Hawks stumble, regroup in season finale

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BEACON FALLS — The Woodland softball team dropped a tough one at Torrington on Tuesday.

Jen Triana went the distance in the pitcher’s circle allowing just three runs over the final four innings, but it was a four-run second inning that did the Hawks in in the 9-6 loss.

The Hawks erupted for three runs in the fifth inning to get back in the game and scored a run in the seventh, but fell short in their comeback attempt.

Cam Caswell had a triple, a single and two RBI to pace Woodland. Sam White had three hits and a run scored, and Carla Piccolo added a hit and two runs scored. Emily Brouillette had a hit and two RBI, Maddie Hupprich added an RBI double, and Rita Plante had an RBI hit.

A recent string of losses put Woodland in a precarious position when it comes to making the NVL tournament, which starts Saturday.

“It’s neck and neck with Wolcott as far as making the NVL tournament,” said Woodland head coach Loren Luddy on Tuesday. “But we put ourselves in that position. We certainly would have liked to secure a spot in the NVL tournament by winning on the field.”

The Hawks are 9-9 in the league and Wolcott is 8-9 with a league game remaining on Thursday against Wilby. Should both teams end the regular season in a tie for the last spot in the tournament the first tiebreaker has each team with a win against each other. The final tiebreaker will go to Woodland with a 3-5 record in the Iron Division. Wolcott is 2-6 in the division.

“We may have peaked a little too early,” Luddy said. “We had the chance to wrap it up last week when we faced Wolcott but we got caught up in the emotions of senior night.”

Woodland fell, 9-7, to Wolcott May 12 as the Hawks honored seniors Caswell, Piccolo, White, Sam Buzgo, Gina Farina and Gabby Bedryczuk.

White led the way at the plate with four RBI. She had a triple, a single and scored two runs. Caswell had three doubles, a single, scored two runs and drove in a run. Brouillette, Hupprich and Piccolo added two hits each.

“We didn’t execute on offense when we needed to,” Luddy said. “We made some base-running mistakes by experienced players and that cost us a few runs.”

The Hawks ended the regular season on a high note Wednesday with a 12-1 win over Hamden, a non-league opponent, to improve to 10-10.

Ivy Geloso pitched a three-hitter with three strikeouts. She helped herself out at the plate with w double, triple and a run scored. Piccolo and Caswell had three RBI each, Bedryczuk added two RBI and Farina scored twice to pace the offense.

Woodland is likely to head into the NVL tournament as the No. 8 seed but should not be taken lightly. The Hawks dropped a 6-5 decision to Holy Cross (17-2), the projected No. 2 seed, earlier this year.

The Hawks also battled No. 1 seed Seymour (19-0) in a 6-2 loss. Woodland went ahead 2-0 in the game on a team that has given up just four runs this season. And on Tuesday, No. 3 seed Torrington (15-4) had to hold on as Woodland made a last-ditch attempt to pull it out.

“This is a very good team and we have proved that in games this season,” Luddy said. “When we execute we can be competitive with anyone.”