Brakettes Blast Off in Women's Major Softball Championship Tune Up

July 28, 2010 - The Stratford Brakettes drilled five home runs, including three by Carly Normandin, en route to a pair of 8-0 wins over the Polar Crush (Worcester, MA) on Wednesday night at Biondi Field in West Haven. The games marked the end of the regular season for the Brakettes, who enter the 2nd Annual WMS Championship with a 51-1 record.

Normandin led off both games with a home run, and also ended the first game with a decisive solo blast to give the Brakettes an 8-0 run-rule victory. She took over the team’s lead in homers on the season with nine, surpassing Jess Serio, who now sits in second with eight long balls. She also made a sensational grab of a fly ball to center by Lindsey Tomasz to end the fourth inning. She retreated over her left shoulder onto the warning track and reached back over her head for the catch, just before crashing into the fence.

Rachele Fico struck out eleven in the first game to improve to 28-0 for the year. She allowed just a second-inning single to Tomasz, and did not walk a batter.

Brandice Balschmiter earned the victory in the nightcap, fanning ten batters, while allowing just one base hit.

Normandin’s early game leadoff was a 260-foot shot that gave the Brakettes a 1-0 lead, which held until the third inning.

Lindsey Kay Bright reached on a bunt single in the third and scored on a single by Normandin, on a play that saw Normandin tagged out after getting caught in a rundown between second and third. The lead would stay at 2-0 into the fourth, when Mandie Fishback knocked a one-out double. She moved to third on a single by Jess Mouse, and scored the Brakettes’ third run on a base hit by Amber Radomski.

The wheels fell off for the Crush in the fifth inning, when Normandin reached on an error and advanced to second. She scored on a double by Ashley Waters to give the Brakettes a 4-0 edge. Denise Denis followed with her seventh homer of the 2010 season to put the Brakettes up 6-0.

Mandie Fishback continued the productive fifth with a two-out homer to left, her second of the year. That shot put the Brakettes up 7-0, and moved them to the verge of invoking the run-rule.

Normandin’s second blast closed out the game, and moved her into a tie with Serio for the home run lead, one she would soon hold by herself.

Normandin produced an encore in game two, when she sent an opposite field shot to left-center for a 1-0 Brakettes advantage. She also proved to be a catalyst in the third, when she led off and torched a triple. Waters singled to score Normandin and then came home on a double by Denis, giving the Brakettes a 3-0 lead.

Serio came up next and also doubled, scoring Denis to put the Brakettes on top 3-0. Serio scored on a double by Jess Mouse to stretch the margin to 4-0.

Normandin walked with one out in the fourth and advanced to third on a double by Waters. Denis provided a single to plate both Normandin and Waters for a 7-0 edge. Fishback provided the Brakettes their eight run as she plated Denis with a single.

Balschmiter closed it out in the top of the fifth, although she gave up her first hit of the contest, an infield single by Jenna Giannelli. She ended up

The Brakettes will play the TC Tremors (Binghampton, NY) at 11:15 Thursday morning in their first game of pool play at the 2nd Annual Women’s Major Softball National Championship at West Haven (CT) H.S.

All games from the WMS Championship will be video webcast at brakettes.com.