Softball: Trumbull tops Seymour behind two-out rallies

SEYMOUR — Down to its final out and trailing by two runs, Trumbull High had Seymour right where it wanted it.

The Eagles had already overcome a two-run deficit with some two-out offense — so why not second time?

Trumbull battled back from a 4-2 deficit with a three-run, two-out rally in the top of the seventh and held off the Wildcats 5-4 on Monday.

“I’m really proud of their guts, the way they showed perseverance,” Trumbull coach Jacqui Sheftz said. “I’m really proud of the girls. We’ve got to build on this.”

Julia Huzi smashed a game-tying double down the left field line and took third base when the ball was misplayed.

Huzi came across with the go-ahead run on a clean single to center off the bat of Alexa Adinolfi.

Trumbull pitcher Emily Gell worked around a leadoff single in the bottom of the seventh, inducing a pair of ground balls for force outs and a pop up to left to end it.

Seymour scored runs in the first and second inning to take a 2-0 lead.

Gell stranded the bases loaded with a pair of strikeouts to end the second.

Seymour capitalized on an error in the first when Jacey Costello reached and later scored on a Sierra Cripps double.

The Wildcats again capitalized on an error in the second, when Kiley Regan reached and scored following a walk to Alyssa Johnson and singles off the bats of Coscello and Lauren Haversat.

“I think we need to clean up our defense a little bit. We gave them too many outs today,” Sheftz said.

The Eagles got a run back in the third.

Huzi walked with two outs and scored on Adinolfi’s double to deep center.

Trumbull tied things with another two-out hit in the fourth.

Mackenzie Bruggeman singled after fouling off a few two-strike pitches to start the rally. Kiley Barbagallo dropped a game-tying single to center moments after lining a ball that the Eagles thought was fair and for extra bases, that was called foul.

The Wildcats went back up a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth on a two-run double off the top of the wall in left-center off the bat of Haversat.

Trumbull first baseman Shannon O’Shea made a diving snare of a liner for the second out of the sixth before Seymour strung together some hits.

Trumbull’s seventh-inning rally started with one out singles by Barbagallo and Ava Dunn.

“We had a freshman today step up offensively in key situations,” Sheftz said of Barbagallo who had two hits and a run scored.

Gell struck out 11 batters, all in the first five innings.

“They’re the number three team in the state for a reason. We got a lead, they fought back. We made a couple mistakes in the field and they made us pay,” Seymour coach Ken Pereiras said.

“Overall, I’m very pleased with our team. We played a good game  — just not good enough. We’re still young. We’ve got a lot of young kids out there. I think we’re going to get better as the season goes on.”