Softball: Williams almost perfect as St. Joe's stops Trumbull (Video)

St. Joseph ace Nicole Williams carried a perfect game into the bottom of the seventh, as the Cadets pinned a 7-1 defeat on host Trumbull High in an FCIAC tilt. Harleigh Kaczegowicz led off the bottom of the seventh with a sharp single up the middle, before Lea Thompson broke up the shutout bid with an RBI double. Williams, a junior, struck out 12 and did not allow a walk. "She was phenomenal," St. Joseph head coach Jeff Babineau said. "It's hard. You go through that, you get a little tired, you're pumped up. She did her job, she keeps us in the game. We're going to get her runs and she's not going to let too many people score on her." The Cadets (14-0, 12-0 in the FCIAC) provided all of the run support Williams needed in the top of the first inning, pushing four runs across against Eagle starter Ally Szabo. "I told the girls this was our last loss," said Trumbull High head coach Cary Nadel, whose squad dropped its second game in a row. "We'll shake it off and take on Ridgefield Monday. What I liked is they didn't quit... They got the bats on the ball the last inning." Jovanna Hillman, Nicole Williams and Hannah Hutchison hit run-scoring singles in the first inning and Katie Gardella added an RBI fielder's choice. In the fifth inning, Hutchison singled and scored when Melissa Bike's single to right field was misplayed. St. Joseph added another insurance run sixth, when Williams slammed an RBI double to drive in courtesy runner Trish Bastek. Hillman, Williams, Hutchison and Bike had two hits apiece for the Cadets. Meanwhile, Williams was almost flawless in the circle. Trumbull (11-3, 9-3 FCIAC) didn't hit a ball into the outfield until the fourth inning, when Kaczegowicz lifted a high flyball to center that was reeled in by Hutchison. "I've seen her pitch twice already this year," Nadel said of Williams. "She threw the way I've seen her throw since she was a freshman. She moves the ball well... She climbs the ladder." Trumbull travels to Ridgefield High (9-5) on Monday for a 4 p.m contest, while St. Joseph hosts Westhill High of Stamford (9-3). "That's no pushover... We are going to go at them," Babineau said of the Vikings, winners of five straight. https://youtu.be/DrWhVbMHb_Y

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