Last June, the Bristol Central softball team played Southington for the third time that season in the Class LL state championship game.

And Southington won for the third time, 13-1, in six innings.

The top two CCC teams will face each other once again on Monday at Bristol Central. Southington, which won a national record 20th state softball title last season, has been dominant, outscoring its opponents 123-3 so far this season and is unbeaten at 11-0.

Bristol Central is also unbeaten (12-0), has two Div. 1 pitchers and a solid corps of seniors.

“Literally getting off the bus after losing that state final, the one thing we all agreed on was that it was motivation for this year,” coach Monica Hayes said. “The motivation is to get back there and compete at that level.

“We’ve played them six times in the last three years. We’re very familiar with each other.”

Most teams are lucky to have one solid pitcher; the Rams have seniors Sophia Torreso (headed to George Washington) and Alex Sciarretto (headed to Stonehill). The two have over 600 career strikeouts between them and the Rams have a combined team ERA of 0.37. Torreso is 5-0 with 90 strikeouts and one earned run; Sciaretto is 6-0 with 43 strikeouts.

“What I like about them is they complement each other well,” Hayes said. “They are supportive of each other.”

Torreso and Sciarretto have known each other since kindergarten and played on many teams together.

“It’s really nice when you’re having a rough day on the mound, or when things are happening behind you that you can’t control, it’s nice to have someone else on the field being like, ‘Hey it’s OK, we got you, all you can do is hit your spot.’

“It’s good having someone there who understands pitching. Not that my coaches don’t – it’s just a different level of understanding when you have someone who goes through the same thing you do every single time. Also having that level of competition on a team – it’s a healthy competition – it’s really nice.”

When Torreso pitches, Sciarretto plays third base and when Sciarretto pitches, Torreso plays first base. Sciaretto is the No. 4 hitter (.267 BA, 12 runs, two home runs) in the lineup, Torreso (.452 BA, 14 runs, 10 RBI) bats No. 5.

“We feed off each other and challenge each other,” Sciarretto said. “It gives us motivation to be better rather than if only one of us were on the team.”

One difference this season is that Bristol Central will play in the Class L tournament while Southington remains in Class LL, although Class L has plenty of good teams including four-time defending champion Masuk.

So Monday’s game won’t be a tournament preview but more of a mid-season tune-up for the Rams.

“Monday’s game will be beneficial if we win or lose because they’re always a good team,” Sciarretto said. “I think that putting this challenging game on the schedule is good for us.

“After last year, we have new motivation to play them.”