Groton — Jackie Lewis's high school softball coach at Fitch, Arielle Cooper, could always seem to calm things down in a potential storm, winning a pair of state championships before going on to serve as the head coach at the Coast Guard Academy.

On Tuesday, it was Cooper keeping the scorebook for her former pupil and Lewis, the former all-state shortstop for the Falcons, now the 24-year old Fitch head coach, who was doing the calming down.

Fitch, which trailed by four runs after making a combined six errors in a three-run second inning, came back to upend sixth-ranked Waterford 6-5 Thursday afternoon at Washington Park. Fitch's Grace Jenkins tripled to lead off the bottom of the seventh and slid head-first into home plate with the winning run one batter later when Maerin Lyon grounded to second base.

"It feels really nice to get that, actually. We've been battling Waterford since I was 9 years old," Jenkins said. "It's a big win for us. Our last game (against Fitch, an 8-7 loss April 19), we kind of slipped up a little bit and they battled out the win."

Jenkins, the Falcons' junior shortstop, was one of the players who struggled in the error-prone inning, during which all three Waterford runs were unearned. Fitch didn't make another error the rest of the game, while launching its comeback.

"You've got to dig real deep on those little plays. It's hustle points at that point," Jenkins said. "You've got to go and play with the rest of your heart. All you got. ... When I got up to the plate (in the seventh), I just looked out there and I was visualizing where I wanted the ball to go and it was one of the gaps."

Fitch scored one run in the third on an RBI single to left by McKynzi Dawson and the Falcons (8-5 overall, 3-2 Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I) got three in the fifth to tie it.

Sydney Lyon walked to lead off the fifth and Fiona Taber rifled a single to right field that got by the fielder to score Lyon and put Taber on third. Dawson doubled to center, pulling the Falcs within 4-3. Jenkins bunted courtesy runner Emma Robinson to third and Lyon grounded to third to score the tying run.

Fitch took a 5-4 led in the sixth on an RBI single by Taber, but Waterford came back with a run in the top of the seventh on a two-out RBI single by Lily Marelli.

Emma Marelli and Lily Marelli each had two hits for Waterford (13-3, 5-1), which has already wrapped up the division I title. Maddie Southers, Taber, Jenkins and Dawson each had two hits for Fitch and pitcher Charlotte Cabral scattered seven hits for the win.

"Listen, we can be beaten like any other team," Waterford coach Andy Walker said. "They made some errors early on for us and we capitalized on them, but we didn't hit the ball the way I think we're capable of hitting it today. (Fitch) scrapped. They play hard. I told (Lewis) that the last time. They're a dangerous team because they believe they can win."

Lewis is a 2015 Fitch grad and a 2019 graduate of Eastern Connecticut, where she played in a Division III World Series. In her first season as Fitch's head coach, she said it "feels like home."

"It all goes back, and I say it a million times, it goes back to doing the little things," Lewis said. "We didn't start the game doing the little things ... it's that not-giving-up mentality that I want to make sure we always remember. Do one thing at a time, one pitch at a time, one out at a time, one inning at a time and that the game is never over untill it's actually over. So to push through. Do the little things and we would be able to come out on top.

"... (Cooper) is always in the back of my head. I think definitely with Coop and (Eastern coach Diana Pepin), I learned so, so much from them, not only playing but coaching. I take a lot of things, the philosphies and the things they've taught me throughout the years, and brought it into this team."

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Fitch Waterford softball photo gallery

For more photos from the Fitch Waterford softball game click here.