Bethel Softball Falls In Opening Round

Through one inning it looked like the Bethel High softball team might avenge a pair of regular season losses to New Fairfield by bouncing the No. 15 Rebels in the first round of the Class L playoffs, but it wasn’t to be.

Yesenia Evaristo got the No. 18 Wildcats (12-10) off to a strong start with a two-run homerun in the first, and then struck out the side in the bottom of the inning, but after that everything favored the Rebels. The Wildcats were limited to two more hits the rest of the way and fell 4-2.

“It was a great start,” Coach Lynn Fenn said. “You’ve got the momentum going, you get everybody pumped, hopefully deflate them a little bit. It’s a great way to start the game…I thought this was going to be a good game, this the third time we’ve seen them, if we’re going to beat them this is going to be it.”

Rachel Barton followed Evaristo’s homerun with a single, but New Fairfield’s Cynthia Barata retired the next 16 Wildcats to come to the plate.

“I can’t even explain it, they hit the ball, we didn’t,” Fenn said. “We made some contact, but there was not a whole lot we hit with power, we were hitting to people’s gloves.”

While the Wildcats were unable to get anything going, the Rebels used four hits and a pair of Wildcats’ errors to take a 4-1 lead with a three-run fourth. Sparked by a pair of leadoff singles to right, the Rebels took advantage of two defensive miscues by the Wildcats and got two infield singles to take the lead.

“They’re a good ball club, they don’t make mistakes,” Fenn said. “They hit the ball, their pitcher kept them in the game, they hustle running the bases, they capitalized on our errors. Those are all the things you have to do to win games.”

Evaristo and Barton each singled with two outs in the sixth, but the rally was ended when Sherry Senger hit a hard liner right at the third baseman. Overall, Evaristo and Barton each had two hits and Alyssa Martinez singled in the first. Barata retired the Wildcats in order in the seventh to end the game.

Evaristo pitched six innings and struck out struck out eight in the loss.  

“She keeps us in the game, she’s a smart pitcher, she throws the ball where she needs to throw it to make it happen,” Fenn said. “She knows what she’s done the past two games against them so she knew where to throw it. She’s an intense girl, player, she helps her cause with her bat, what else can she do?”