Old Lyme — A conversation with two Old Lyme High School softball players following Friday's 12-2 victory over Norwich Tech yielded the following:

Onlooker: "What's your best sport?"

Freshman pitcher Victoria Gage: "Softball."

Sophomore shortstop Grace Lathrop: "Softball."

"Softball's really, like, grown," Gage said. "People are starting to take notice."

Gage pitched a perfect game through 6.2 innings before yielding two hits and two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning and the Wildcats scored six runs in the sixth inning to break the game open.

Old Lyme, on the heels of last season's 14-9 record, is headed to the Shoreline Conference tournament and the Class S tournament both for the second season in a row at 12-6 overall, 11-4 in the conference with two regular-season games remaining. In the 2016-17 seasons, the Wildcats won six games combined.

Old Lyme has had several girls' sports teams make deep state tournament runs in the past decade, including soccer, lacrosse, tennis and basketball. Softball has not traditionally been one of them.

Last year's resurgence was led by senior pitcher Audrey Gavin, the daughter of head coach Tim Gavin. She went on to play softball this season at Roger Williams, stealing seven bases in seven attempts (meaning she has not been caught stealing in three seasons).

This group of players — the entire infield Friday consisted of freshmen and sophomores — was more than willing to carry that success forward.

"We've been playing together since we were so little," Lathrop said. "It's a special team this year. I think we've come a long way this year and hopefully we can finish strong."

Lathrop, whose mom, Jen Rubitski, was a star three-sport athlete at Old Lyme in the 1990s, has started at shortstop since the beginning of her freshman year. She was 2-for-3 against Norwich Tech with an RBI and two runs scored. Gage, who splits the pitching duties with sophomore Kassidy Standish, also started her first career game earlier this season.

"The first game, I was scared," Gage said. "Like, 'Oh my God. Is this really happening?'"

The players have been around Tim Gavin, a teacher at the middle school and the former middle school softball coach, for quite some time, referring to him always as "Mr. Gavin." He is assisted by high school girls' basketball coach Don Bugbee.

"Mr. Gavin is a positive influence on all of us," Lathrop said. "He works on the mental aspect, just to get us out of our own heads."

When the game ended Friday, Gavin spoke to Gage about her final inning. She had one out to go when Norwich Tech's Avery Richards grounded a ball into right field, the first hit and the first baserunner of the game. With Norwich Tech's cleanup hitter, Hannah Smith coming to the plate, however, Gavin asked Gage why she then threw Smith a hittable pitch. Smith connected for a double, spoiling Gage's shutout, as well.

Gage understood.

"She's a freshman. I'll take that out of a freshman any day," Gavin said. "All our girls are invested in playing. We've got some middle school players also invested in the sport ... they come up and they play.

"I enjoy coaching (softball). We can do a lot. The sophomores this year, they'll do what it takes to be competitive and adding Victoria to the mix was awesome. And our seniors are great; we have four captains. There's a respect about this group. Every one of them says goodbye and thank you to the coaches ... every day."

Paige Kolesnik, Alison Ward and Standish also had two hits each, Kolesnik scored three runs and senior Sarah Hayward had a three-run double to highlight the sixth inning. Gage struck out seven and walked none, finishing with a two-hitter.

Smith struck out nine and walked seven for Norwich Tech (12-7).

v.fulkerson@theday.com