The continued championship success of Fairfield Ludlowe led by the dominance of senior pitcher Alex Lewey was at the forefront as the main accomplishment to highlight the 2024 FCIAC softball season.
Fairfield Ludlowe won its fourth straight FCIAC Softball Tournament
championship, and for the fourth consecutive year Lewey was the winning pitcher in the conference championship game.
Seventeen days later first-year coach Adam Laliberte’s Fairfield Ludlowe Falcons made it a double crown season for the second consecutive year by adding a state championship when they won Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class LL Softball Tournament title.
Four straight FCIAC championships and two straight state championships. Not a bad run at that for the four-year varsity players on the Fairfield Ludlowe High School softball team.
Ridgefield, St. Joseph, Trumbull, and Darien were some FCIAC teams who had very good seasons. Ridgefield and St. Joseph both advanced to the semifinals of their respective state tournaments. Ridgefield’s Tigers advanced to the FCIAC tournament final, and they ended up losing to Fairfield Ludlowe in both of their postseason tournaments.
Lewey struck out five Ridgefield Tigers, scattered five hits, hurled shutout ball for the first six innings, allowed no earned runs and was named the game’s MVP after she led Fairfield Ludlowe to a 5-2 victory in the 2024 FCIAC Softball Tournament championship game on May 22 at Fairfield University.
Rosanna Merturi, Izzy Mulhall, Gina Solow, Allie Tournas and Lewey all made key contributions to a Ludlowe offense which utilized timely hitting and successful squeeze bunts.
Merturi had two hits, including a two-out double to drive in the fifth run which staked Fairfield Ludlowe to a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning. Ludlowe took a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Solow led off with a triple, scored on a squeeze bunt by Tournas and soon after Mulhall singled in Tournas. Fairfield Ludlowe scored another two runs in the third inning on Mulhall’s sacrifice fly and Lewey’s squeeze bunt.
The Falcons won their previous three FCIAC titles under head coach Lou Bunosso, who completed his outstanding career at Fairfield Ludlowe with a 107-18 record from 2018-23 and was hired as the new head coach at Alberta Magnus College on July 20, 2023.
It took 15 innings for coach Lauren Greywacz’ Ridgefield’s Tigers to persevere for their 3-2 victory over Norwalk and Lewey shut out Trumbull, 5-0, in the FCIAC tournament semifinals.
Lewey got her first shutout of the tournament in Ludlowe’s 4-0 quarterfinal victory over Darien. She pitched all 21 innings, struck out 25, and allowed no earned runs in the three wins.
In the three other quarterfinal games of the FCIAC tournament, Ridgefield defeated New Canaan, 5-2; Trumbull beat Fairfield Warde, 7-1, and Norwalk shut out St. Joseph, 2-0.
Coach Laliberte’s seventh-seeded Ludlowe Falcons won their second straight state championship when they defeated top-seeded Cheshire, 3-2 in 10 innings, in the CIAC Class LL Softball Tournament final on June 8 at UConn’s Burrell Family Field.
Lewey and Cheshire’s sophomore pitching ace Jenica Matos each shut out their opposing offensive lineups for nine innings before the Falcons scored three runs on a wild pitch, and then an error with two outs in the top of the 10th inning.
Ludlowe then held off Cheshire after the Rams battled back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning.
Cheshire’s Rams had the potential tying run on second base with two outs before Lewey induced a popup which was caught by Tournas, the steady catcher who was named the game’s MVP after her solid two-way game on defense and offense.
Four days earlier Fairfield Ludlowe advanced to the Class LL final when Lewey fired a three-hit shutout with eight strikeouts and sophomore Angie Tavella ended a scoreless tie when she tripled in two runs with two outs in the top of the seventh inning in Ludlowe’s 3-0 victory over sixth-seeded Ridgefield.
The FCIAC was represented with four of the eight teams in the quarterfinals, with Darien and Trumbull being the other two, and the conference had a combined 14-8 record from its nine teams in the Class LL tourney.
St. Joseph drew a bye in the first round as the No. 3 seed in the CIAC L Softball Tournament and the Cadets advanced with two impressive victories before they were eliminated in the semifinals by No. 2 seed Ellington, 3-0.
Masuk’s top-seeded Panthers shut out Ellington, 4-0, to win their sixth consecutive Class L state championship and put the exclamation point on their perfect 27-0 season. They were the unanimous choice to be ranked No. 1 in the GameTimeCT Final 2024 Top 10 Softball Poll. Masuk received all 19 first-place votes.
The FCIAC was the conference with the most teams in the final Top 10. Fairfield Ludlowe was ranked No. 2 while Ridgefield and St. Joseph were ranked No. 8 and No. 9, respectively.
The final Top 10, in order and with records in parenthesis, was: Masuk (27-0), No. 2 Fairfield Ludlowe (23-5), Cheshire (25-2), Southington (21-4), No. 5 Ellington (23-3), Class M state champion Woodland (24-4), Class S state champ Coventry (18-3), No. 8 Ridgefield (21-6), No. 9 St. Joseph (20-4), and North Haven (10-4).
Trumbull (18-4) received the 11th most polling points and Darien (16-8) got the 16th most as the two FCIAC teams among the 17 total statewide in the “Others Receiving Votes” category.
Fourteen players were selected to the 2024 All-FCIAC Softball First Team and several of them also received all-state kudos.
Lewey and Trumbull’s senior shortstop Caroline Hall were two of the 12 players selected to the 2024 GameTimeCT All-State Softball First Team and they were also both on the Connecticut High School Coaches Association Class LL All-State Team
and the All-FCIAC First Team.
Hall excelled at the plate as a batter who hits for a high average and with power. She had a .506 batting average with 20 extra-base hits among her 40 total. Hall belted six home runs, had 34 RBIs and 29 runs scored and a 1.505 on-base percentage and slugging percentage. Hall, who made the All-FCIAC Second Team as a sophomore and junior, has committed to being a student-athlete softball
player at Lafayette College.
Lewey racked up 264 strikeouts in 184 innings and had a 0.80 ERA this year. She has made the All-FCIAC Softball First Team all four years since her freshman year and has earned GameTimeCT and CHSCA all-state honors three times.
The CHSCA and GameTimeCT each utilize different formats for their respective all-state softball teams. The CHSCA selects its all-state players to each of the four classifications of state tournaments in which the schools are designated to play in if they qualify. GameTimeCT selected 36 total players – 12 players each who
either made all-state first team, all-state second team, or all-state honorable mention.
Fairfield Warde’s senior infielder Gabby Mercado joined Lewey throughout the last four years in pulling off that rarest of feats of being a four-time selection to the All-FCIAC Softball First Team. During her senior year Mercado also made the CHSCA Class LL All-State Team and was GameTimeCT All-State Honorable Mention.
St. Joseph’s senior outfielder Jill Guilfoyle has made the All-FCIAC First Team three times since her sophomore year. This year she made the GameTimeCT All-State Second Team and was joined on the CHSCA Class L All-State Team by her teammate Kelsea Flanagan, who was also chosen to the All-FCIAC First Team.
Ridgefield’s senior pitcher/infielder Yael Everett also earned three postseason awards in being selected to the All-FCIAC First Team, CHSCA Class LL All-State Team, and GameTimeCT All-State Second Team.
Merteri of Ludlowe was among the five FCIAC players on the 25-player CHSCA Class LL All-State Team and the All-FCIAC First Team.
The nine other players selected to the 2024 All-FCIAC Softball First Team were Darien’s Malin Medeiros, Stamford’s Kaitlyn Fox, Danbury’s Chloe Trimandilis, St. Joseph’s Mackie Caouette and Katie Dzialo, Westhill’s Ava Smeriglio, Fairfield Warde’s Griffin Paladino, and New Canaan’s Marissa Delcarmine and Lauren Fico,
who was an all-conference first-teamer for the second straight year.