Unforgettable Season for CLCF Gals 8U Champs

The CLCF Gals 8U softball team recently were crowned state champs with an impressive showing at the state tournament in Brayton Park in Cranston.

And the impressive showing there matched their unbelievable 33-1-1 record through six tournaments this summer. The girls won each and every tournament, beating Coventry in three of the finals.

PJ Bessette of CLCF summerized their great success in an email message:

We played in a total of 6 tournaments; North Kingstown, Coventry, Darlington, Smithfield, Apponaug and the States. Our overall record was 33-1-1 with the loss and tie to a tough Darlington team. We won all 6 tournaments, playing Coventry in three finals and Darlington in the other three finals. We had a lot of close games with both Coventry and Darlington, which pushed our girls to give their all.

In our first tournament in NK we played a total of 6 games playing Coventry twice, once in the finals. The girls were explosive on the offense side and stingy on the defensive side of the field. Our next tournament was the Smithfield Firercracker and again the girls performed at a high level winning all 4 games, again beating a touch Coventry for the championship. We could see all the teams getting better with each tournament, the next tournament was Darlington, where we won 6 more games beating Darlington in the finals. In a show of great sportsmanship both teams took a photo together then ran through the sprinklers the league turned on for them. That would lead to a mutual respect between both teams throughout the rest of the summer.

The next tournament was Coventry, which is always a tough one. Our first game was a tough one against Coventry which we won 5-2, the girls regrouped and won the next three beating Darlington again in the finals. The next tournament was the Ocean State Invitational hosted by Apponaug, in this one we tied Darlington in the pool play, the girls bounced back winning the next four which included a rematch with Darlington, beating Coventry in the finals four their fifth title in a row.

The States was the last tournament, which was played at Brayton Park in Cranston. Here we lost our first game of the season to an inspired Darlington team on sat, my girls bounced back to win the last game of the day sat against a determined CLCF Black squad. The girls having lost their first game, putting them into the losers bracket. The first game was against Apponaug, which was a tough game, which we pulled out by a score of 14-1. The next games was against Coventry, who lost the winner bracket final game against Darlington, which put Darlington into the finals. Our girls played a spectacular defensive game limiting Coventry to only three runs all in the first inning leading to a 14-3 win.

Our next game was a rematch with Darlington, who was on a high note, beat us and Coventry to gain a finals berth. Again our girls were inspired and held Darlington to 4 runs three in th 5th inning, when the game was already decided, with a final of 15-4 to force an IF game Monday night under the lights. The atmosphere for the game was electric, there had to be 200 people there to watch the game. We jumped out to a 10-0 lead after the first inning. Darlington cut it to 10-5 after 3 innings. We answered with 6 runs in the 4th inning making the score 16-5, Darlington answered with a run in the 4th. Darlington held us scoreless in the fifth, where the scored 5 more runs to make the score 16-11. The sixth is an inning where you can score as many as you can and Darlington held us to only 1 run making the score 17-11, where they had there big hitters coming up in the bottom of the 6th. We got the first girl out on a ground ball to second base the next three girls got on loading the bases, with their # 3 hitter coming up. She had already hit a few homeruns against us so she made it very nerve racking to everyone there. She hit a line drive up the middle, the short stop Emily Bessette grabbed the ball and threw to first for a double play to end the game and give us the State Championship. I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge all the girls, who contributed both defensively and offensively. By the way we had every girl on the team hit a homerun this summer.

Our roster is a s follows;

1. Elizabeth Lewandowski, the youngest on the team, who was our second baseman and leadoff hitter
2. Emily Bessette, our second hitter and short stop
3. Mackenzie Besstete, our only lefty who played pitcher and first
4. Spohia Ferry, who could play and did any postion you put her at
5. Avery Izzi, who was a monster hitter and one of our catchers, who made several key catches behind the plate
6. Ava Brandow another monster hitter and our left fielder, third baseman.
7. Josie Ditroia, our starting third baseman and #3 hitter.
8. Marissa Such, who was an all a round player the best #12 hitter in the State
9. Spohia Dipippo, our starting first baseman and #4 four hitter that hit several bombs this summer
10. Emily Rose, another big hitter that made several key defensive plays at catcher and outfield
11. Sydney Casale, who was a monster at the plate hitting line drive all over the field and making big catches in the outfield
12. Emma Corcoran, who like Sydney hit line drives all over the field and mad a huge double play in the States in the outfield. 

My coaches were;

1. Ed Ditroia
2. Bill Rose
3. Richard Ferry
4. Mike Casale
5. Tom Lewandowski
6. Keith Brandow
7. Mark Dipippo.