THS Softball Advances in Tourney; Baseball, Girls Tennis Seasons End

The Tolland High softball will continue on in their state tournament journey, but the trip for the baseball and girls tennis teams have come to an end.

The softball team defeated Lauralton Hall in a close game Wednesday and launched the Eagles forward to Rocky Hill, where they will meet the Terriers on Friday afternoon.

As with their other games, the match Wednesday came down to a battle of pitching and who had the hotter bats.

Tolland Coach Tom Drury said that Laurelton struck first getting two runs in the first inning. In the third, Tolland struck back with their own two runs that were scored after consecutive singles by Katie Akerley and Haley Provost, who were then driven in by a double from Alex D'Aloisio, who also pitched the first five innings.

Jess Olson relieved D'Aloisio in the sixth and kept Lauralton scoreless.

Tolland scored the go-ahead run in the seventh when Britt DeCarli reached on an error, was moved to second on a wild pitch and then scored on a RBI double from Olson.

It was tense in the bottom of the seventh when Lauralton’s first two batters reached on “bloop singles,” Drury wrote in an e-mail Wednesday.

“Olson got the next batter on a pop fly to third, and the next on a spectacular running catch by centerfielder Ashley Clawson. On the play, both runners advanced to 2nd and 3rd,” Drury wrote.

Olson earned the third and final out of the game with runners in place when she delivered a pitch that was brought a hard ground ball to Kelsey Lewis who scooped at shortstop.

Tolland’s history wit Rocky Hill, an in-league foe, is a tricky one. The Eagles lost the first game (4-3) but had to forfeit the second meeting because they couldn’t field a team for a makeup game during Prom weekend.

Rocky Hill’s prom is scheduled for Friday night. Drury said the teams are trying to work out an acceptable time to play the game.

In boys tennis doubles, Tolland’s Dylan Roman and Eric Venezia, seeded fourth, made it to the third round with a victory over No. 13 Alexander Acunzo and Austin Day of Branford.

Although certainly successful in their own right, the baseball and girls tennis teams were not able to make it past their admirable foes Wednesday. The baseball team fell to Farmington High 4 to 1, while Berlin High defeated the Eagle girls tennis squad 5 to 2.

"I thought it was going to be a close match," Tolland girls tennis coach Kris Coffey said. "They are a good team and they played better today. 

Berlin's Eva Rybka played very well in dominating Tolland's number one senior Sarah Anischik, 6-1, 6-3. 

Berlin's Jenn Flannery won at number two singles 6-2, 7-5 over Tolland’s Jessi Rhodes.

That gave Berlin a 2-0 lead. Tolland pulled out a win in first doubles when Melissa Kenney and Allison Waterfield beat Berlin's Kelly Josephson and Kristen Cavaliere. 

With the score 3-1 Berlin, the Redcoats' number three doubles team of Emma Johnson and Megan Pitkin won in three sets, 6-2, 4-6 and 7-5 to close out the match and give Berlin the all-important fourth point. 

Tolland's Nikki Halladay beat Berlin's Shawna Rosol at fourth singles. Second doubles Kelly Byrnes and Sam Cooper beat Tolland's Jackie Wolff and Michelle Zimmerman and for good measure April Regan at third singles beat Tolland's Katie Rhodes for the 5-2 win. 

"I'm totally pleased with the season. One of the things I'm most pleased about is how the girls conducted themselves all season and did so again today after the loss. They are great kids,” Coffey said of his team.

Tolland loses four seniors, Anischik, Jessi and Katie Rhodes and Kenney

"I came in when they were sophomores and they helped me just as much as I helped them, probably more," Coffey added. "They were an awesome, awesome group of seniors an they helped us to get to the state quarterfinals which is great."