A state title - again

There didn’t seem to be a better time than the Spartans’ hockey awards banquet.

Everyone gathered at the Kowloon restaurant in Saugus to celebrate the season for the last time.

At the end of the night, hockey coach Frank Pagliuca pulled a few of his girls aside. Knowing that she would play as big a role for the St. Mary’s softball team as she had for him on the ice, Pagliuca spent a little extra time talking to his junior captain, Erin McAndrews.

They talked a little about planning for college. He congratulated her on being named captain of the softball team. Then he made sure to remind her of what he thought was most important.

“I told her, ‘Sometimes you forget why you play these sports. It’s because you like to have fun and you enjoy playing,’ ’’ he said. “Sometimes kids forget. I just tried to encourage her to relax and play the game for the right reasons. Just go out there and do the things that make her a great player.’’

McAndrews was one of five girls who went from leading St. Mary’s to a state title on the ice to winning another state title on the diamond, beating Fitchburg’s Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School, 8-5, last week for the Division 3 title.

Angela Dandreo, Sabrina Iannetti, Michelle Macchione, and Genevieve Benoit all played under the pressure of perfection all winter. Then after starting their softball season with six straight wins (and nine in their first 10 games), they stumbled during the middle of the season, only to find themselves in time to tear through the tournament, beating Austin Prep (6-2) in the North final, then outlasting Cohasset (4-3) in nine innings in the state semis, earning the right to meet Monty Tech.

Even though it’s two completely different games, there were things about playing at a high level over consecutive seasons that overlapped, according to Pagliuca.

“You have to kind of mentally transition yourself out of one season and into another season,’’ Pagliuca said. “The past couple of years, Erin and those girls haven’t had much down time in between seasons, and that’s tough. Mentally they’re exhausted from a long winter season, and just to jump right in three or four days later, that’s a tough thing to do. It’s tough to get out of one mode and into another. And they did that.’’

St. Mary’s softball coach Colleen Newbury added, “After hockey, their legs had to be tired.’’

But even with all the games they had played over the winter, she said, coming into the spring season “they didn’t really skip a beat.’’

For McAndrews, the motivation was two-fold. Part of it was that the softball team felt it had something to prove after coming painfully close to a state title last year (falling 3-1 to West Bridgewater in the EMass. final) and losing All-Scholastic pitcher Katelynn Fanning.

“With our star pitcher leaving, no one thought we had a chance,’’ she said. “We were the big underdog.’’

The other motivation: Seeing the girls’ hockey team win over the winter made the softball team believe it could do the same in the spring.

“I think a lot of them really saw what we could do and how excited we were to win a state championship, and they really wanted that this year,’’ McAndrews said.

Pagliuca, who was making the transition himself from the ice to the diamond, eventually leading Lexington High to its fourth straight Division 1 state softball title, had seen the Spartans in a preseason scrimmage.

Odd as it was (and also “fun’’ as he described it) to coach against players he was so close to, “They had a lot of talent,’’ he said.

Pagliuca didn’t see them play again until the state tournament. The two teams played at the same locations, and Lexington always played after St. Mary’s so Pagliuca had a chance to watch the Spartans pick up big win after big win.

“I thought how much they had improved and just the energy they had on the field,’’ Pagliuca said.

They also had poise that came from having played in big situations just weeks before.

“Obviously different sports, different season,’’ Pagliuca said. But he pointed to “the correlation of them playing in big games and knowing how to relax a little bit and focus on the things that make them successful. I think it does make a difference.’’

When the Spartans clinched their state title victory, Pagliuca was able to watch them celebrate.

“It’s great to see those kids go back-to-back,’’ he said. “It’s a great accomplishment by them and I’m glad to see them go out on top.’’

As a teacher at St. Mary’s, Newbury saw the excitement that circled the hockey team after its win and also experience the softball team’s joy.

“It’s awesome for the kids,’’ she said. “It’s awesome for the school. It’s awesome for both teams. To be able to be on two championship teams on the same year is unbelievable.’’

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com