It was only moments after pitching a four-hitter in the state tournament championship game and there was Caroline Taber talking about her home town and her community, how she’s leaving it this fall to play for Division I Princeton University but how it will never leave her.

“I'm so excited to play at Princeton,” said Taber, a Fitch High School senior who capped her career by lifting the Falcons (27-0) to a second Class L title in three years and a No. 1 ranking in the GameTimeCT/Register Top 10 Softball Poll. “But this town's given me so much.”

Taber first represented the Mystic Little League on a 9-10-year-old all-star team — her dad, Tom, has since changed his distinctive cheers from “Yeah, Mystic!” to “Yeah, Fitch!”

Tom Taber has coached all three of his children’s teams in the area, sometimes all three at once. He runs the family-owned Taber Inne in Mystic and serves on the board of directors for the Mystic Irish Parade Foundation. Caroline’s mom, Gerry, a senior director at Pfizer, has a Ph.D. in chemistry, in addition to being a frequent Groton schools committee member, chaperone and team mom. The family lives in the former home of Capt. Daniel Packer.

“My friends jokingly call my dad the king of Mystic,” Taber said.

Now, Caroline Taber has her own memories of southeastern Connecticut.

A three-time Class L all-state pitcher, two-time Gatorade Connecticut Softball Player of the Year and a regional All-American this season, Taber was named The Day’s 2016 All-Area Softball Player of the Year, earning that honor for the third straight season.

Prior to the state tournament, Taber, a 5-foot-8 right-hander, was 15-0 with a 0.22 earned run average, 175 strikeouts and three walks in 94 innings. She also batted .436 with 15 extra-base hits and 25 RBI. Carrying a grade point average of 4.28, Taber was the salutatorian of the Fitch senior class, delivering an address at graduation. She plans to major in molecular biology.

Saying goodbye to all that made Taber emotional, something which she carried with her on the field for a spell.

“I was thinking, ‘This is the last time I’ll ever pitch to NFA,’” said Taber of fellow Eastern Connecticut Conference tournament finalist Norwich Free Academy. “They’re our rivals, but I’m also so thankful for them. Without them we wouldn’t have done so well at states.

“The Stonington coach (Ann-Marie Houle) told me thank you for four great years. Towns like Stonington, you’re going to miss playing people like that, coach Ann-Marie and the Stonington girls, genuinely good people. The day of the state championship game, coach (Liz) Sutman (former Waterford coach) texted me saying good luck. That’s the coach of a school I didn’t even go to.

“The teams we play against, the coaches care about all the girls who play the sport.”

It was somewhere around the Class L state tournament semifinals that Taber felt more like herself, she said. She pitched a one-hitter to beat Torrington 3-0 at DeLuca Field in Stratford, setting up the championship game matchup with Masuk in West Haven. At no point from the semifinals on was there a time that Taber was not masterful.

She struck out 11, walked none and retired Masuk’s first 11 batters, making the game fly past before earning the championship’s Most Valuable Player honors.

Fitch, which has won 64 straight regular-season games, lost only twice during Taber’s tenure as starting pitcher, reaching three straight Class L title games. One of the losses, however, came in last year’s championship game against East Haven. That was a motivating factor throughout the season.

“We wanted to do better than we did last year. We got to do this because of last year. This is revenge on East Haven,” Taber said of a Fitch team which featured only three senior starters. “We’ve grown as a team. What set us apart this year was our lineup one-through-nine. Last year we could all be flat in the same game. This year, we could pull each other up.”

Taber said she couldn’t ask any more of the role models she’s had growing up.

“On all-stars as a little 9-10-year-old, we had all these great athletes to look up to like Matt Harvey (Mystic native and Mets pitcher) and Brianna Turgeon (former Gatorade winner for the Fitch softball team),” Taber said.

“And how many places can say they have a coach like Coop (Fitch softball coach Arielle Cooper), who played for your school, won a title, went off, was an All-American in college and came back because she wanted to give back to the community.”

Taber played second base as a freshman at Fitch and made All-ECC. As for pitching, she thought maybe if Fitch needed someone, she could fill in. It’s turned out to be so much more. Taber was 61-2 with 641 strikeouts in her three seasons as Fitch starter, registering 200 or more strikeouts each of the last two years.

“Freshman year, it didn’t look like I was going to do too hot,” she said. “I think (my pitching) took a lot of people by surprise, including me. I love pitching now. It’s my favorite thing to do.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com

The Day's 2016 All-Area Softball Team 

Player of the Year - Caroline Taber (Fitch)

Infield - Kaylie Crosby (East Lyme), Jayden Delaporta (Fitch), Jonell Hobert (Fitch), Raven Houck (Wheeler)

Outfield - Mallory Kane (Stonington), Hailee Schrader (NFA), Cassie Woods (Fitch)

Pitcher - Beth Fleming (NFA)

Catcher - Taylor Wolfgang (Fitch)

Designated player - Cameron Dreher (Stonington)

Utility - Abby Blanchard (Stonington), Sara Buscetto (Waterford)