Last year, Southington (Conn.) High went undefeated at 24-0 and finished No. 41 in the final FAB 50 High School rankings.

The Blue Knights captured its second straight Class LL state title in a thrilling championship game, a 1-0 win that ended in dramatic fashion as senior Rachel Dube hit a walk-off home run.

Pitcher Kendra Friedt, a 2^nd team Full Count Softball All-American and Boston College signee, recorded 16 strikeouts in the win and for the year went 24-0 with a 0.33 ERA and 256 K’s with only 21 walks.

Here’s a video interview we did with Kendra Friedt in November when we caught up with her at a club tournament.

Behind Kendra, Southington has come out strong again this season, although the long, hard winter in the Northeast delayed the start of the high school campaign for 10 days due to snow on the ground (teams are now playing four games a week to make it up)!

In two games this week, Friedt has struck out 18 and 16 batters and in the latter game, the Blue Knights ran its record to 7-0 on the year, but more importantly won its 53^rd straight game to set a school record that had previously been set 28 years ago.

The Connecticut school, which is located just minutes away from ESPN’s headquarters in Bristol, is currently rated No. 46 in the latest FAB 50 rankings but you can be sure it will continue to climb as the wins rack up.

Below is an article that ran Thursday (April 30) on GameTimeCT.com detailing the latest win…

---

No. 1 Southington routs Bristol Eastern for school-record 53rd straight win

— by Derek Turner (GameTimeCT)

Numbers and stats are not a big part of the Southington softball team, it’s just about winning games.

But on Thursday the number of wins finally meant something.

By beating Bristol Eastern 11-0, Southington broke a 28-year-old school record with its 53rd-consecutive victory, but it was just business as usual for the Blue Knights.

“I didn’t really realize that we had the streak,” Southington coach Davina Hernandez said. “I knew we had a streak going. I didn’t realize that was the record. It wasn’t anything that any of us talked about. They mentioned it to me after the game.”

The last time Southington lost was April 8, 2013 to Bristol Central. The Blue Knights have won two Class LL state championships during the current streak. The Connecticut record for consecutive wins is held by Seymour from 2005-2008.

And, like most of the last two years of Southington’s win streak, Kendra Friedt was in the middle of the field and in control.

The senior pitcher struck out 16 in six innings and allowed just two baserunners, a walk with two out in the fourth inning and a triple to Mackenzie Jankowski with two down in the sixth.

“The middle of their lineup is a tough few outs and they were,” Hernandez said.

“Kendra really had to work her pitches, capitalize on their weaknesses, move the ball around, control it well and she did.”

The Blue Knights offense was also able to capitalize on some of the Lancers miscues and it started at the top with Kaitlyn Paterson.

The Southington second baseman hit a sharp ground ball that got through the legs of the second baseman. One play in and Bristol Eastern coach Scott Redman ran onto the field to settle his team down.

“I told the girls we’d have to come with our A-game and if we did we’d have a chance,” Redman said. “We didn’t have our A-game today, so we didn’t have a chance.”

Bella Russo and Lauren Zazzaro followed with a single and walk, respectively, and, after another error, Southington had a 3-0 lead.

“Two unearned runs there,” Redman said. “If we give up one earned run there I think we’re okay and we’re in the game. But when you’re chasing three, it’s a different game when you’re playing Southington.”

In the fourth, Southington’s Haley Messenger singled and Hayley Arduini walked.

After a sac bunt from Dani Ahern, Paterson hit a line drive to right field that rolled all the way to the fence. Paterson circled the bases to give Southington a 6-0 lead.

“That was Dani’s job to move the runners over and my job was to get the runners in,” Paterson said. “I just hit it hard and I just ran – kept running.”

Paterson then led off the sixth with a double as the Blue Knights added three more.

“I’d say that Kaitlyn in the most consistent line drive hitter on the team, she’s very fundamentally sound, she’s awesome,” Hernandez said.