Groton — Fitch spent Saturday morning and early afternoon coming up just short against Masuk, which was the down side.

Oh, but there was an up side.

The Falcons lost 4-2, but senior pitcher Charlotte Cabral gave up just five hits and one earned run to Masuk, the third-ranked team in the state.

Next week, Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I play begins, with Fitch (3-2) facing East Lyme on Tuesday, Norwich Free Academy on Thursday and Waterford on Saturday, perhaps making there four favorites in a four-team division based on early returns.

“I think today definitely prepared us for that because it’s a very skilled team that we played,” Cabral said of Masuk. “They’re very good. ... We’re especially looking forward to playing Waterford. That’s been our competition for a while.”

All the ECC Division I teams played challenging nonleague schedules to start. NFA is 5-1, with its only loss to No. 9 Law, while defending champion Waterford (4-2) has suffered its two losses against No. 2 Fairfield Ludlowe and No. 6 Newtown.

East Lyme, meanwhile, and senior pitcher Abby Robinson, are 4-1, falling for the first time Saturday against Immaculate of Danbury.

“Masuk’s a great team and I think we can compete with them and I told them that we’re competing with a team that’s in the state championship most years,” Fitch coach Jackie Lewis said. “We can beat them. Just getting that through their head and having them grind through it is going to be the biggest thing.”

A week ago, Fitch lost senior shortstop and leadoff hitter Grace Jenkins for the season with a broken hand.

That leaves the Falcons with four sophomores and a freshman in the starting lineup. Fitch struggled at times, committing five errors behind Cabral, who struck out seven and walked two.

Masuk scored an unearned run in the third on an RBI single by Izzy Vigliono, scoring Natalie Lieto, who reached on a dropped popup. Fitch scored in the third to make it 1-1 on a triple into the right field corner by Cabral and an RBI groundout by Gabby Amaral to score courtesy runner Abby Malone.

Lieto again reached on a dropped pop fly in the fifth for Masuk and took second base. Ella Bunovsky sacrificed her to third and Viglione once more came through, driving in the run with a single. Fitch tied it with a run in the sixth with doubles by Cabral and Abriel Carey.

It was 2-2 headed to the seventh, when Masuk took advantage of two hits, a walk and two more Fitch errors to score twice with nobody out. With two runners on, Cabral then retired the side in order to avoid further damage.

“She’s calm, cool and collected. She makes it seem like it,” Lewis said of Cabral. “She pitched great. She’s been pitching great all season. You would never know she’s a little flustered. She can hide things well.

“We’ve got to do the little things. Little things is all I preach to them all year. That’s what killed us today; just little things killed us. They grinded today and then in the last couple innings it fell apart. Those little things went out the drain and we lose the game because of that.”

With the injury to Jenkins, sophomore center fielder Grace Cosmopoulos moved to shortstop and sophomore Emma Robinson took over in center.

“Not too much moving but just a little,” Lewis said. “Honestly it hurts (to lose Jenkins), but Grace Cosmo comes in, she’s an athlete. Anywhere I needed to put her last year, I had her catch one game, she goes anywhere. She walked right in and ready to grind.

“They work hard. They’ll get there. We’re confident going into conference play. They know how they can play. We just need to come together as a team and do it.”

Masuk is the defending Class L state tournament champion.

v.fulkerson@theday.com