By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – In either baseball or softball, manning the catcher’s position might be the toughest spot on the field.
It’s one of the rare positions in which the player must be absolutely engaged with every pitch and even if the chucker’s aim on the hill is just a little bit off, chasing down – and corralling – stray balls takes some skill.
But over the past few seasons, the softball program at Bristol Eastern has been fortunate to have two veterans of hardwood battles play behind the plate with competence and ability.
Eastern softball coach Scott Redman employed Paige McLoughlin – a jack-of-all-trades athlete – to catch for All-Stater Erin Girard and helped make up an extremely potent battery in the seasons before the pandemic.
And behind the plate in 2021 is junior Janessa Gonzalez and the basketball forward turned catcher has helped pick up the team’s defense.
She’s been a stabilizing influence for the talented Ali Tellier to throw to and the duo is improving by the game (When I was 10 years old, my dad was throwing me batting practice over at Edgewood Little League and Janessa’s dad, Tony, happened to walk over with his glove and asked if he could catch for us. Maybe that’s where Janessa gets her catching prowess from).
When your catcher treats her time behind the plate like two players just playing catch, it takes the pressure off the battery immediately.
“The maturity in Janessa has been so big for us,” said Redman. “She’s a steady force. She comes in every day ready to work.”
And don’t be fooled into thinking Tellier is just lofting the ball to Gonzalez because that’s hardly the case.
Tellier is throwing the ball with zest and the versatile Gonzalez knows the pitcher’s tendencies, adapts accordingly and she’s been a tremendous asset in a pressure-packed position behind the plate.
“She’s a vocal leader behind the dish which is what you need,” said Redman. “She’s a great stabilizer for Ali in the circle. They’re starting to get chemistry.”
Looking at Eastern’s latest game against Middletown, a 14-0 triumph, Tellier ramped up 13 strikeouts over a dominating performance.
But a half-dozen of those Ks saw the batter taking strike three, not swinging at the final pitch.
Some of those backwards Ks came from Gonzalez’s perfect placement of her catcher’s mitt, even moving it up slightly on a borderline pitch to help influence the umpire in calling a third strike.
That’s what a good catcher does to help her pitcher ring up outs and get the Eastern squad off the field.
“There were a couple strikeouts today that weren’t Ali’s. They were Janessa’s,” said Redman of the Middletown shoutout. “She set up in the right spot, received it right whether it was framing in or just receiving it nice and softly for [the umpire] to see it. We’ve been talking a lot about that, and I saw it today for the first time.”
And when the Blue Dragons did get on base, there weren’t any passed balls or wild pitches for the opponents to advance upon.
Once again, it was just like a pitcher and catcher playing catch and when a pitch or two did stray away, Gonzalez pounced on it, Middletown base runners weren’t allowed to move up a base and that shutout stayed intact.
It was simply a tremendous showing by the junior at the plate and there will be more of that to come as the season moves along.
“It starts with Ali’s command but really, Janessa did a phenomenal job today behind the dish,” said Redman. “It’s really easy to just swipe at [a ball] and just let it go by. Nope, not Janessa. She’s blocking it, she’s getting dirty…it was a great game for her.”
