H.S. Softball: Griswold's Lane hurls another no-hitter
Taylor Lane had just pitched a no-hitter against Lyman Memorial on Thursday when Griswold coach Rick Arremony asked her how many she had in her career.
"I have no idea," the senior left-hander said.
Arremony already knew the answer. Lane had tossed a no-hitter against Killingly last season and a perfect game against Plainfield in the state tournament.
Thursday marked her third after she shut down the Bulldogs and her teammates did the rest in an 11-0 victory at Griswold High School.
"At the beginning of the season, you don't always have command (of your pitches), and I have confidence right now," Lane said. "I'm going to throw a pitch, I commit to it. If you don't do that, it's not going to come out the way you want."
Just about everything came out the way she wanted against the Bulldogs. Taylor struck out 10 and missed a second-career perfect game by two walks. She issued a free pass to Lyman's Tori Lussier in the fifth and Brandi Potter drew a walk in the sixth inning.
"Each game she seems to be picking it up a little bit, getting more and more control, getting into a rhythm," Arremony said. "And when she can hit where you want her to pitch it, it makes it easy for me."
The closest the Bulldogs got to a hit was in the fifth when a come-backer by Morgan Meese glanced off the side of Lane's glove and rolled slowly toward the middle of the infield. Shortstop Jessy Bouchard picked it up and fired to Taylor Dansereau at first to cut down Meese on a close play.
"Jessy, oh my gosh, saved my life," Lane said. "Those tips are really scary, but she definitely saved me on that one."
The shutout, however, was nothing new for Lyman this season. The Bulldogs (0-3) scored only one run in a loss to Old Lyme and had only one hit in a shutout loss to St. Bernard.
"We have to keep working on it and (Lane) was awesome (Thursday)," Lyman coach Gary Hoyt said. "She had a really nasty change-up, great location and the kids played good defense behind her."
The Wolverines (4-0) also didn't let their pitcher down when it came to offensive support.
If there was a concern the Wolverines had coming into the season, it was their ability to put runs on the board.
"The offense (Thursday) looked as good as it has all season," Arremony said. "Now, we just hope to continue to improve from here. I don't imagine we're going to get this many hits every game."
The Wolverines pushed one run across in the first inning against Lyman pitcher Emily Vigue on a single by leadoff hitter Nina Wojtkiewicz, a stolen base and a single by Bouchard.
Then, in the fourth inning, Wolverines put three more runs on the board. Jess Synott singled, moved to second on a groundout and scored on the first of three RBIs by Sam Logan. Lane followed with a single and Logan came around on an error on the play in the outfield. Courtesy runner Alex Ondreicka then made it a four-run game when she scored on a base hit by Brianna Gosselin.
The Wolverines broke it open in the fifth inning when they sent 10 batters to the plate and scored seven runs. The biggest came courtesy of Logan, doubled to right-center for the only extra-base hit of the afternoon.
"I was excited — that was my biggest hit of the year," Logan said. "We won the last game, 11-0, we won this game 11-0. We're doing really well."
Said Arremony of the quick start: "(I'm) very happy. But we have a tough week next week with Waterford on Tuesday and then the divisional games — the important games — begin."