By JOHN NASH

STAMFORD — For one day last week, part of the city sports-scape was caught in a bizarre world where up was down, left was right and cats and dogs all over town were getting along.

So with Trinity Catholic's Megan Demetros on the mound in Monday's inner-city softball showdown with Westhill, the one-hitter that followed should have been expected.

Only on this day, it was Westhill's Brittany Longo who pitched the gem — as crazy as it was — in helping the Vikings to a 9-1 victory over the Crusaders at the. J. Walter Kennedy Sports Complex.

In short, Longo was pitching herself out of trouble, stranding five Trinity runners on base in the first four innings.

Longo only struck out three, but her five walks and four hit batsmen made things interesting as she left two runners on in the second, one runner on in scoring position in the third, and two more Crusaders on the base paths in the fourth.

In fact, only the first and seventh innings were 1-2-3 innings for Longo.

"I actually didn't know (about the one-hitter) until the end," Longo said. "I'm not paying attention to that stuff. I'm just going pitch-by-pitch. I know my teammates are behind me and I just do what I had to do."

Westhill also had their pitcher's back while the Vikings were at-bat, getting to Demetros — one of the FCIAC's top pitchers — early and often.

Triples by Julianne Vincent and Lauren Page were sandwiched around a walk by Kylee Ruther. A wild pitch and an RBI single by Lynette Martinez helped staked the Vikings to a 3-0 lead out of the gate.

In the second, Trinity had scored one run and had the bases loaded when Martinez picked off a Crusaders runner at third to end the threat.

"Getting out of that inning with them scoring only one run was huge," Pia said. "It was also key with us coming back and hitting (Demetros) again, too."

In Westhill's half of the second, Julie Osipow and Vincent were on second and third with two outs when Ruther (2-for-2, double, 3 RBIs) plated both Vikings with a two-run single to make it 5-1.

"We all grew up playing ball with Megan (Demetros) and we know all (the Trinity players) and we love all of them, but this was a big game," said Ruther. "We were just really pumped up to play."

Demetros (4 Ks, 2 walks), meanwhile, struggled with her command and could not get through any of her five innings without a Westhill runner reaching base.

"She just wasn't hitting her spots," said Trinity Catholic coach Tom Kriz. "You could see that. She wasn't hitting her corners and everything was right across the middle of the play. They hit her."

An RBI single by Martinez and an RBI triple by Longo made it 7-1 in the third inning and Westhill added a pair more runs in the fourth when Osipow (2-for-4, 2 runs) singled and Vincent (2-for-4-, double, triple, RBI) and Ruther followed with back-to-back RBI doubles.

"We definitely know we can hit the ball," said Longo. "If one girl hits, we all get going. We're confident about what we can do and we just try to support each other."

And with Jen Joseph, Westhill's other starting pitcher, out with a blister on her finger (She's day-to-day, according to Pia), Longo picked things up from the circle.

The only hit she gave up was a fourth-inning single to Lelia Barden.

"That's one of the strangest one-hitters you're ever going to witness," said Pia, knowing anything can happen in the bizarre world of Stamford's city sports.