Naugatuck playing with confidence

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NAUGATUCK — The Naugatuck softball team gained a lot of confidence in a come-from-behind win over Wolcott on Monday as the Greyhounds head into this weekend’s NVL tournament.

Trailing 3-2, the Greyhounds put up a four-run rally in the fifth on their way to an 8-6 victory.

“I feel pretty good about our team’s ability to hit, put the ball in play and applying pressure on our opponent’s defense,” Naugatuck head coach Kevin Wesche said. “We still need to be consistent and play solid defense ourselves. We have allowed a few extended innings with errors at times.”

Alexandra Langhans set the example. She had four hits, including two doubles and a triple, to lead the Greyhounds on Monday. Jess Conover gave a sturdy performance in the pitcher’s circle scattering 10 hits while striking out seven and walking one.

Jackie Aronin had a single and a double with a run scored. Katie Jaronecyzk had two hits, one run and a RBI. Jenna Massicotte added a double, two RBI and a run scored.

Naugatuck finished off Wolcott plating two more runs in the seventh. Mckenzi Staples and Tanya Diaz had two RBI each, Molly Kennedy added a double, Briana Tavares scored three runs and Olivia Rotatori had a hit and a run scored in the Greyhounds’ attack.

The win took the sting out of Saturday’s 8-5 setback to Watertown. The Indians erupted for five runs in the fourth inning to take a commanding lead and held on as Naugy scored four in the fifth to close the gap.

Alyssa Barry had two hits and a run scored against the Indians. Aronin had a single and two runs scored and Rotatori added a double with a run scored to lead the Greyhounds.

Naugatuck was right with Watertown (11-8) early in the season dropping a tough 6-5 decision in 11 innings.

The Greyhounds fell to Oxford, 14-4, on Wednesday in the final regular season game. Aronin had two hits and Massicotte added a single and a home run for the Greyhounds (11-9).

Naugatuck will now prepare for the NVL tournament.

“I think as we head into the postseason the girls will play tighter defense to support our pitcher,” Wesche said early this week. “Right now it looks like we will be the six or seven seed that will match us up with the No. 2 or 3, which may be Holy Cross or Torrington. … But I do feel we are playing with a lot of confidence right now and we have shown that we can put our bat in the ball and put it in play.”

The seedings were announced Friday morning. No. 6 Naugatuck will play at No. 3 Torrington on Saturday at 1 p.m. The semifinals and final are Monday and Wednesday, respectively, at Naugatuck High School.

The Greyhounds have shown themselves to be competitive against some of the top teams in the league losing to Torrington (14-4), 4-1, earlier in the season and to Holy Cross (16-2), 3-0.

But the team still to beat is Seymour (18-0), a team that defeated the Greyhounds by an 8-0 margin.