Fran Carrullo knew she was onto something special.
Three consecutive one-two-three innings were her first clue.
“My dad was there, and I looked at him, and he was like, ‘Fran, stay focused. You’re throwing a perfect game,’” the Central Bucks South junior said.
So when coach Jen Robinson had teammate Haileigh Stocks warming up in preparation of closing out the game, Carrullo decided it was time to speak up.
“I’m like, ‘Wait a second,’” the Titans’ mound ace said. “I said it out loud, ‘I’m throwing a perfect game. I’m not coming out of this game.’
“She overheard me and said, ‘Is your arm fine?’ I was like, ‘I’m fine. Leave me in. I’m throwing a perfect game.’ I didn’t want to come out of the game.”
Wasn’t Carrullo concerned that she might jinx herself by breaking the unwritten rule that you never talk about a perfect game?
“Not at all,” she said. “I just felt confident.
“It was kind of like one-two-three today. I was just getting them with every pitch. It went quickly. I didn’t have to throw too many pitches.”
A confident Carrullo mowed down 21 batters in order, fanning 12 and retiring three more herself – one on a popup and two on groundouts. The game’s final out on a sharp grounder up the middle required a deft backhand stop by Carrullo, who made the throw to first for the game’s final out.
“I was surprised I got that,” she said. “I actually had to reach and grab it real quick.
“My whole team came running out, and I was like, ‘Wait, what did I do?’ and started laughing.”
Was Carrullo nervous coming down the stretch?
“Nope because we were making the plays at the beginning of the game, and I knew we were going to make them at the end,” she said.
Carrullo is the first softball pitcher in Central Bucks South history to toss a perfect game.
“We have had shutouts, and we have had no hitters but never without the errors or walks,” Robinson said. “No runner even got near first. The closest they came to getting a hit were the last two batters. One slapped the ball to Morgan (Decker) at third, but she got the runner.
“The very last play of the game the girl hit it pretty hard up the middle, but Fran made the play herself.”
Robinson acknowledged that the plan was to split mound duties between Carrullo and Stocks.
“I told Fran yesterday,” the Titans’ coach said. “With the game moved from Monday to Wednesday, I wanted Fran to throw against Pennridge on Thursday, but I wanted to give her exposure to Quakertown since she hadn’t thrown the last time we played them.
“I wasn’t going to throw her more than four innings, but she started going one-two-three, and they were such quick innings that Haileigh didn’t even have a chance to finish her warm-ups. Fran’s pitch count was low, and in the fourth inning, I said, ‘How are you feeling?’ She said, ‘I’m throwing a perfect game.’ I realized – yes, she is.”
Lauren Klepchick caught the first three innings, and Carrullo was unfazed when Dani London stepped behind the plate in the fourth inning.
“The last inning, I was like, ‘This is big,’” Robinson said. “My girls were asking about it, and I said, ‘I don’t want to talk about it. Just concentrate on the game.’ I didn’t want to say it.
“Fran said it to me, but I was superstitious. I didn’t want to put it out there that she was throwing a perfect game. The last two plays were probably the most exciting of the game. When she got the last out, everybody jumped up and cheered. It was exciting.”
Carrullo insists she is none the worse for going a full seven and – for good measure - putting her name in the school’s history books.
“It worked out because we have a game tomorrow, and I’m not tired at all,” she said.
The Titans plated a pair of runs in the fourth, sparked by Dani London’s RBI triple and an RBI bunt by Michelle Gessner. In the fifth, Tyler Vitelli singled and scored on Sam McDonald’s RBI single. London was 2-for-2 on the day.
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