Matos One-Hits Southington as Cheshire Repeats as Class LL Champion
- Anthony Angelillo
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
STORRS — Cheshire senior pitcher Jenica Matos one-hit Southington and struck out 15 in a complete-game shutout Saturday morning at the University of Connecticut.
For the second straight postseason, Cheshire’s ace stood between Southington and a state championship. Cheshire ended Southington’s season a year ago, when Matos one-hit the Blue Knights and struck out 13 in a 6-0 semifinal.
The Rams went into the championship game this year unbeaten at 26-0 and the St. John’s commit never let the Blue Knights believe the streak would end.
Matos entered the day having allowed two earned runs all season across 146 innings and she reached her 1,000th career strikeout in the conference final last month.
Southington senior pitcher Angela Insogna refused to let the game get away. She escaped an early jam in the first, pitching around two hitters and three stolen bases to keep the game scoreless, then settled in.
Insogna scattered three hits over six innings and held the most dangerous lineup in the state to two runs, hitting four batters but walking none. She kept the Blue Knights within reach deep into the game, even as her offense went silent.
Cheshire broke through in the second as Insogna hit sophomore designated player Blake Hall and freshman Chloe Marciano came into run.
Senior left fielder Addison Coffey would then line a single to center, which allowed Marciano to reach third and junior right fielder Avery Miramant dropped a bunt in front of the plate. Insogna fielded it but could not get the throw home cleanly and Marciano scored to put Cheshire ahead 1-0.
From there, Matos took complete control of the game. She struck out the side in the fourth and retired the first 14 Southington batters in order. The Blue Knights did not reach base until the fifth, when right fielder Savanna Eliasson lined a single up the middle for the only hit and the only baserunner Matos would allow.
She answered by striking out freshman first baseman Abby Lockwood to close the inning and the threat went nowhere.
Insogna, meanwhile, kept getting out of danger when, in the fourth with two outs, Coffey would be hit by a pitch, after Southington protested the previous pitch, after it was originally ruled that Coffey was hit when she wasn’t. Insogna shrugged it off, retiring Miramant on a fly out to left to strand the runner.
The Rams add on an insurance run in the sixth when Senior first baseman Lyla Blair opened with a hard liner to left and senior Celeste Elliot came in to run.
Senior shortstop Avery Radford moved Elliot to second with a sacrifice bunt and sophomore third baseman Olivia Rydzy followed with a double to left that brought Elliot home for a 2-0 lead.
Southington went down swinging in the seventh as senior center fielder Alexa Poutouves opened with an 11-pitch at-bat, fouling off four of her final five pitches before striking out.
After senior second baseman Olivia Gombotz filed to center, senior third baseman Aubrey Perugini battled through eight pitches in the final at-bat of her high school career.
Matos finished it the way she had handled the Blue Knights all morning, with a swing and a miss and the Cheshire team sprinted to the circle to mob her. Both teams lined up along the foul lines afterward for their medals, with Cheshire collecting the winner’s plaque.
The game closes a dominant era for Cheshire, which leaned on its senior class all spring behind Matos and UConn-bound senior second baseman Jordan McCue. They walk away as back-to-back state champions, handing the program its third title overall.
Matos took home the most valuable player honors for the championship. It was a remarkable achievement for the star pitcher, made all the more impressive by the fact that Matos has a rare genetic condition that makes her legally blind.
Southington finishes 22-5 and loses a deep senior core, including Insogna, Insogna, Poutouves, Perugini and University of Hartford commit Gombotz. The Blue Knights have sophomore shortstop Nerea Maule and catcher Addie Wanner with a young supporting cast that now knows just how the climb back to glory can be.
