The CT Softball Blog

MILFORD—As much as today was about winning and losing, the true purpose of this moment in time was to celebrate softball and the girls who play it.

Danni Kemp would have wanted it that way.

On March 10, 2017, Kemp—a Foran High product who was playing for Stony Brook University—passed away from a brain tumor.

Ever since, when Foran got together with cross-town rival Jonathan Law, the teams and the town would celebrate Kemp and everything she meant and brought to the sport.

The 2025 edition of Foran vs. Law, Part I (the teams will meet again at Law later this season)—which raised another $1,000-plus for the Danni Kemp Cancer Foundation—was played on a cloud-covered Thursday afternoon.

It was the host Lions, playing on their own Danni Kemp Memorial Field, that pulled out the win, pounding out 10 hits in their 11-2 victory.

“It means the world. It feels great,” said Foran head coach Gina Georgetti, who was a high school teammate of Kemp’s back in the day. “I know the girls really stuck together and played well. It was just like how Danni plays. Every team she played on was like a family. Today, Foran was amazing, and we played like a family.”

Foran scored four runs in the first and added another four-spot in the fifth to create plenty of distance over the Lawmen and roll to their third win in three games.

Earlier this season, Foran topped Daniel Hand by a 6-2 score and bested Lyman Hall, 9-1.

Against Law, Foran’s Ariella Diorio (2 RBIs), Olivia Gregory (2 runs, 1 RBI), and Emily Speringo (2 RBIs, 2 runs scored) all had two hits in the contest.

That was plenty enough offense for Foran pitcher Abigail Corris. The junior hurler struck out nine and walked just one while scattering five hits and giving up the two runs.

“Abby’s amazing,” Georgetti said. “She has had a drive every year, but this year she’s really focused on the game, her teammates and just really staying on top of it.”

Law entered the game going right after the Lions, scoring a run in the top of the first inning.

A bunt single with one out by Madyson Bull got things going.

With two outs, and Bull on second via a steal, Charlotte Doyle delivered an RBI single to put the Lawmen up 1-0.

Foran responded. And then some.

Lead-off hitter Norah Bove walked on four pitches. Julia O’Connell laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt that pushed Bove all the way to third with her Danni Kemp-like baserunning.

Corris then aided her own cause with a single to center field to tie the game.

And the Lions weren’t done.

DiOrio drew a walk before Olivia Gregory delivered an RBI single to put the Lawmen in the lead, 2-1.

Soon after Speringo doubled to knock in a pair and Foran lead by a 4-1 count.

“We tried to battle back,” Georgetti said. “We don’t want to be a team that just rolls over. Just because they got one run, the game wasn’t over.”

Law cut the lead down a run in the third. With two outs, Bull drew a walk and would steal second. A single by Julia Scibek plated the run to make a 4-2 game.

Foran answered, however, with three runs in the bottom of the third and four more in the home half of the fifth to open the game up.

The Lions are liking where they are at during this point of the season.

“The girls are happy, I’m happy,” Georgetti said. “That stats say it all, but it’s because we’re just a big family. We have each other’s backs and we’re playing hard and we’re playing committed.”

Law slipped to 2-1, but Coach Melanie Blude knows her crew just needs to clean a few things up.

“(Foran) did a great job offensively, defensively and they were the better team today,” she said. “We have to limit our walks, and we just have to get those down.”

Despite the nine-run loss on the scoreboard, Blude saw positives in her team, even if they at first did not realize.

“I asked them if there was anything good to take away and they said, ‘No’,” Blude said. “Then I started rattling off some things.”

Those little things include simple things like players in the bottom of the line-up putting balls into play during each at-bat, the outfield making some big catches, batters having productive outs by moving runners over, and the like.

“There was good to take away from the game,” the 20-year veteran coach said.

Of course, what mattered the most today was playing in the spirit of Danni Kemp, the former Foran star and Stony Brook standout who was taken from the world far too soon.

Players on both rosters—who warmed up in t-shirts honoring Kemp—know the impact she has had on her sport and on all the players who are growing up in their collective hometown.

“I feel like Danni, her name strives for good, for hard work and trying your best, and I feel like just making the most out of the game,” said Jonathan Law senior captain Haley Stroffolino. “It’s really about the game now and how we express it through hard work, dedication, and just the love of the sport.”

Foran captain Julia O’Connell agreed, having grown up in a town where Kemp’s death reverberated deeply because of the love and respect for the player.

Now, for this, her final season in a Foran uniform, she knows she is blessed to step onto the Danni Kemp Memorial Field every day.

“It means a lot because I know people that have played with her and have been teammates with her,” O’Connell said. “So just seeing her name on our field every day, it just really reminds us of the type of player she was and her effort that she put into the game. Even off the field too, she really, truly just was a really good person. It reminds the team of that every day.”

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