Softball: Ottawa’s Maura Condon fires 5-inning perfect game in win over Rochelle

OTTAWA – Ottawa senior pitcher Maura Condon said she was just taking Wednesday afternoon’s Interstate 8 Conference game against Rochelle pitch by pitch.

But then a little voice popped into her head as she walked toward the circle to start the top of the fourth inning.

“I started to think back: ‘Has anyone gotten a hit or gotten on base yet?’ " Condon said. “I didn’t worry about too much one way or another, just kind of moved forward and kept pitching. But I can’t lie, it’s pretty cool to get [a perfect game].”

Condon did indeed fire a perfect game, retiring seven Hubs batters via strikeout, six by groundout and two on pop flies in the hosts’ 11-0 triumph in five innings at King Field.

“I felt like I hit my spots well and was mixing up my curveball and riseball well together,” Condon said. “To be honest, I really wasn’t thinking about [getting] strikeouts too much, I was really just working on putting pitches in certain areas. I wanted to let my defense do the work behind me and they did a great job.”

The Pirates, after Condon struck out two of three batters in the top of the first, exploded out of the gates in their half of the inning.

Kendall Lowery began the attack with a triple to right, and quickly scored on a single by Hailey Larsen. Condon then helped herself with an RBI single, followed by a base hit by Bobbi Snook. Piper Lewis lined an RBI single, and after an out breaking a string of five consecutive hits, Reese Purcell lined an opposite-field RBI single to make it 4-0.

With two outs, Addy Miller made it 6-0 with a two-run bloop single down the right field line.

“At the plate, we have a ton of pop one through six in our lineup, but sometimes you have to have a game where you stress hitting the ball up the middle or the opposite way,” Ottawa coach Adam Lewis said. “I thought we did a great job of that which allowed us to get off to a great start and also keep traffic on the base paths for much of the game.”

Ottawa (13-8, 3-3 I-8) added one run in the second on an RBI groundout by Condon, then added four in the fourth, starting with a Condon base hit to center.

Snook walked, and both runners moved up on a wild pitch before Piper Lewis smacked a single to right to score two and make it 9-0.

“I feel like this season has been going pretty well for me. I’ve tried to make adjustments along the way when I’ve felt I needed to,” Piper Lewis said. “Not really an adjustment, but today I was really concentrating on setting a ceiling for myself at the plate. I had it in mind the highest a pitch could be for me to swing at it. I feel like I did a good job of sticking with that plan and felt like I hit the ball hard every time up.”

Zulee Moreland’s run-scoring single and a Rochelle (4-10, 0-6) throwing error closed out the scoring for the Pirates.

Condon finished off her perfecto in style by recording a called third strike for the final out of the game.

“Maura commanded the strike zone from start to finish,” coach Lewis said. “She was not only getting good movement with her pitches, but was really putting those pitches right where she wanted them. It was also great to see us making all the defensive plays as well after we’ve struggled a little bit with that lately.”

Coach Lewis also was excited that every player on the roster was able to get at least one at-bat and some time defensively.

“This is probably the most supportive of a bench and role players I’ve had since I been here ... they all do whatever they are asked and sometimes go stretches without game action,” Lewis. “Today was one of those games where all of them got a chance to contribute on the field and they all did a great job. It was a nice team win.”

Ottawa is scheduled to be back in action Friday at Seneca.