Thursday Night
DuBois Perfect Game Leads Brakettes to 8-0 Win

Aug 5 - By Connor Pignatello - Ali DuBois could not be touched tonight.

In five innings, the Brakette ace struck out eleven of the fifteen batters she faced and did not allow a baserunner. She struck out eleven and allowed just one ball out of the infield.

“I feel like I did a really good job mixing,” said DuBois. “...[Catcher Charlee Horton] mixed through all my pitches and I think keeping them off balance was a really big part of the game.”

DuBois bookended her perfect game by striking out the side in the first and the fifth innings.

In the first inning, Stratford jumped on Pride starter Madi Pelletier early thanks to a Katie Sciglimpaglia two-run home run. The Brakettes added one more run in the second frame but were only able to manage two hits in the first four innings.

Stratford finally exploded in the fifth inning to end the game via run rule. The Brakettes started the inning with six straight singles and scored five runs. The Pride did not record an out.

DuBois credited much of her performance to Horton, who exploited holes in batters’ swings and called pitches that they would chase.

“I noticed that they were really going up there hacking so I knew I could throw around the zone -- if [Horton] called drop I could go a little bit lower with it and get them to chase, rise[ball] they were chasing pretty well.”

Both teams beat the Connecticut Eliminators 18+ squad in their first game of pool play. With a 2-0 record in pool play, the Brakettes finish first in Pool A.

Stratford starts its bracket play tomorrow at 7 p.m.