West Haven – Right down to the painful final out, Fitch desperately tried to make something happen.

But the top-seeded Falcons never found any traction in Friday night's CIAC Class L softball tournament final.

The title game ended with a cloud of dust, as pinch-runner Madison Nelli was thrown out trying to reach third base on a groundout.

No. 10 East Haven wildly celebrated a satisfying 4-2 state championship victory.

The normally potent Falcon attack managed only two hits off of junior right-hander Laura Anderson, who was in complete control.

"It was just one of those days," junior Caroline Taber said. "You can't have a 10-hit game every game. There's going to be bumps in the road and this was our bump in the road. ... You can't win a game with two hits."

The loss prevented the Falcons (25-1) from finishing unbeaten and winning their second straight state championship.

As stunning as Fitch's lack of punch was East Haven pounding out 11 hits against Taber, who went 19-0 with a 0.12 earned run average during the regular season. Taber struck out eight and didn't issue a walk but allowed hits to eight different batters.

East Haven belted the ball hard all game. All three outs in the first inning were rockets to the outfield.

Fitch coach Kate Prpich kept her answer short and to the point when asked if she was surprised how well East Haven hit Taber.

"Yes," Prpich said. "That's it, just yes."

Things looked promising for Fitch at the start.

Sophomore Taylor Wolfgang led off the game with a double to right-center field and eventually scored on a throwing error. Senior Jackie Lewis, who returned to the lineup after missing four games due to emergency surgery, drove in the second run with a groundout.

With Taber, the Gatorade Connecticut Softball Player of the Year on the mound, the Falcons appeared to be in good shape.

"We just couldn't keep it going," Taber said.

The Yellowjackets had plenty of sting in their bats. They got on the board in the second on Casey Smith's infield single and seized the lead with three runs in the third inning.

Junior Allie Luzzi, the state championship game most valuable player, slugged a leadoff home run to spark the big outburst. Senior Giovanna Russo delivered the game's biggest hit, driving a two-out, two run double to the right-center field gap that handed East Haven a 4-2 edge.

Too many of Taber's pitches found the hit zone.

"Not to blame it on the umpire, but he was definitely squeezing me," Taber said. "He wouldn't give me any inside pitches at all, which only left the outside and the middle of the plate which is the fat part of the plate for power.

"And they're good hitters. You can't take that away from them."

Meanwhile, Anderson was mowing down the Falcons, who went down in order in the second, fourth and fifth. Taber's two-out single in the sixth finally broke the drought.

Sophomore Jayden Delaporta reached on an error to start the seventh but the comeback attempt ended with a game-closing double play.

The Falcons contributed to their downfall with their approach at the plate.

"We were being very aggressive, maybe overly aggressive, swinging at some bad pitches," Prpich said. "We had trouble with off-speed and staying back and being patient and driving the ball the other way, like I know we can. We just struggled with that.

"If you would have told me that we would only have two hits tonight, I would have said that you're crazy, especially when we had a hit to lead off the game with Taylor and then to not get another hit until the sixth with Caroline, it was surprising. But they played great defense. We had some hard hit balls that they made some great plays."

East Haven (19-7) completed a mission that just fell short last year when it lost in the Class M title game to Seymour.

"In all our hearts, we just wanted it so bad," Luzzi said.

g.keefe@theday.com

Twitter: @GavinKeefe