”
Lindsay feels great about owning that record, but she’s even prouder of the fact that North Branford had its best two-season stretch in program history the past two years. Something else Lindsay enjoyed is that she got to take the field with her twin sister Meghan every day.
“[The strikeout record] meant a lot, but I’m more proud of the team accomplishments. It was awesome [to go undefeated in Shoreline play this year] because we knew we’d have a target on our back. Being undefeated in the conference was a big accomplishment and I’m really proud of the team for that,” says Lindsay. “It’s really awesome to have the field with someone that always knows what I’m thinking and always has my back out there.”
Looking back at the sum total of her high school career, Lindsay finished with a 1.99 ERA to go with a 55-16 record, 15 shutouts, and a pair of no-hitters, including one against Bethel in the Class M State Tournament this year. Next year, she’ll be taking her pitching prowess to Division III Trinity College in Hartford.
“I had been looking all around since the beginning of my junior year and I fell in love with the school. It seems awesome,” says Lindsay. “I had been recruited by a couple of other places, but when I visited Trinity, I got the feeling that that’s where I’m supposed to be since I was looking to stay closer to home. I was very grateful for all the other offers, but when I got to Trinity, I knew it was the one.”