fell to Suffield Academy, Williston Northampton School, KUA, and Andover — teams that would prove their mettle by winning their respective divisions or advancing deep into playoffs. “Three of those four losses were in a row,” assistant coach Katie Ftorek remembers. “So we lost, lost, lost, and that was the middle of the season, so it wasn’t looking great.” But then something clicked as the season wound down. The team found its rhythm just when it mattered most, though they still had to fight for their tournament lives. On Friday, May 16, the Penguins faced a daunting reality: they needed to win a play-in game just to make the Western New England Division A tournament. That meant a three-hour bus ride to Rye, New York, to face the School of the Holy Child. Rather than scared, though, the team was motivated for what was to come. “If we lost that game, it was like we traveled all that way for nothing,” captain Charlotte Ciarletta ’26 recalls. The Penguins won 3–1, but their weekend was just beginning. Saturday brought a two-hour trip to Suffield, Connecticut, for the semifinal — a rematch against the team that had beaten them 7–8 earlier in the season. “Before the game even started, Char and I went up to the plate for the
pregame meeting,” remembers captain Brooke Harb ’26, “and the Suffield team was already talking about how they have to play Williston tomorrow. They already thought they won the game.” That confidence proved premature. Despite falling behind 5–0, Cushing roared back with 14 unanswered runs for a decisive 14–5 victory. Harb threw every inning of the tournament weekend. Sunday brought the final test: Williston Northampton, another team that had beaten Cushing during the regular season. With prom that evening, the Penguins started early — 7 a.m. batting practice followed by a 10:30 a.m. game time. This time Harb contributed with her bat, too, launching a first-inning home run. The strategy worked. Cushing captured the championship, with shortstop Ciarletta making “almost half of our outs that were in the field,” according to Ftorek. In center field, Bailee St. Sauveur ’26, made a diving catch that Santos called a
“game changer — if she dives and misses that ball, we lose the game.” By the time the team bus rolled back onto campus around 1:30 p.m., complete with police escort and cheering faculty and students lining the Senior Walkway, the girls had traveled an astounding 662 miles over the championship weekend alone. They had just enough time to transform from championship softball players to prom attendees, with buses departing for the dance at 4:30 p.m. “It felt so nice, finally winning, AGAIN,” Harb reflects. “It was all worth it.” For Santos, now in his 12th year as head coach, the weekend represented something special about the culture he’s built. As St. Sauveur’s father noted after the championship game, his daughter “must really like playing for you, because she’s never dove before, and we’ve been asking her to practice that for years.” With nearly the entire team returning next season, there is already a buzz about what this spring has in store.
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