Baseball
Pomfret 1 Gunnery 14
Varsity baseball headed to Washington, April 10 to take on a talented Gunnery squad who sported 13 seniors on the roster. Dan Gagnon took the mound for Pomfret and got the team off to a good start. The game boiled down to one team who found the opening in the field to hit to and the other team who hit to the defense who made the plays. Unfortunately, Pomfret was the latter. We hit the ball hard, but right at the opponent. Only Dave St. Lawrence and Chris Alves garnered hits for the Griffins. Gagnon was relieved by Alec Harris, Ray Zeek, and Connor Quinn, who made his debut on the mound.
Pomfret 15  Cheshire 7
Varsity baseball travelled to Cheshire Academy for their first division game of the season April 7. Alec Harris took the mound for Pomfret and found the going tough in the first two innings. Great support from the defense kept the Cats scoreless thanks to the first double play of the year. Pomfret bats were busy from the start. Connor Quinn’s triple in the second inning got the Griffins going. Ray Zeek picked up his first home run of the year with a shot to left. The fourth inning produced nine runs on hits from the entire line-up. Chris Alves’ and Dan Palumbo’s doubles along with several singles put the Griffins up to stay. Three more runs in the fifth and sixth innings insured the win. Ben Sukonik, Chris Alves and David St.Lawrence all put in time on the mound, with Sukonik doing well.
 
Boys’ Larcosse
Pomfret 8 Holderness  7
Every year, the Pomfret Holderness game is a great matchup. This year was no exception. Lacrosse is a game of streaks and momentum. Pomfret controlled the first three and a half quarters April 10, but Holderness responded when they needed to most, as they scored five unanswered goals including the game winner with one minute left in the game for their only lead of the day. Pomfret had one final chance at buzzer but just couldn’t get a shot off.
Pomfret jumped out to an early lead when Andrew Short (1,0) scored less than two minutes into the game. Pomfret played an excellent transition game as they forced many turnovers, picked up groundballs, and pushed the ball well. Sean Fitzpatrick (2,2) played his best game to date as he moved exceptionally well off-ball and played an unselfish game, always looking for the next pass. Sean connected twice with AJ Bourdon (2,0). Unfortunately, Holderness’ settled defense confused us as they jumped from a zone to man-to-man, and though we got the looks we wanted, we couldn’t finish. Adam Rimmer (1,0) was a warrior throughout the game as it seemed he rarely came out of the midfield, picked up key groundballs, won crucial faceoffs, and scored a huge goal as Holderness started to make their run. Adam and Shane Dunphy teamed up to win 12 of 18 faceoffs on the day. Brian Mullen (0,1) had a solid day in the midfield as he saw increased time playing for Short after a day-ending shoulder injury. We hope that Shorty will be back in the lineup soon.
In the end, Pomfret could not contain the Holderness dodging game as they used strong individual efforts with few assisted goals. Will Dana had a great afternoon as he contained a strong Holderness attackman for most of the day. He was also instrumental picking up ground balls and helping to force the transition game. Rob Sassone (15 saves) was nearly the hero for the second week in the goal. Some of his saves were sensational and he made it look easy while stopping no less than five point blanks attempts, diving across the cage on three of them. His counterpart from Holderness, Mark Finnegan, also had a great afternoon holding back twelve shots with four coming in the final minutes of the game.
Pomfret 14   Worcester 6
The boys’ varsity lacrosse team travelled to Worcester Academy April 7 and came home with a 14 – 6 win. Pomfret did not play its best lacrosse this afternoon, but responded well at the right times to hold off an aggressive and determined Worcester squad. AJ Bourdon (3,1) led all scorers with three goals and narrowly missed on several more. Fellow sophomore, Sean Fitzpatrick (2,1), also had a strong afternoon finding net for the first time in his varsity career on two deftly placed shots. Other offensive highlights included eleven different players in the scoring column – nine different players scoring goals and two more recording assists. Kevin Werner (1,1) moved very well off-ball and tallied his first varsity goal, while Conor Barrett found net for the first time this season after just seconds on the field. Pomfret was able to possess the ball for much of the game, in part due to the outstanding faceoff work of Shane Dunphy. Shane, dubbed a “beast” by more than one observer today, won 15 of 17 face-offs while recording his first two goals as a long stick.
Defensively, Pomfret had another solid outing and kept Worcester at bay in settled situations. Jon Perekrests led the charge as he knocked down or picked off several feeds and initiated the transition very well. Jamie Wall came off the bench with great individual effort and Chris Emerson played smart and neutralized a solid Worcester attackman. Rob Sassone was once again a rock in the net as he recorded 11 saves and nearly had a shot on net himself. Billy Archambault logged many minutes in the defensive midfield and was a force in the open field.

Girls’ Lacrosse
Pomfret 1 Westminster 14
The girls put up a great fight in their game against Westminster April 10. They played with heart and constant intensity despite the competition. With Amanda Scott out with an arm injury for the game, two young rookies stepped into the goal and helped out the team. Izzy Regine and Shay Gringas each played a half during the game. Their help in the goal really pumped up the team’s overall spirit during the toughest game they’ve faced early this season. Allie Bohan scored Pomfret’s single goal in a strong drive to cage. The girls also put together a great team defense and some pretty passing transitions.
 Pomfret 13 Wheeler 18
The Pomfret Griffins put a lot of heart and fight into their away game April 7 against Wheeler. With a rough start to the game and a four goal deficit, the girls were able to ban together with some beautiful transitions and hard drives to cage to bring the score to 6 – 6 at the beginning of the second half. However, despite their strong efforts and constant intensity, the Griffins found themselves falling short by the end of the game. Caroline Brown and Allie Bohan tallied 5 goals apiece for the Griffins during the game, and additional goals were contributed by Lilah Fones, Kayla Sheehan and Hilary Jones. Kayla Sheehan also tallied an assist for the game. The transition and ground ball control picked up during the second half of the game, and was lead by Kayla Sheehan, Allie Bohan, and Lilah Fones.

Softball
Pomfret 1   Porter’s 4
The varsity softball team played a tough game April 7 against Miss Porter’s, a strong Class A opponent, ultimately losing 4-1. Victoria Cabral of Miss Porter’s is one of the better pitchers the team will face this year, during this game alone she recorded 12 strike-outs and allowed just two hits over seven innings. Despite that, the Griffins were able to keep the game close.
Miss Porter’s took an early 1-0 lead on two first inning hits, then opened it up to 4-0 on three unearned runs in the second after our infield made a couple of uncharacteristic errors. After that, however, Pomfret settled down and held them the rest of the way, fighting off several other scoring threats with strong pitching and solid defense. Our best play of the game came in the bottom of the fifth when, with the bases loaded and two outs, Hallie O’Connor made a sliding, diving catch in shallow right field – a catch which saved two, and perhaps three, runs.
Pomfret got one run back in the third inning when Sam Humes led off with a walk, stole second, went to third on Kim Derosier’s groundout, and scored on a single by Ashley Anctil. Ashley was our game MVP as she filled in very ably at catcher for the missing Sam Slotnick, had one of  two hits, drove in our only run, threw out a Porter’s girl who tried to steal second, and was the only Grifffin who did not strike out at least once in the game. Pomfret threatened again in the sixth when Katie Peverada walked with two outs and advanced to third on Maura Hall’s double, but both girls were stranded on base at the end of the inning.