The CT Softball Blog

WALLINGFORD — The moment Natalia Draghi stepped onto the campus of Choate Rosemary Hall, something clicked.

Not just a new school. Not just a new town.

A new trajectory.

It wasn’t just leaving her hometown of Glastonbury, or walking into a school filled with an eclectic group of students from around the world.

It was the feeling that everything — her life, her goals, her future — had shifted.

Somewhere down the base path of life, when she sets foot on the campus of Georgetown University in the fall of 2027, as a Hoyas softball player and student, Draghi knows she will be on a journey to help others change their lives, as well.

“I feel like I’ve been blessed with so many opportunities in my life, that I feel like I want to do something to help people,” she said, discussing her decision to verbally commit to Georgetown this year as a junior. “The biggest thing is I want to be able to help and give back when I’ve been giving so much.”

It started, like most of these stories do, with a ball. A softball — and a spark that didn’t fade.

Growing up, Draghi did all the sports her family would put her into.

“I grew up, and I was always playing sports,” she said. “I did gymnastics. I did soccer. I did lacrosse. I did all of them. I did any sport that you could think of, I played it. I’m a very competitive person. And my older sister started playing softball. She was playing T-ball. So, I had to follow her, but it was like everything.”

There was something about softball, though, that stuck with her. Especially the idea of becoming the girl in the circle that starts it all, every play.

“I do like being the center of attention,” the hard-throwing, right-hander said with a laugh. “Also, when I was playing t-ball, I’d be in the outfield, picking at the grass, doing cartwheels and stuff. But I like pressure and I like being in control. That was my big thing.”

Draghi would attend her older sister’s practices and would throw and hit with her mother as her sister worked hard to get better.

One day, during a sixth-grade pitching lesson, Choate head coach Edrik Lopez watched her throw — and saw something others hadn’t yet.

Lopez soon started having discussions with the family on how to get Draghi to come to the school.

“I didn’t know anything about (Choate) at the time,” admitted Draghi. “My mom had warned me in the car. She was like, ‘There’s this coach for this private high school’ but I don’t come from a lot of money. I don’t come from a private school family. It wasn’t something that was in the picture for me. I was just going to go to Glastonbury High School, like everybody else. So, when I was presented with the opportunity to go to Choate, my mom was like, ‘I don’t know how we would afford that.’”

With a golden right arm and a work ethic to match, however, Lopez, Choate and the Draghi family were able to find a way to make it work.

Just like that, Draghi’s life—and her future—changed.

“Obviously that is such an amazing opportunity,” she said. “I feel so blessed because I was blessed with the opportunity to go to Choate, which then led me to the (Empire State) Huskies (travel program) and then Georgetown.”

On the field, Draghi pitched Choate to the 2025 Founders League championship as a sophomore as the Boars went 16-2 overall. She also hit over .600 at the plate, making her a two-way threat for her team.

Between her time at Choate and with the Huskies, Draghi has turned into one of the best pitchers in the state, regardless of league.

“Yes, definitely the best pitcher that we’ve had,” said Lopez, who had some really good pitchers before Draghi when Choate won a trio of Western New England Class A championships. “Not because of her stuff—and that usually gets equated to speed, because she’s had that—but because she, from ninth grade to now, the growth has been immense in terms of maturity, understanding and reading batters. She is just understanding the feel for a game. She’s just a great athlete.”

Off the field, though, Choate’s academic rigor has been exactly what Draghi needed, as well.

“Being at Choate, I was prioritizing my academics,” Draghi said.

While looking at colleges, she wanted the same type of academic challenge that would get her to where she wants to go for the rest of her life.

She found that school in Georgetown.

“I was going to go to the best academic school I could with softball,” she said. “Georgetown was a dream school for me.”

Being in Washington, D.C., with an expansive list of opportunities in the future was as alluring as throwing an oh-two change-up.

“Georgetown has such a great reputation. And I love the DC area. I always have,” she said. “I’m really interested in law and politics and things like that, too, so just being able to be in Capitol Hill and getting all the internship opportunities that come with Georgetown, as well. It was amazing.”

Once she arrives at Georgetown, when she’s not on the softball field, Draghi will focus on the next stage of her life and how she can help change the lives of others.

“I go back and forth through a lot of things, but I’m very passionate about things like human rights and things like that,” she said. “One of the things I was thinking about, too, was domestic violence against women. I want to help protect people.”

“I want to help protect people,” she said.

The same drive that brought her to the circle — to take control, to handle pressure — is now guiding her beyond it.

And somewhere down that next path, Draghi isn’t just chasing success.

She’s chasing impact.

She’s chasing the dream of changing other’s lives just as hers had been changed the day she arrived at Choate Rosemary, as a pitcher and a person who wants to make a difference.

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