MERIDEN – St. Paul Catholic softball coach Gary Hovhanessian expected Monday’s Class S semifinal against No. 9 Holy Cross to be a close one, and it was.
His No. 12 Falcons owned the game’s only run through the first five innings at the Dunn Sports Complex in Meriden, but Holy Cross strung together a three-run rally in the bottom of the sixth and held on to win, 3-1, to secure its first state final appearance since 2017.
Holy Cross will meet the winner of Monday night’s matchup between No. 2 Coventry and No. 6 Old Lyme at UConn’s Burrill Family Field Saturday.
St. Paul threatened with two runners in scoring position in the first inning but wasn’t able to capitalize until the top of the fourth, after pitcher Lauren Kozlak, a junior, drilled a leadoff double to the left field fence. Harley Emmendorfer, who entered as a courtesy runner, crossed the plate for the game’s first run on a Breyona Demora fielder’s choice.
The Falcons (16-9) recorded seven hits off Holy Cross starter Samantha Lawton, who pitched a complete game, but were unable to scratch another run across.
“Tough to win one-nothin’,” Hovhanessian said. “We kept saying we need more runs, we need more runs. We could’ve chipped away, we scored six against them during the season, they scored a bunch too (13), but we needed a few more runs obviously.”
Kozlak, who struck out four, escaped a bases loaded jam in the bottom of the fifth inning but allowed the first three hitters in the sixth to reach base, including an RBI double that tied the game and marked the end of her day in the pitcher’s circle.
The Crusaders scratched two more runs across in the sixth after the Falcons turned to Demora in relief.
“She’s got some junk that moves and ties up the batters, keeps them off balance and she did fine. Maybe the heat, started running out of gas a little bit, so we made the change,” Hovhanessian said. “You second guess yourself, did you make it at the right time – again, we’ve got to score more runs. Giving up three runs to that team, we should win that game.”
With only one senior in the lineup, catcher Julia Lawson, St. Paul expects to remain one of the top programs in Class S.
“Next year we come back, we fully expect to be, honestly, in the same position next year,” St. Paul assistant coach Blair Soucy said.