Jun. 4—MERIDEN — Old Lyme fell into an early hole in Monday's CIAC Class S softball tournament semifinal at Dunn Sports Complex.

The Wildcats never climbed out.

Coventry senior pitcher Elizabeth Mitchell, who's bound for St. Peter's in the fall, handcuffed No. 6 Old Lyme, which suffered an 8-2 loss. Mitchell tossed a four-hitter, striking out 14 and walking two to send the second-seeded Patriots (23-2) to the state championship game Saturday against No. 9 Holy Cross.

"All year against top notch pitchers, we struggled to score runs so we needed it to be a really low scoring game for us to be competitive," Old Lyme coach Tim Gavin said. "It just got out of hand with the errors."

Seven errors hurt Old Lyme (20-6).

After the final out, the Wildcats gathered in short right field for one final time as a team.

"My message was don't overlook the season they had overall," Gavin said. "They accomplished a lot of great things. I don't want them to just be looking at the one game. ... You've got to keep sight of everything that went on the whole season.

"We didn't have our A, B or C game today on the defensive side, so we're not going to compete with good teams when we don't play well."

The WIldcat got off to a promising start, scoring a run in the top of the first inning on junior Anna Eichholz's double and senior Emma Bayor's RBI single.

But they managed just one more run, and that came in the sixth with the Wildcats trailing 5-1. Sophomore Elena Torres-Russell hit a single that scored freshman Kaylyn Vernon, who reached on an error.

Bayor, who's headed to Marist in the fall, scattered eight hits in her final high school start on the mound. But the Wildcats made too many mistakes, as they committed at least one error in every Coventry's scoring outburst.

Coventry jumped ahead for good with a three-run first. Aggressive baserunning, timely hitting and Old Lyme's shaky fielding sparked the rally. Mitchell's RBI single put the Patriots in front, 2-1, and sophomore Brooke White's bunt single pushed the lead to 3-1.

That's all Mitchell needed. She struck out two batters in every inning.

Old Lyme last reached the semifinals three years ago before losing. The Wildcats allowed a season high for runs on Monday.

"We had a good season," Gavin said. "We had a lot of positives. I'm pretty proud to coach this team. We went through a few injuries here and there that set us back. But they did a nice job all season. There was good leadership from our seniors."

The Wildcats are losing seniors Ava Roth, Grace Phaneuf, Grace Zembruski and Bayor.

Bayor struck out eight against Coventry to eclipse the 800 mark for her career.

"That's quite a career," Gavin said. "800 strikeouts, she has done the job for us. And she has the school record for home runs, so she does it from both sides. I wish her all the luck in college career."

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