Last time the Norwich Free Academy softball team played Fitch, not many people thought it was going to be NFA which came out on top. Fitch was undefeated and on its way to a Class L state championship run.

NFA, the No. 6 seed, then proceeded to upend No. 1 Fitch 8-4 to win the Eastern Connecticut Conference tournament title, convincingly nonetheless, behind an MVP performance from Megan Weir, who was 4-for-5 with two triples, a double and four RBI and came on to pitch 5.1 innings of relief to earn the victory.

“There were about 18 people who did,” NFA coach Bryan Burdick said this week of belief in the Wildcats.

“… My players this year, they would like to try to repeat what they did last year. The seniors, they want to make sure they're good players, not just the players from last year. That was part of their preseason work ethic. Like, 'These are our goals.'”

This time, NFA (7-0 overall, 3-0 in the ECC Large Division) is unbeaten, as well, and ranked 10th in the New Haven Register Top 10 Poll. Fitch (9-0, 3-0) is ranked second and even picked up one first-place vote this week over No. 1 Southington, which has won 51 straight games. Fitch pitcher Caroline Taber has thrown seven shutouts so far, including Monday's 11-0 win over Waterford.

Fitch plays at NFA beginning at 4 p.m. Tuesday in a matchup between the unbeaten programs.

“In some ways, they could beat any team on any given day of they played the way they're capable of playing,” Burdick said of his team. “On the other hand, there are some very good teams, the top teams in the ECC Large. We're about to run into Fitch and East Lyme (5-1, 1-1) within a week of each other.

“If we can believe enough and trust ourselves, put our best effort forward (we can win). But we can't overlook the little things that could ultimately lead to our downfall.”

As for NFA's trusty MVP, Weir, she is sharing the pitching duties with teammate Beth Fleming. The two trade off in center field when they're not pitching.

In the “offseason,” Weir earned All-ECC honors and was a member of The Day's All-Area team in field hockey, then joined the NFA girls' basketball team this winter for its fourth straight ECC tournament title. Weir was the basketball team's Sportsmanship Award winner.

And she's picked up where she left off in softball, too. Last week, Weir struck out 10 in a win Tuesday over Plainfield and in Saturday's victory against Bacon Academy she had three doubles, four runs scored and five RBI.

“She was propelled by her performance in the entire (ECC) tournament last year,” Burdick said. “She becomes that leading player, that major producer. We have a great core on this team, quite a few seniors. All of them are really rising to what we expect for our seniors.

“They aren't that same type of fiery players (as last year). Oh, Sophia Formiglio has that 'I'm hurt and you will not pull me out of this game' kind of attitude. But I think that's great about this team. We have all these different personalities.”

Burdick said the message to his team will be simple going into this game against Fitch: Believe you can win.

“Everything my players have said, they backed it up,” Burdick said.