NHS Pitcher Legros Tosses Perfect Game

By Andy Hutchison

The pinnacle of pitching was reached by one of Newtown’s own this past week.

Jenna Legros, one of Newtown High School’s softball pitchers, tossed a perfect game on April 16. She struck out 14 batters to lift the Nighthawks to an 8-0 win at Joel Barlow. Newtown improved to 3-2 and has since pushed its record to 6-2; Barlow, meanwhile, dropped to 1-7 this season thanks to the efforts of Legros.

“After the first couple of innings I was aware of it and I think everybody else was, but it’s one of those things — it’s a superstition and nobody talked about it,” Legros said.

“In the first inning she struck out the side and I knew it was going to be a good day for her,” teammate Kelly Tenney said.

Despite realizing she was getting closer and closer to earning a perfect game with each strike out, ground out and fly out, Legros said she didn’t feel pressure — until the final out, that is.

“I got so nervous,” the junior pitcher said of having just one last batter stand in the way of perfection.

“We were all a little nervous,” Tenney added.

Legros ended the game with a strikeout. “It was really exciting,” the pitcher said.

There was plenty of suspense with Legros in the pitcher’s circle, but the game itself was well in hand for Newtown throughout the afternoon. Melissa Fracker led Newtown’s hitting attack with a four-hit performance.

Legros took care of two-thirds of the outs she recorded by not allowing the ball to be put into play with all of those strikeouts. She did get a little defensive help, though, including assistance from shortstop Nora Lynn Shimko who cleanly fielded two hard ground balls deep in the hole and used accurate throws to record the outs.

This was the first perfect game for the junior hurler, although Legros did throw a no-hitter in a summer national tournament once.

Tossing a perfect game takes a great deal of skill, not to mention solid defense behind the pitcher — and sometimes a few breaks along the way. Often times, some of the weakest swings result in bloop hits. The 14 strikeouts cut down on the chances of one of those balls put into play dropping between one the fielders.

“There are so many variables that can go into losing it — an error, a walk,” Newtown Head Coach Bob Guerrera said.

“She had command of all of her pitches,” Guerrera said. “She had great command, she was ahead of almost every hitter.”

Legros proved her performance was no fluke, while — at the same time — also experiencing how perfection is hard to come by in her next start. She struck out 10 in a one-hit effort in which she once again did not allow a walk, in a 1-0 win over New Fairfield (3-4) this past Friday.

After the perfect game, Fracker got a hold of the game ball and Assistant Coach Lyn Hertberg marked the ball with a notation about the performance with the date and final score.

The Nighthawks presented Legros with the ball in the dugout prior to the next game.