Gem Shopping: Week 4

Here are the potential gems for this week:

Monday
Cheshire at No. 3 Amity-Woodbridge
Amity can all but wrap up SCC Housatonic Division with victory today

No. 9 Trumbull at Stamford
The only meeting during the regular season between these two FCIAC rivals

No. 4 Masuk at Bunnell
Bunnell has won 12 straight games

Tuesday
No. 8 NFA at Fitch
Fitch earned a 4-0 victory on April 18

Thursday
Fitch at Waterford
Waterford seeking revenge after suffering 3-2 loss against Lancers on April 20

Friday
Newtown at No. 10 Lauralton Hall
Lauralton won 2-1 in the first meeting earlier this season

Plainville at Middletown
Plainville looking to stay unbeaten against solid Middletown team, who the Blue Devils beat 1-0 on April 21

Gem Shopping: Week 3

Here is a list of potential gems for this week:

Monday
No. 1 Southington vs. Bristol Central
The Lady Knights play their first game since ascending to the top spot in the Register Poll.

Tuesday
No. 3 Amity vs. No. 6 Mercy
Amity won the first meeting 3-1
No. 7 St. Joseph vs. Stamford
The Cadets face their biggest test since losing season-opener to Trumbull
No. 9 NFA vs. Griswold
This is the only regular season meeting between the two this season.
No. 4 Bristol Eastern vs. Bristol Central
The battle of Bristol starts at 3:45 at Central

Wednesday
No. 2 Seymour vs. Naugatuck
The Wildcats won convincingly last week. Can the Greyhounds pull the upset?

Thursday
No. 8 Waterford vs. NFA
NFA won 3-2 on April 19
Mercy vs. Cheshire
Mercy looking for revenge after Rams won 5-2 on April 11

Friday
Southington vs. Bristol Eastern
Southington handed the Lancers their only loss this season 1-0 on April 9
Coginchaug vs. North Branford
North Branford looking to knock off Blue Devils, who are unbeaten in the Shoreline Conference

Saturday
No. 5 Masuk vs. No. 10 Lauralton Hall
An afternoon affair between the two best teams in the South-West Conference
Waterford vs. Griswold
Waterford handed the Wolverines their only loss this season, 1-0 on April 10

Change at the top

After Hamden stunned top-ranked Amity-Woodbridge 1-0 in 10 innings last Monday, there is a No. 1 team atop the Register Poll.

Is it Southington or Seymour or did Bristol Eastern rise to the top?

Find out in Monday's Register.

Amity, Cheshire upset

Top-ranked Amity suffered its first loss of the season, a 1-0 decision to Hamden in 10 innings.


Cheshire also lost Monday....1-0 to Sacred Heart Academy.


Read all about those games and more in Tuesday's Register.

Gem Shopping: Week 3

It should be an exciting week as there is the potential for several gems around the state.

Here is the rundown:


Monday
No. 3 Seymour puts its 59-game winning streak on the line against Watertown (6-1).
No. 4 Bristol Eastern faces Maloney-Meriden (5-1)

Wednesday
No. 7 Mercy-Middletown travels to No. 10 Hand-Madison

Thursday
Seymour faces NVL rival Naugatuck (6-1)

Friday
No. 1 Amity-Woodbridge hosts Mercy
Bristol Eastern travels to crosstown rival Bristol Central


Almost forgot about this one:

Saturday
Norwich Free Academy travels to No. 8 St. Joseph-Trumbull

Poll Sneak Peek

I just tabulated this week's Top 10 Poll and it's consistent, for the most part, with last week.

The Top 3 remain the same: Amity-Woodbridge, Southington and Seymour and there is one newcomer this week.

Check out the complete poll in Monday's Register and tell us if you agree with the sportswriters and coaches who vote in the poll.

Send me a comment and tell me what you think.

Seymour winning streak

I incorrectly reported the length of Seymour's current winning streak in my game story on Friday.

In the midst of trying to write my story and take all of your phone calls, I wrote that the Wildcats have won 50 straight games. Actually, Seymour has won 59 straight. The 0 and 9 are so close on the keyboard that my finger just clicked on the wrong number.

I apologize for the error. 59 straight...quite the accomplishment. Hats off to the Wildcats.

Gem Shopping: Week 2

Well once again the weather has wrecked havoc on the schedule but hopefully teams can get on the diamond at some point this week.

Some of the gems this week are:

It'll be a busy week in the Eastern Connecticut Conference as unbeaten Norwich Free Academy, 5-0 and ranked eighth in the Register Poll, hosts undefeated Fitch-Groton on Wednesday and then travels to Waterford (5-0) on Thursday.

We will find out just how good Fitch is after the Falcons knocked off Rachele Fico and Masuk-Monroe last week. Fitch plays Waterford on Friday.

In Southern Connecticut Conference action, Hand-Madison (5-0) travels to No. 1 Amity-Woodbridge on Friday.

The dates and records are as of Monday. Hopefully, Mother Nature cooperates. We could all use a break from the rain.

Stats and Scores

We’ve been having some difficulties with our Web exchange score-reporting system.

Coaches are still encouraged to use the system. If you want to report scores this way, please e-mail me at mpucci@nhregister.com to get your user name and password for access to the site and directions in how to use the system.

In the past, we have tabulated statistics using that site. However, because of the technical difficulties, we weren’t able to calculate complete statistics for every game that has been reported to us.

We hope to continue putting statistics in the paper every Monday, but I need your help.

Please send complete season statistics to the e-mail address above by Saturday evening each week if you want your players mentioned in the leaders section.

Da, da, da, da, da, da, da...................Washout!

That Mother Nature has not been kind to our athletes this spring so far.

All of Monday's softball action from across the state was postponed due to Sunday's Nor'easter, which dropped as much as eight inches of rain in some parts of the state.

As I was driving into the office this afternoon, I drove past this makeshift soccer field on Ella Grasso Boulevard. It looked more like the Ella Grasso River as the water almost reached the road. I don't even want to guess at the condition of some of these softball fields. It can't be pretty. I know when I watched Cheshire host Amity this past Friday, they had to play on the junior varsity field as the varsity field was a mudpit.

So no games today. And I'll go out on a limb and say that some fields may not be ready to play on Tuesday.

A new No.1

As I promised in Saturday's blog entry, I will give you a sneak peek at the latest Top 10 Poll, which will be released on Monday.

In the words of the late "King", Elvis that is, this week's poll is All Shook Up.

Three teams join the Top 10 for the first time this season.

And yes, there is a new No. 1 team. I won't tell you who it is here, you will have to read Monday's Register to find out, but here are the Top 3, however, not in order.

Southington, Amity and Seymour.

Saturday's action (4/14)

There weren't many games on the schedule today as most teams played on Friday but one game of interest was Naugatuck emerging with a 3-0 victory over Sacred Heart-Waterbury.

Greyhounds pitcher Alana Wesche tossed a two-hitter and struck out 14. What is more impressive is that Naugatuck is 4-0 and could be the surprise team not only in the Naugatuck Valley League but around the area as well.

For the other action on Saturday, check out Sunday's Register.


Coming soon: The Register unveils the Top 10 Poll on Monday. I'll give you a sneak peek at the new poll sometime on Sunday.

Wednesday's action (4/11)

It was another busy day of softball action around the area.

One of the gems of the day has to be Hamden's 2-1 12-inning victory over Law-Milford. Hamden junior pitcher Kassondra Silva struck out 23 as the Green Dragons improved to 2-2.

To read all about that game and the other gems of the day, including top-ranked Mercy-Middletown, who lost for the second straight day, check out tommorrow's Register.

Looking ahead to Thursday's games, the one to watch is Masuk-Monroe and Lauralton Hall. Will Lauralton be able to muster any hits or runs against Masuk's sophomore hurler Rachele Fico? I will suggest you head out to Monroe to find out and if you can't make it, you can read all about it in Friday's Register.

Tuesday's action (4/10)

Ah, the phones have finally stopped ringing, the fax machine is quiet and they aren't any more messages in the inbox of our e-mail account.

It was a busy day of softball around the area. The gem of the day, and I thought it would be, was Amity and Mercy. I thought it would be a pitchers duel and it was as Mercy's Tory Satagaj had a no-hitter broken up in the seventh inning as Amity knocked off coach Jason Thody's Tigers, who are ranked first in the Register Poll.

You will need to pick up tommorrow's Register to find out what happened but Amity did indeed remain unbeaten with a thrilling victory.

Speaking of Thody, his niece Nicole, a junior pitcher at Middletown High, is off to a quick start.

Nicole allowed just three hits and struck out 10 as her team defeated defending Class S champion Coginchaug 6-1 on Saturday as Middletown earned its first victory in the series since 1993.

Middletown is 2-1 on the young season following a 3-0 loss to St. Paul on Monday.

Attention! Reporting your scores.

There are various ways to report your game scores to the Register.

You may call our sports department at (203) 789-5657. That is the main sports line and it will bounce to the other phones even if someone is on that phone. Please be patient, we get a lot of calls and sometimes you may need to call back a few times in order to reach someone in our department.

The fax number is (203) 789-5253
The main sports department e-mail address is localsports@nhregister.com.

We are also encouraging coaches and scorekeepers to report scores using our web exchange system.

In order to use this service, you need a username and password. To obtain this info., please e-mail me at mpucci@nhregister.com and I will give out those access codes.

I'll be looking forward from hearing from you soon.

Monday's action (4/9)

Scores from Monday's action are starting to trickle in.

One gem I just took was Hand-Madison emerging with a 2-1 victory over SCC Hammonasset Division foe Law-Milford.

I will keep you all in suspense until tommorrow to find out how the Tigers won but Hand coach Ray Ezell thought Law "was a very good team" and he expects the Eagles to be right in the mix in the SCC along with Amity, Mercy and his Tigers.

Gem Shopping: Week 1

Alright, I know last week was the official start to the softball season but since so few teams played, I will begin my weekly picks for the best games during this week's action.

This is the start of a weekly feature that will highlight which games fans and other observers should get out and see.

This week, the best local game on the schedule is Amity-Woodbridge, which is ranked third in the Register Top 10 poll, visiting top-ranked Mercy-Middletown, the defending Class LL champion, on Tuesday (April 10). First pitch is at 4 p.m.

Amity is led by junior pitcher Lauren Bespuda, who tossed a one-hitter in her team's opening season 8-1 victory over Foran-Milford. Mercy counters with senior pitcher Tory Satagaj. The game should be a classic pitchers duel but both teams are capable of producing runs.

Of note: three of the four Amity losses last season came at the hands of Mercy. That should be incentive enough for the Spartans.


Another gem should be on Thursday (April 12) when Masuk-Monroe hosts Lauralton Hall-Milford in a South-West Conference battle that features teams ranked in the Register Top 10 Poll.

Masuk's sophomore flamethrower Rachele Fico has struck out 19 batters in victories over both Westhill-Stamford and Stamford.

Lauralton Hall suffered a tough opening-season loss to Norwich Free Academy (that was mentioned in 'Poll Watching' in a previous entry on this blog). The Crusaders, who lost to Seymour in last season's Class M final, will be eager to win an early season matchup against Masuk, also one of the SWC's power teams.

Poll watching

Due to the abbreviated schedule last week because of the inclement weather and the holidays, the Register did not release a new poll this week.

The first poll since the preseason edition will run on this upcoming Monday, April 16.

But some teams that did rank in the preseason poll were in action last week with mixed results.

The top three teams, Mercy-Middletown (1-0), Masuk-Monroe (2-0) and Amity-Woodbridge (1-0) all had successful weeks.

However, No. 7 Lauralton Hall-Milford dropped a heartbreaker to Norwich Free Academy 4-3 in a 13-inning affair.

No. 10 Coginchaug-Durham, the defending Class S state champion, was defeated by Middletown 6-1.

Those two losses as well as some interesting games on tap this week will certainly shake up the poll.

Check the new poll out next week.

Welcome to Diamond Gems

This blog is dedicated to high school softball action from around the state.

In the weeks ahead, I will regularly update this site with various notes, game highlights and other facts about teams and players from both the Register's circulation area and from around the state.

My weekly softball notebook, poll and additional softball related material, like team standings and statistical leaders, will run every Monday in the Register.

My blog will also include various high school related links, including one to the Register's weekly Top 10 softball poll.

I welcome any comments from our readers, fans, players and coaches.

I hope you all enjoy the blog.