Class 2A Softball: Seneca battles, but falls 5-4 to Beecher in sectional final

HERSCHER – After a slow start in the opening three innings, the Seneca softball team started to find a little bit of rhythm in Friday’s Class 2A Herscher Sectional championship game against defending 2A runner-up and top-ranked Beecher.

However, that crawling beginning for the Fighting Irish was just enough for the Bobcats to grab the lead and advance after holding on for a hard-fought 5-4 victory.

Hard-throwing Beecher sophomore pitcher Ava Lorenzatti is one of the top hurlers in the state regardless of class, and while she finished with 12 strikeouts, Seneca was able to post four hits and drew four walks to set up some scoring chances after she dominated the opening trio of frames.

“You don’t see pitching like this maybe all season and you hope come the postseason you don’t either,” Seneca coach Brian Holman said, his team finishing the season at 33-4. “We talked after the game about looking back how important those first three innings today were. You can’t really practice what a pitcher like Lorenzatti is going to look like when you step in the batter’s box.

“They were able to get out to the lead, but I felt like we started to get a better feel in the box after the third. If we could have played the first three innings like we played the last four I really like our chances of coming out on top.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our effort. I feel like we put up a heck of fight today.”

Beecher (32-1) took the lead when Lorenzatti led off the bottom of the first by smacking the first pitch from Seneca starter Tessa Krull (6 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 6 K) over the center field fence. The Bobcats added two runs in the second – on a Lorenzatti RBI double and an RBI ground out by Elena Kvasnicka – and made it 4-0 in the third on a run-scoring single by Emma Tiltges.

“We didn’t get off to the greatest start today, but these girls believe in what we do and knew we’d find ways to get back into it. We used some smallball, we showed some patience, we hit a couple balls really hard and we just kept battling all the way to the end.”

—  Brian Holman, Seneca softball coach

“Seneca came into today with 33 wins and have played a very tough schedule,” Beecher coach Kevin Hayhurst said. “We knew they’d be battle-tested, but I feel we are too. I feel like getting off to the start we did was the biggest key to the game.”

In the fourth, Camryn Stecken led off blasting a Lorenzatti offering high over the left field fence and just inside the foul pole. After an out, Audry McNabb and Krull coaxed walks and Aurora Weber loaded the bases with two outs after being hit by a pitch. One pitch later McNabb scored on a passed ball to make it 4-2.

Beecher scored a single run in the fifth on an RBI base hit by Tayiah Scanlan.

In the Irish fifth, Lexie Buis lined a single to right to open the inning and scored two outs later on a sharp double to left center by Hayden Pfeifer. Pfeifer eventually scored when a bunt by Weber was thrown away at first by Lorenzatti.

“Some of the things I saw today from my team had me shaking my head,” Hayhurst said. “We always talk about playing the game basic, meaning making the routine plays and getting the easiest out. We know Ava is more often than not going to have her share of strikeouts, but teams are also going to put the ball in play, and we have to make those plays. We had a couple brain cramps on defense. Let’s just say we were kind of fortunate they didn’t come back to bite us.”

Stecken singled with two outs in the seventh, but Lorenzatti was able to retire the final batter on a grounder to short.

Krull retired 11 of the final 14 batters she faced to keep her team within a hit or two from tying or taking the lead.

“We didn’t do anything we wouldn’t have done back on March 29,” Holman said. “We didn’t get off to the greatest start today, but these girls believe in what we do and knew we’d find ways to get back into it. We used some small ball, we showed some patience, we hit a couple balls really hard, and we just kept battling all the way to the end.

“No second-guessing of anything today. We played the way we play and just came up one run short.”