Fairfield Warde Softball Falls To Conard In Class LL Semifinals

The Fairfield Warde softball team fell victim to a long ball assault.

Dani Stevens, winning pitcher Jessica Dufault and Mallory Martucci all homered Tuesday as No. 3 seed Conard defeated the 10th-seeded Mustangs 10-2 at Stratford's Deluca Field to advance to the CIAC Class LL state finals.

The Chieftains will play in a state final for the first time in school history after losing in the first round of the state tournament in each of the last seven years.

The Mustangs' season ended in the semifinals for the second straight year. Last year, Warde fell to eventual state champion Waterford in the Class L semifinals.

Conard, which scored all 10 runs with two outs Tuesday, will take on top seed Westhill, an 8-2 winner over Bristol Central in the first semifinal, in the final on Friday or Saturday.

"We played a great game tonight," Conard coach Tom Verrengia said. "It started with Jess and our offense. We woke up tonight. We really haven't scored that many runs in the postseason, but we really came alive with the bats tonight."

After the game, Warde coach Gary Quiricone told his players to keep their heads up.

"No other (Fairfield) Warde team has been here (state semifinals), not only once but twice," Quiricone said. "The message was keep your heads up high. You took it one game at time, you got to the final four. You're an elite group of softball players in the state, getting to that final four. That's something to be really proud of."

Still, not much went right for the Mustangs on Tuesday.

After Conard grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second on Dufault's RBI single, the Chieftains broke it open with five runs in the third on Stevens' three-run homer and Dufault's two-run shot.

Warde junior starter Heather Vanderheyden singled with one out in the top of the fourth and scored on an error to get Warde on the board. The Indians got back that run in the fifth on an RBI single by Dufault, who finished 3-for-3 with four runs batted in.

"They were zoning in on Heather's pitches," Quiricone added. "They hit the ball well today. We struggled to hit today. That's unusual for us. Our hitting game went down today. We've been hitting the ball well through the tournament."

Dufault kept the Warde hiters off balance with her curve, allowing only four hits.

The Chieftains tacked on their final three runs in the sixth on Caelese Brown's RBI single and Martucci's two-run homer.

Vanderheyden, who was 2-for-3, doubled in the seventh and scored the Mustangs' second run on the front end of a double steal.

Stevens also had three hits for Conard, falling a triple shy of the cycle.

Tuesday's game ended the career of Warde's five seniors -- Alyssa Borowy, Andrea DeBernardis, Stacey Dileo, Summer Anderson and Katlyn McCartney, who also reached the FCIAC final in 2009.