Facing high expectations as this year’s MAAC regular season champions, the Marist softball roster is filled with veteran leaders who carry big game experience into this year’s MAAC Tournament. Outside the veterans, two underclassmen know a thing or two about being the last team standing.
Sophomore infielder Samantha Rogers and redshirt freshman pitcher Stella Blanchard come from a prestigious softball program, winning two state championships together at Southington High School. This Connecticut school boasts the most softball state championships (21) out of any school in the United States. In their time as Blue Knights, the two only lost a total of three games.
Rogers and Blanchard met in first grade, but did not share the diamond as teammates until 10U softball, when they were eight or nine years old. Even from a young age, softball was an important part of the town’s identity.
“The way they set up the Little League for little kids, we were prepared for the good softball culture in Southington,” Blanchard said.
Rogers and Blanchard had their freshman season wiped away due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it did not take long for them to become accustomed to Southington’s winning ways. After splitting the first two games of the season, Southington won 24 consecutive games to reach the 2021 Connecticut Class LL State Championship.
Heading into the final frame trailing by a run, the Blue Knights stormed back to win on a walkoff single to right field, topping Fairfield Ludlowe, 4-3.
“It was a really fun, crazy game,” Rogers said. “The bus ride home was one of the most fun times I’ve ever had.”
It marked their seventh state title in the past nine seasons, maintaining the sky-high expectations for Southington. Due to the nature of the program, it was always championship or bust.
“It was kind of just a given that we’d go in there and win again,” said Rogers.
And that’s just what they did; Southington went 27-1 in 2022 and trounced Bristol Central in the state championship game, winning 13-1 in a mercy-rule abbreviated six innings. Blanchard struck out five and didn’t allow a baserunner in two innings of relief, while Rogers blasted a two-run homer.
In their time at Southington High School to that point, all Rogers and Blanchard knew was winning, holding an unbelievable 53-2 record in 2021 and 2022. There was just one thing missing: a perfect season.
“I think that was always the goal. We fell short the two years prior,” Rogers said.
Not only was Southington perfect in their first 24 games of the 2023 season, but so was Blanchard. In 78 innings pitched, she struck out 166 batters, only gave up 17 hits and did not allow a single earned run. Her unthinkable season in the circle resulted in being named Connecticut’s Gatorade Player of the Year a day before the state championship game.
“It was really exciting to go into that game knowing people recognized the achievements that I was making,” said Blanchard. “It just proved to me that all the work I put into it had paid off.”
Blanchard got the ball as Southington’s starter in the championship game against Fairfield Ludlowe. Even as the most dominant pitcher in the state, Blanchard felt the magnitude of the final high school game of her career, and potentially the final piece of the puzzle to a perfect season.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been that high on adrenaline in my whole life,” Blanchard said. “I was shaking the whole game, but it was so fun.”
Fairfield Ludlowe broke Blanchard’s scoreless streak early, scoring a run on a sacrifice bunt only five pitches into the game. It proved to be a sign of things to come; Ludlowe continued to beat Blanchard with small ball.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game coming in, and we knew we had to have 100 percent defense, and we didn’t,” Rogers told the Hartford Courant after the game.
Three of their runs came on sacrifice bunts, and Ludlowe even scored a run on a dropped third strike. Southington and Blanchard’s perfect seasons came to an end in the 5-2 championship loss, a game that still has left a salty taste in Rogers’ mouth.
“Losing that game was really hard,” she said. “You never want to feel like that again.”
The heartbreaking end to their storybook season proved to not be Blanchard and Rogers’ last game as teammates; both had committed to Marist before their senior year of high school. Throughout Marist softball head coach Joe Ausanio’s experience, it’s rare to see two high school teammates continue playing on the same team in college.
“A lot of times, high school players don’t want to play with players they played in high school with, they want to kind of create their own legacy elsewhere,” said Ausanio. “But for those two, it was easy; they seem to get along well and genuinely root for each other.”
He recruited them separately. It started with Rogers; when scrolling Twitter, Ausanio came across a video of Rogers hitting and was impressed. He followed Rogers and began talking to her, and eventually made the trip to one of her club team’s tournaments in the summer after her junior year.
“The very first swing she took, I knew she had to be a Red Fox. It was that instantaneous that I wanted her,” said Ausanio.
With heavy wind blowing in, Rogers crushed a home run on her first swing of the game.
“That’s our kid right there,” Ausanio thought to himself as Rogers rounded the bases.
Ausanio saw Blanchard pitch later on in the summer, on a back field in New Jersey during a tournament. Once again, it did not take long for Ausanio to realize he had found another special talent.
“I just remember looking around, and I was the only coach there,” said Ausanio. “I was like ‘Wow, everybody’s missing this kid.’”
Blanchard missed her freshman year due to injury and has only made one appearance in her redshirt freshman season, striking out two batters in one inning pitched. Given the pitching rotation featuring program greats such as graduate student Kiley Myers and senior Maddie Pleasants, it has been understandably difficult for her to get opportunities in the circle this year.
“Stella is going to be outstanding for us. She’s electric, said Ausanio. “She got to throw one inning, and in that one inning, you could just see that the ball comes out of her hand differently.”
On the other hand, Rogers got a lot of playing time as a freshman, starting 24 games and appearing in 41. However, she had a hard time at the plate and in the field; Rogers put up a .173/.264/.346 slash line, and committed nine errors.
“Last year, she got humbled a little bit because she was always the big fish in the little pond, and she had some struggles,” said Ausanio. “The good thing about her is she’s learned from her struggles.”
In her sophomore season, Rogers has put up an impressive season at the plate, acting as a key cog in Marist’s dominant lineup. She is hitting .295 on the year and has shown an increase in power. In 2024, Rogers only had six extra base hits, but this year she has hit 16 – her 11 home runs are also the third most on the team. Additionally, she’s only made one error in the field.
Marist is the favorite to win the MAAC Championship next weekend, which would be a familiar feeling for Rogers and Blanchard, who are no strangers to title games. The Red Foxes last won it all in 2023, and a successful weekend on their home field could result in their second title in three years.
Edited by Hayden Shapiro and Max Rosen
Graphic by Quinn DiFiore; Photo from Marist Athletics
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