Seymour junior righty Stephanie Burt deserved a much better fate than she got.
Burt threw a two-hitter for the 14th-seeded Seymour softball team with one walk and nine strikeouts at sixth-seeded Wolcott on Saturday in the Class M quarterfinals.
However, the Eagles scored three unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth inning because Burt’s fielders made two errors and her catcher committed a past ball on strike three, which enabled the batter to reach on first and negate another out in Wolcott’s 3 – 2 victory.
Wolcott raised its record to 21 – 4 and play seventh-seeded St. Joseph (21 – 4) on Monday at 7 p.m. at DeLuca Field in Stratford. The Wildcats end their season at 19 – 7.
“Burt pitched great and we then had two errors on routine plays and bing bang boom, we’re down,” Seymour coach Ken Pereiras said. “It was a tough loss and the [softball] Gods weren’t with us today. I thought we were in control of the game [before this happened].”
After Burt walked and struck out a batter to start the fateful sixth inning, Eagle sophomore Gabrielle Galucci hit a routine double play grounder that went through second baseman Kelly Mitchell’s legs to put runners on first and second. Following another strikeout, Burt appeared out of the woods when she induced a ground ball to senior first baseman Gianna Alberti, who booted it and a run scored.
Burt then struck out sophomore Emily Morris but junior catcher Maggie Crocamo committed a past ball to give Morris a reprieve and first base and Wolcott scored the tying run. Senior captain Aleisha Markey then singled to right field to score the go-ahead run.
Despite losing the way she did, Burt refused to point fingers at anyone.
“It’s a tough loss but we all win together and we all lose together,” Burt said.
Burt carried the Wildcats on her shoulders despite battling recent injuries.
“My curveball randomly picked up and I was throwing strikes,” Burt said. “Everything was working. I wanted to do it for the seniors.”
Overall, the Wildcats had seven hits. Senior captain Amanda Willette, Mitchell and Crocamo all had singles.
“It’s a tough loss and one bad inning did it for us,” Willette said. “We had the game won but we lost it ourselves.”