Seymour Softball’s 27-Game Winning Streak Ends

The streak is over! 

There will be no undefeated season for the Seymour softball team. 

A failure to hit and capitalize on the few chances it had cost the Seymour softball team on Saturday in a 1 – 0 home loss to St. Paul of Bristol. 

St. Paul raised its record to 2 – 1. The Wildcats dropped to 1 – 1 and snapped a 27-game winning streak.

When you make mistakes and don’t score, you don’t win,” Seymour coach Ken Pereiras said.

The Wildcats had their chances but they weren’t able to capitalize on them. In the bottom of the first inning, senior captain Amanda Willette led off with a walk and stole second base. Junior Kim Ferris bunted Willette over to third and ended up at second base on an error, giving Seymour runners on second and third with no outs.

Falcons senior co-captain righty Emily O’Keefe then struck out junior Stephanie Burt and junior Maggie Crocamo followed with an attempted bunt that freshman first baseman Ali Vojitlia fielded and pumped fake a throw to first base. Willette took a step off third and instead, threw it to third with sophomore shortstop Kelsey Kendrick covering and applied the tag on Willette for the out. O’Keefe then struck out junior Emily Coyne looking to end the inning.

The first inning was big, second and third with no outs and not scoring, hurt us,” Pereiras said. They made big plays and we had trouble hitting.”

Seymour had only two hits and most of its hitting maladies can be attributed to O’Keefe, who struck out 15, four looking, and will be pitching for Division I Quinnipiac University.

She [O’Keefe] was outstanding and tough to hit,” Pereiras said. She pitched well.”

The Wildcats had another scoring opportunity in the bottom of the fourth. Burt struck out but took first on a passed ball. Because Burt is a pitcher, she was lifted for senior courtesy runner Kellee Burns, who stole second and moved to third on

Crocamo’s single, that was slapped out of O’Keefe’s reach, putting runners on first and third with no outs. Coyne then bunted a pop up to junior first baseman Ashley Cote.

Pereiras called a steal on the play and Coyne wasn’t suppose to go for the ball, thus Crocamo was way off first and Cote was able to throw her out with sophomore second baseman Jen Valerio covering first. Burns then tried to run home and Valerio threw it to junior catcher Jessica Michaels, who tagged Burns out to complete the triple play.

In the bottom of the fifth, senior Kelly Mitchell led off with a single up the middle and stole second. Sophomore Gianna Alberti couldn’t advance her because she struck out swinging and after Mitchell stole third, sophomore Kelly Ferris didn’t advance her because she struck out looking. O’Keefe got out of the inning unscathed by striking out freshman Carrissa Wasikowski swinging, the third time she recorded all three outs by strikeouts.

Meanwhile, the righty Burt deserved a better fate on the mound. She walked two, hit a batter and struck out nine while limiting St. Paul to three hits.

I felt good but we took it lightly,” Burt said. Every team has one bad game.”

O’Keefe led off the top of the sixth with a single to left and took second when senior Kim Tirita bobbled the ball, one of five Seymour errors. O’Keefe took third on junior Sarah Miller’s bunt and scored on Vojitlia’s groundout to Wasikowski in right field.

We’re young and I hope we learn from this,” Pereiras said. Our infield is very hard and balls bounce and it’s tough to play on this field. I hope we’ll learn from this and get better.”

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