How Coventry was able to win its first CIAC softball title

STORRS — Julia Boya stood at third base following a one-out triple with her Coventry High softball team trailing Cromwell by one run in the bottom of the sixth inning Saturday.

The senior remained there as Cromwell pitcher Lily Kenney recorded the second out of the frame. Then with classmate Lindsey Harrington at the plate and the Patriots’ dream of their first Class S state tournament championship down to the last four outs, Boya turned to her third-base and head coach Jeff LaHouse.

“I was like, ‘Jeff, I might delay steal because you never know and the pitcher was turning her back on me,’ ” Boya said. “But I had a gut feeling that Lindsey would hit it hard. She’s been hot all year. I had faith.”

That faith was rewarded when Harrington drilled an outside pitch down the right-field line, past the outfielder, and into the corner. When Harrington finished her 240-foot dash around the bases to give the Patriots their first lead, she ran into Boya’s waiting arms.

It was the kind of trust, confidence, and resiliency Coventry had shown all season. When junior pitcher Elizabeth Mitchell tossed a 1-2-3 seventh — the final out landing in center fielder Boya’s glove — the top-seeded Patriots had the championship by beating No. 11 Cromwell 3-2 at Burrill Family Field on the UConn campus.

“We’re so close,” Boya said. “We don’t doubt each other. We pick up each other. We don’t put pressure on each other. We go out and have fun.”

Coventry won its first 18 games en route to the outright NCCC title — allowing only 18 runs — before falling to eventual Class LL tournament quarterfinalist Norwich Free Academy on May 17. The Patriots did stumble in the NCCC tournament final on May 25, losing to eventual Class L tournament semifinalist Ellington, before bouncing back in Class S play.

They survived an eight-inning struggle against St. Paul in their opener May 31 and blew away perennial Class S contender Holy Cross in the quarterfinals on June 3. Two days later, they ended a 10-game semifinal losing streak dating back to their only previous championship game appearance in 1985 with a shut out of Shepaug Valley to set the stage for Saturday.

“We were determined to break that semifinal curse and get to the state final and then win it,” Boya said.

LaHouse, who picked up his 100th career win on May 3, thought one way to do that was to upgrade Coventry’s schedule. While the top of the conference schedule with Ellington and Rockville leading the way was challenging, the Patriots needed more. The seventh-year coach scheduled Class LL schools NFA, Middletown, and nearby E.O. Smith, Class L schools East Lyme, Woodstock, and Rockville (to go with its one NCCC game with the Rams), and reigning Class S champion Cromwell along with an extra game with NCCC foe Somers.

All nine teams in the Patriots’ non-league schedule advanced to the state tournament. They had already been tested when June rolled around.

“It paid off big,” LaHouse said. “Look at the teams that we had to play. When you play a game like we did today and you’ve played a weaker schedule, you get pressed and it’s harder to come back. They’ve been in so many tough games all year.”

Cromwell (18-9) took a 2-0 first-inning lead as it looked to become the first repeat Class S champion since Holy Cross (2015-17). But Mitchell would shut the Panthers down on a pair of hits the rest of the way. At 2-1, she got out of a second-and-third, no-out situation in the third. In the top of the sixth with a runner on first and no outs, senior first baseman Lily Rand made a lunging grab on a liner down the line by Emma Ribera that if it was fair would have been extra bases and a run. Instead, Rand calmly stepped on the bag for the unassisted double play.