Groton — Fitch High School has already announced its plans to leave the Eastern Connecticut Conference to join the newly formed Southeastern Connecticut Athletic Conference.

Maybe Fitch’s softball team needs its own conference.

It certainly belonged in its own category Wednesday afternoon as the season opened in the blustery cold at Washington Park.

The Falcons, last season’s Class L state champion and the third-ranked team in the New Haven Register’s preseason top 10 poll, dispatched Westerly 34-0 in five innings, getting 28 hits and a crisply pitched perfect game from junior Caroline Taber.

Taber struck out 11 and allowed just one ball, a fly to left fielder Haley Flax, to be put into play during the first four innings. Taber and shortstop Jackie Lewis, both returning all-state selections from last season, each had five hits, with Lewis driving in five runs.

And that was against a Westerly team which came into the game 1-0 after beating East Greenwich 5-3 on Tuesday.

“When we just came out here, from the moment we stepped on the field we were so excited,” Taber said. “It feels so good to see live pitching. We had so many practices at the (batting) cages. It leaves a really good statement about us.

“We know we have a big target on our back (from winning last year). We want to build on that.”

Taber said when she and her teammates are at the batting cages, which was quite often during the preseason due to the inclement weather, they try to make it fun by splitting into teams and seeing which side can get the most hits without making an out.

It seemed as if the Falcons weren’t going to make an out in the second inning against Westerly, either. Fitch sent 20 batters to the plate in the never-ending second, scoring 16 runs on 13 hits and one Bulldogs error. The first 10 batters reached base before an out was made, starting with a double to the right-center field gap by Rylee MacMillan.

MacMillan and Flax each hit three times in the inning, as the Falcons stretched their lead to 18-0. They added nine runs in the third and seven in the fourth, including a bases-clearing triple by Lewis.

“It’s the goal,” Fitch coach Kate Prpich said of whether the Falcons — who return everyone and still only have two seniors in the starting lineup — have their eyes on another state championship. “It should be the goal of every team that steps on the field.

“These girls love a challenge ... but it doesn’t consume them. They’re always on top. They don’t get distracted.”

Jayden Delaporta added four hits, two of them doubles, and Taylor Wolfgang and Cassie Woods had three hits each for the Falcons. Jo Hobert doubled twice.

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday