NEW CANAAN—The legacy of Ellie Fatsi and fellow graduating seniors Caroline D’Onofrio and Leah Seitz were already secure after leading the St. Luke’s softball team to a third consecutive Fairchester Athletic Association title.
Still, there was a sense of unfinished business over the weekend as the Storm went after the Western New England Prep School Class B title.
Facing talented Cheshire Academy and Marianapolis Prep teams, the final championship of their high school careers was going to be the most challenging to date.
St. Luke’s overcame early deficits in both tournament games. With her team on the way to a 12-4 victory in Sunday’s title game against Marianapolis, the reality of it all was hard for Fatsi and her teammates to ignore.
“Just to be able to fight for that,” Fatsi said. “On Saturday when we were down two runs against Cheshire at the beginning of the game, I remember sitting in the dugout and saying to myself that I am not ready to be done yet and I really want to extend my career at little bit, even if was only for another 24 hours. That really meant a lot to me.
“When we were playing on Sunday, when we were trying to hold them in the top of the seventh, all of the emotions kind of came through and I realized I would be playing the last few outs with some of my favorite people so that really struck a nerve.”
It was fitting that production came from various spots in the lineup.
Five different players had at least two hits. Fatsi had two doubles and drove in three runs. Lucia Biasotti had three hits, including her ninth and 10th home runs of the season. The No. 6 through 9 batters combined for four hits, two runs and two RBIs as the Storm ended the season at 16-2 and with a 10-game winning streak. Woodfork, the starting catcher, picked off a runner at first base to end what could have been a huge third inning for Marianapolis.
“Something we talk about is what is your why, what is your purpose, why do you love the game and why do you play the game,” St. Luke’s coach Elizabeth “Beezer” Joseph said. “Going into the championship between the FAAs and Western New Englands, we talked about your why and think about what it means for you. You could definitely see that, especially through playoffs, the girls they all get along with each other, their energy feeds off of one another.
“It is a fun group to watch. They trust each other that they are going to make a play and trust each other to get the job done. Any given game, my No. 3 batter can hit two home runs and the next game, my No. 4 batter can hit two home runs. They all pick each other up and that is what makes the team very special.”
Makena Woodfork led the team with a .560 batting average, edging out Zoe Malkoun, who batted .547, for the team batting title. Lucy Millones and Biasotti each had 32 runs scored, Fatsi hit .433 with a team-best 11 doubles while Biasotti paced the Storm with 10 home runs and 32 RBIs.
D’Onofrio, in her third season as the starting pitcher at St. Luke’s, helped the Storm record seven shutout wins. She tossed a perfect game in the Fairchester semifinals.
“We put in so much work into this program,” Fatsi said. “Our team chemistry is one of my favorite parts about the program, we really get close. Just being on the field and not playing for us, but for each other for Beezer, who is such an incredible coach who really worked hard to build our program to (win) the championships that we do have. Just being able to play for each other, we all got close and that formed the team culture that we have. We all talk to each other outside of practice, outside of school. There are younger girls on the team that I view as sisters and I love that from the team culture as well.”
Many of the St. Luke’s players are teammates with the Rhode Island Thunder’s Fairfield County-based travel program. That only helped build the chemistry on and off the field.
“We knew we wanted to do it for us, but also for our school to win a New England championship for any other team,” Fatsi said.
D’Onofrio’s softball career will continue at Franklin & Marshall. Fatsi is headed to Michigan and Seitz will attend Vanderbilt, which doesn’t have a varsity softball program. That Fatsi and Seitz, who have played together since they were in sixth grade, could win a title in what was likely their last softball game proved to be the perfect final chapter for the St. Luke’s seniors.
“Winning three straight FAAs, that was really big going out with a bang for senior year,” Fatsi said. “We really had a tough loss our freshman year so winning it sophomore year felt like revenge. Junior year, we knew we had to work harder to defend to get the back-to-back titles. We were trying to chase that 3-peat and we knew what it meant, how it would make history and be really great to build a legacy for St. Luke’s softball and for St. Luke’s in general.”
Mission accomplished.
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