The CT Softball Blog

WEST HAVEN—As Jordan McCue strode to the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning, she knew what was coming.

In fact, so did most of those in attendance at Frank Biondi Field for Wednesday night’s Southern Connecticut Conference softball championship game: An intentional walk.

Three pitches later, McCue was jogging around the bases, having hit a two-run walk-off home run to left field, giving the top-seeded Rams the league championship with a 2-0 win over third-seeded Jonathan Law.

“I was expecting to get intentionally walked, but then I saw her start pitching so I was like, ‘Oh, maybe it’ll just be all outside pitches,’” said McCue, who was named the Dani Kemp MVP of the game. “And then I saw the pitch in the middle and I jumped on that opportunity. I was not expecting it, but I’m grateful for it.”

It was the second SCC championship in three seasons for Cheshire, which fell just short in last year’s title tilt against Foran.

“I’m just really proud to be their coach,” said Cheshire coach Kristine Drust. “These are hard games and as coaches, sometimes we want things to be easier, but is there any better feeling than this? I think that if you look at a game, and maybe we’re up 5-0 or 6-0, and it still doesn’t feel like this. This is what it’s all about. And I’m just really proud that they fought through.”

While McCue’s homer was the exclamation point, it was Addy Coffey’s lead-off at-bat in the bottom of the eighth that gave Cheshire some rally-starting momentum.

Down 1-2 in the count to Law starting pitcher Maddie Bonanno, Coffey battled back to draw a lead-off walk to open the inning.

“I was just looking for a strike, looking for a pitch,” Coffey said. “Obviously not looking to get walked, but that’s how it ended up. But it definitely got a lot of momentum going.”

Avery Miramant then laid down a sacrifice bunt, pushing Coffey to second base and into scoring position.

That brought McCue, who was 4-for-4 in the semifinals and is hitting almost .600 this season, to the plate.

With first base open, everybody expected an intentional walk.

Instead, the Law coaching staff opted to pitch to the UConn-bound second baseman.

Faced with a 2-0 count, McCue got a strike. With one swing of the bat, it was over.

Ball game.

“It might be top one, honestly,” McCue said when asked where the moment ranked in her career. “Being in a situation like that and just being able to produce for our team, and seeing how hard everybody, especially how hard (starting pitcher Jenica Matos) worked to keep this game tight, because obviously our bats weren’t really doing anything. I feel it’s great to be able to do that and help everybody out. It’s just great.”

Jonathan Law interim coach Dave Mills didn’t talk to the press postgame.

McCue’s home run once again made a winner out of Matos, who gave up just two hits in recording her 19^th shutout of the season. She struck out 10 and walked two.

“It was stressful, but it’s fun,” said Matos. “Doing it with this group that we’re doing it with, it was just amazing. (Law) is a great team. They played their hearts out. We played our hearts out and we took over. We’re a tight knit group and we just deserve it. We’ve worked hard and it just paid off.”

Ava Pearson and Molly Fleming had the other two hits for Cheshire, both singles. Both players immediately stole second to get into scoring position, but both were stranded there in earlier innings.

For the Lawmen, Bonanno was outstanding, holding the Rams to just three hits over the eight innings of play. She went toe-to-toe with Matos—who was given the SCC Player of the Year before the game—striking out 12 and walking just two.

Offensively, Lily Stankevich had both hits, two singles.

Law did get one runner to third base in the first inning.

Stankevich singled on a slow roller to shortstop and moved to second when Chloe Capalbo was hit by a pitch. A ground ball out moved both runners into scoring position, but Matos escaped the inning with a strikeout to end the threat.

Stankevich was actually robbed off a three-hit effort in the top of the third when she sent a blast deep into the right-center field gap.

The “official scorer” in the booth gave Cheshire center fielder Ava Pearson an error on the play, but it was far from a routine play.

Once again, though, Matos got out of the inning.

“This was hard on her, hard on all of us, but at the end of the day these are the games that we need to be able to finish this out,” said Drust, whose team will chase back-to-back state championships starting next week.

Chances are, though, for any coaches keeping an eye on the SCC championship game, Jordan McCue might find herself intentionally walked at some point.

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