Griswold — For as much all-business as she radiates on the field, effortless play at shortstop, game-winning hit, Ledyard High School freshman Samantha Money smiled her way through the postgame Thursday afternoon.

"She's the silliest person I've ever met," Ledyard coach Brittany Robinson said of Money. "Samantha's talented. ... But I said to them recently, 'We should do something as a team.' And they said laser tag, the one in Waterford. I said, 'Is that for more little kids?' She said, 'I am a little kid, coach.'

"She's 14."

The kid, Money, delivered the game-winning single in the top of the seventh inning on an 0-2 pitch to lift No. 4 Ledyard to a 2-1 victory over No. 3 Plainfield in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II softball tournament championship game.

Plainfield beat Ledyard twice during the regular season, 10-2 on April 25 and 6-1 on May 18.

The Colonels (17-6) were elated with the victory.

"Just because we've come such a long way," said Money, one of three freshmen who start for Ledyard, which will return its entire lineup next season. "We're such a young team. For us to win ECCs for the first time since 1996 ... it's so surreal.

"We had a group chat and we just kept saying, 'We got this. We got this. We need to work harder. We've got to be smarter.' Everything just came together."

Ledyard took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Samantha Fancher reached on a fielder's choice, stole second and came around to score on an RBI single by Sara Rivers.

Plainfield tied it in the sixth on an RBI single by Kacee Hirst, who drove in Madison Kelley following Kelley's two-out double.

Ledyard, however, got a leadoff single in the seventh from No. 8 batter Codee Carroll. Fancher's one-out ground ball forced Carroll at second base, but Rivers followed with a single to put runners on first and second. Money's flair over the middle scored Fancher from second base.

Rivers who struck out 11 and allowed Plainfield just four hits, retired the Panthers one-two-three in the bottom of the seventh.

"I told her, 'We don't need a home run, just your Sam Money line drive,'" Robinson said of her directive to Money before her final at-bat. "... (The freshmen) are ahead of me most of the time. I tell them what to do and they say, 'Got it.'"

Ledyard competed in Division III of the ECC this season. The Colonels will move up to Division II next season and thus compete in the league's Division I postseason tournament.

Robinson, a 2007 Waterford graduate and a former pitcher for the Lancers, is a self-described competitor, who said she's looking forward to the challenges next season will bring.

"The three freshmen knew going in; they didn't come in clueless," Robinson said. "We had tough teams to beat in this division, too, but they're a competitive group. We want these games. I'm so proud of them."

v.fulkerson@theday.com