Softball: Marquette’s Kaylee Killelea makes own homer stand up in win over rival Seneca

SENECA – Marquette Academy’s Kaylee Killelea has played and pitched in her share of big games and excelled over her four-year career.

The Crusaders’ senior lefthander added another big game to her resume Tuesday afternoon against rival Seneca in a battle of unbeaten Tri-County Conference teams.

Killelea lined a first inning home run for the visitors, then scattered five hits while pitching. She was backed by flawless defense in a complete-game shutout to help Marquette grab the first game of the two-game set 1-0 over the Fighting Irish.

“Our defense played phenomenal today, whether it was Makayla (Backos) at second, Taylor (Cuchra) at first, Avery (Durdan) at third or Emma (Rinearson) in right, they all made great plays to make things easier on me that’s for sure.”

—  Kaylee Killelea, Marquette Academy senior pitcher

Marquette (12-3, 7-0) and Seneca (11-3, 6-1) meet again at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at June Gross Field in Ottawa.

“I just came into today not worrying about the rivalry, not worrying about playing well or not well, but just come here and play,” Killelea said.

Killelea’s solo blast, just to the right of the scoreboard in right-center off Seneca starter Tessa Krull, came with two outs and after two called strikes, and Killelea fouled off a tough pitch.

“When I got down 0-2 I was just looking to put the ball in play,” Killelea said. “I wanted to make sure I wasn’t making the strike zone bigger than it is and swing at the next good pitch I saw. Luckily for me the pitch was pretty good, and I was able to put a good swing on it. To be honest, I felt like I hit it good, and I didn’t think it was going to end up a home run, but I’ll take it.”

Killelea threw 53 of her 74 pitches for strikes, didn’t walk a batter, struck out four and saw her defense make every routine play with a handful of great efforts thrown in.

“I was having success starting on the inside corner to try and get ahead in the count, and then moving to the outside,” Killelea said. “Our defense played phenomenal today, whether it was Makayla (Backos) at second, Taylor (Cuchra) at first, Avery (Durdan) at third or Emma (Rinearson) in right, they all made great plays to make things easier on me, that’s for sure.”

Seneca had its best chance to tie the score in the bottom of the first. Alyssa Zellers led off with a single to center – her first of two hits – and moved to second on a groundout. Then on a flyball to right, Zellers attempted to tag and score, but was thrown out at the plate on a relay from Rinearson to Durdan to catcher Eva McCallum.

After that Seneca had only one runner reach second base, that came in the sixth with two outs, and it couldn’t find a way to tie the score.

“Kaylee pitched outstanding and got the big hit early, and our defense was solid from start to finish,” Marquette coach Brad Oakes said. “Playing well in all three parts of the game are the only way you are going to win against really good teams like Seneca is.”

Maisie Lyons finished with three of MA’s seven hits, while Cuchra had a double in the fourth.

“I figured this would be a tight, competitive and low-scoring game,” Oakes said. I mean it’s Marquette and Seneca, that’s how it usually goes in games between us. It was a very well-played game on both sides, and we’ll have to come ready to go again [Wednesday].”

Freshmen Krull, who struck out five and allowed one run on five hits with no walks over five innings, and Cam Stecken, who allowed two hits and a walk in two innings, each pitched well, but the Irish offense just couldn’t score.

“We hit a handful of balls right on the screws today, but they were either right at Marquette fielders or on a couple that just made outstanding defensive plays,” Seneca coach Brian Holman said. “Marquette did as well, but unfortunately for us one of their hard hits was a line drive that cleared the fence. Sometimes you are just unlucky in that regard.

“I felt like our overall approach at the plate was good, defensively we were good, and Tess and Cam did a great job as well. We had a few chances, but we just weren’t able to capitalize on them. We’ve been getting really good pitching, but our hitting just hasn’t been able to come through as much as I would like to see.

“We’ll get there, and hopefully that starts [Wednesday] at their place.”