CHESHIRE – The goal of the Cheshire High School softball team this season was simple: to be happy.
If coach Kristine Drust could combine a sense of cohesiveness with her group of talented returning players, that would lead to happiness – and success (in theory). Which, in reality, it has.
The Rams are 19-1, losing only to undefeated Masuk, and will be the top seed in the Class LL tournament, which starts with first round games on May 28.
“We met in the pre-season and spoke about all the things that lead to unhappiness in teams and success in teams,” Drust said. “Our staff knew we were highly skilled. Sometimes with highly skilled players, there comes some type of competitiveness or less cohesion. At the end of the day, kids want to have a good experience and they want to be happy. We dug deep into what it takes to be a team, what it sounds like and looks like and feels like.
“Our focus was more relationship driven and how to get past the hard moments and getting past the hard moments better. I think it has truly led to one of the best dynamics we’ve had here since I’ve been here.”
There have been hard moments for the Rams off the field, and the cohesion, togetherness and trust Drust has built has ended up helping her and her family. On April 25, the day of a highly anticipated game against perennial power Southington, the team was called into an emergency meeting at school. They were told that Drust couldn’t make the game because her husband Don, who is the football coach at Cheshire High, had what Kristine called “a life-threatening complication” after surgery that day and she was at the hospital with him.
“They said a prayer out in the outfield, and they just rallied around me and my husband,” Drust said. “They said, ‘Coach, we got it.’ They came out on fire, just wanting to rally around that adversity.”
Sophomore Jenica Matos threw a no-hitter with 15 strikeouts. Senior Karla Carangelo had a bases-clearing double in the fifth inning to break open the game. Cheshire won, 4-1, over Southington, last year’s Class LL runner-up.
“All that was going through my head was, ‘I need to get this done for Coach,’” Matos said.
“When I got up, the bases were loaded, it was 1-1 and I just knew (Drust) needed this,” Carangelo said. “I said, ‘Just got to do it, got to pull through,’ I hit a double. I did it.”
Drust said her husband is home now after spending five days in the ICU and two weeks in the hospital.
“Hopefully we’ll get to the other side of this,” she said. “But the parents, they’ve set up meal trains, I have meals at my house every day. My husband wasn’t able to come to my daughter’s First Communion because he was in the hospital and the team showed up at the doorstep that morning for her. They’re just a special, special group of kids.”
Matos is 15-1 with 226 strikeouts and has given up 30 hits and 12 earned runs and has two no-hitters. Her only loss was to undefeated Masuk on April 13, 10-6.
“Every game, she’s always electric on the mound,” Cheshire junior catcher Erin Hersh said. “Southington was like the epitome of finally demonstrating just how amazing she is, that she can compete with anyone as a sophomore.”
As of Friday, Carangelo, who will play at UMass-Boston next year, was batting .404 with 17 RBI and three home runs, one of which helped beat Guilford in a 10-inning game. Junior third baseman Tai Byrd was batting .347 with 19 RBI and is committed to Central Connecticut. Sophomore outfielder Ava Pearson was leading the team in hitting with a .504 batting average.
Top-seeded Cheshire will play Law in the SCC tournament quarterfinal game Monday. Last year, the Rams lost in the conference semifinals. Both Drust and her team are looking forward to the post-season after losing in the Class LL quarterfinals to Newtown 4-0 last year.
“This is my outlet,” Drust said. “A lot of the girls, this is their outlet as well. I think (the adversity) made them stronger. But they had it well before this setback with my family. It was not that situation which brought them closer together. They were already there.”