TRUMBULL — The wait stretched a little longer than expected, but for Darien senior pitcher Vivian Knott, the ending was worth every extra minute.
After spending the past year chasing another opportunity to play for an FCIAC championship, Knott finally got her chance Thursday night. And once the game began, the Blue Wave ace made sure it would end with a title celebration.
Knott tossed a four-hit shutout, striking out 13 and walking just one, as top-seeded Darien defeated host Trumbull, 2-0, to capture its first FCIAC softball championship since 2017.
“It just feels amazing,” Knott said. “I’m so proud of us. We’ve worked so hard this season and our hitting and defense has really come together, especially in the postseason, so I’m just really proud of all of our hard work.”
The championship game was originally scheduled for an earlier start, but concerns about the setting sun beyond the center field fence forced officials to push first pitch back by more than an hour. An additional delay followed, leaving players waiting well into the evening before the title game could finally begin.
When the first pitch was finally delivered at 7:44 p.m., Knott quickly settled into command.
The Blue Wave gave their ace all the support she would need in the third inning.
Freshman designated player Camden Comfort delivered the game’s biggest hit, driving a double into the left-center field gap to bring home both Darien runs.
“It was really incredible,” Comfort said. “I know last year they went 14 innings and they explained how exhausting it was and I was like ‘We’re not doing that. I need to get home and go to sleep.’ So I had two strikes or whatever and I knew I had a good opportunity and I just needed to make contact.”
The two-run knock provided Knott with a cushion she never allowed Trumbull to threaten.
“What can you say? They were the better team tonight,” said Trumbull coach Tom Pia, whose Eagles beat the Blue Wave 1-0 during the regular season. “I called the pitch. Maybe I should have gone to a change-up or something like that. I didn’t think (Comfort) was on it, but that was the game. Vivian was lights out tonight.”
Darien’s offense managed only a handful of scoring opportunities, but Comfort’s timely swing proved enough as the Blue Wave improved to 18-3 on the season.
Meanwhile, Knott continued to keep the Eagles off balance from start to finish. Trumbull entered the championship game as the tournament’s host and the No. 3 seed, but struggled to generate sustained offense against the Darien right-hander.
For Trumbull, Maren Jones singled twice while Julia Terry and Harper Delaney both had hits, as well.
Madison Pippa was the tough-luck loser. She gave up six hits over six innings of work, striking out eight while walking four.
Trumbull threatened in the second, putting runners on first and second with one out, but couldn’t score on Knott. The Eagles would get no further runners into scoring position.
By the time Knott recorded the final out nearly two hours after the delayed start, the Blue Wave had completed the tournament run and secured the program’s first conference crown in nine years.
For Knott, who was selected as the FCIAC Championship Player of the Game, despite entering the tournament as the conference’s top seed, the victory represented the culmination of a season-long pursuit.
“I don’t know why this one feels better than any of the other ones did,” said Darien coach Nick Demaio, whose teams won back-to-back titles in 2011-12 in addition to the 2017 campaign. “I’m not sure why. I think one of the things that the kids kind of saw was, here we are, the No. 1 seed, and we end up winning FCIACs, and we have just one kid honored All-Country. Vivian. No one else. I we didn’t even have a second team. Nothing. I think the kids felt slighted.”
The celebration that followed under the lights at Trumbull High School was one vastly different than Darien had felt an entire year before.
This time, the Blue Wave didn’t let the opportunity slip away.
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