High school softball: Marian Central defeats Richmond-Burton

RICHMOND – With two outs in the bottom of the third inning of Marian Central's nonconference softball game against Richmond-Burton on Friday, Hurricanes sophomore Faith Parchutz stared down every pitcher's worst nightmare in the blink of an eye.

She took a screaming line drive off her left collarbone that caused her to instantly collapse to the ground in pain, which was followed by a flood of coaches, umpires and teammates racing to her aid, all concerned about her well-being.

When she got up from the dirt inside the pitcher's circle a few minutes later, she sported a large red welt on the left side of her neck. Parchutz then somehow managed to take a few practice throws moments later, and convinced Hurricanes coach Erin Widmayer she was OK.

Her toughness helped propel Marian Central to a 12-5 victory over the Rockets, and after the game, Parchutz joked about the scary moment – to a degree.

"I'm fine," Parchutz said, chuckling. "Yeah, your life kind of flashes before your eyes there for a split second when something like that happens. But it could've been a lot worse. My immediate thought was, 'Did I break my collarbone?' "

After being struck by the liner, Parchutz scattered two hits to the next 11 batters she faced, and struck out four, to pick up her second win in three games for the Hurricanes (2-1).

"Faith is unfazed by anything," Widmayer said of her second-year varsity pitcher. "We haven't decided who our No. 1 pitcher is yet, because this was only the fourth time we've been out on dirt this season. There's still a lot to be determined. But her competitive fire is something I'm seeing from all our girls early on.

"Our four seniors are all four-year varsity players, and our (two) juniors and (six) sophomores have really done a great job so far of matching their competitiveness."

Seven Marian players drove in runs, led by junior Laura Black and seniors Emily Miller and Maddie Peters. All three had two RBIs, and all nine starters reached base safely at least once.

R-B (1-2), meanwhile, are in a transitional phase, but that doesn't mean it is conceding anything. The Rockets pounded out 10 hits but committed five errors.

Alexa Rodriguez was 4 for 5 with two RBIs, Haylie Regnier was 2 for 3 with a triple and an RBI, and Ashley Turner was 2 for 2 with two RBIs for the Rockets.

"There's a lot of talent here," first-year Rockets coach Vicki Klopf said. "I'm a very positive person, but we want to teach the girls how to win games.

"This is also our first year in the Kishwaukee River Conference, and we feel we can compete for our division. But we have to learn lessons from these kinds of games. Marian is a really good team, the kind of team we schedule to help make us better. If our girls learn from their mistakes and don't carry them over to the next game, they're going to improve and grow. And growth is one of our main goals right now."

UNSUNG HERO 

Marian Central

Faith Parchutz, so., P

Despite allowing five runs over five innings, Parchutz maintained a consistent speedy rhythm throughout, worked ahead of hitters and battled through a collarbone injury she suffered on a line drive midway through the game.

THE NUMBER 

8: Players in the Marian Central starting lineup who scored runs. Additionally, seven of the Hurricanes' starters had at least one RBI.

AND ANOTHER THING ... 

Richmond-Burton senior center fielder Alexa Rodriguez narrowly missed her second home run in three games when her towering fly ball hooked inches outside the left field foul pole in the third inning.

Marian Central 12, Richmond-Burton 5

Marian Central          150 500 1 – 12 12 0

Richmond-Burton 102 200 0 – 5 10 5

WP: Parchutz, 2-0 (5IP, 9H, 5R, 5ER, 2BB, 4K). LP: R Hayden (1.1IP, 5H, 6R, 6ER, 3BB, 0K).

Top hitters–Marian Central: Miller 3-4 (2RBI, BB), Finnegan 2-3 (RBI, BB), Black 1-4 (2RBI, BB), Peters 2-3 (2RBI, BB, 2R). Richmond-Burton: Rodriguez 3-4 (2RBI, 2R), H. Regnier 2-3 (RBI, 3B, BB), Turner 2-2 (2RBI).