The 2022 Norwich Purple Tornado Softball team (Photo by Morgan Golliver)

NORWICH- Coach Joe Cirigliano and the Norwich Purple Tornado softball team look back at its 2022 season.

The Norwich softball program suffered this season without a JV team due to the start of the girls flag football program. This meant that Norwich was a very young team with absorbing underclassmen, such as pitcher Caitlin Wetterhahn.

After an injury to Maddy Quattrocchi, Wetterhahn stepped in to take the starting role on the mound. She struck out 24 of the 265 batters faced this season. Quattrocchi struck out 55 batters in her appearance before injury.

“ In the last five games, we’ve had to throw our ninth grader out there (Wetterhahn), which was a lot to ask of her but she didn’t refuse,” Cirigliano said. “All I asked was to give me her best effort. She was a hard worker and I was impressed.”

Cirigliano is hopeful that Wetterhahn and the rest of the pitchers will sign up for pitching lessons in the offseason to stay in shape.

While it was a tough season, Norwich was glad to earn a well-needed win on Senior Night. It was the first win in 1,471 days, since the 2017-2018 season.

Norwich defeated Seton Catholic 13-6. That was the game in which Quattrocchi achieved 10 strikeouts and Norwich’s offense had multiple players hitting the ball well (Quattrocchi, Chloe Glanville, Emily Flynn with a home run, Emma Brooks, and Taylor Finch).

“All I wanted to do is have them experience a win. They’ve been in a few games that they should have won, so that’s when we started preaching, “earn the right to win,” Cirigliano said. “Practice how you play the game by working hard and still having fun was the mentality I pushed over the last few weeks of the season.”

Senior Taylor Finch led Norwich with the most offensive categories this year and improved from last season.

Cirigliano stated that her swing was the “purest” on the team and said it will be hard to replace her next season. Finch finished with a .341 batting average with 12 singles, two doubles, and six rbis.

Finch, along with Glanville, Allysson Kampe, Rhianna Philbrick, Kiara Sherman, and Mercedes Zdanowicz, will be graduating this year, leaving Norwich with yet another young team next spring.

Coach Cirgilano and the Norwich Purple Tornado look to get back on track for the 2023 season. The main focus in the offseason is to build a positive mentality for his team as well as get them around other teams.

“ Schools around our league have been playing year round and have so much more experience. We do winter ball, but we need more,” he said. “Me, just preaching it is one thing, they need to see how the other girls work. We’re moving in the right direction, but they just have to put in the work.”