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PERU — Through the first seven games of the season, the La Salle-Peru softball team has relied heavily on pitching and defense.
The Cavaliers limited six of their first seven opponents to two runs or less.
On Friday, L-P showed it can outslug an opponent as well.
On a day when the defense stumbled with four errors, the Cavs collected 14 hits and recorded four multi-run innings in a 13-7 win over Morris in an Interstate Eight Conference game.
“This wasn’t really a great day to hit so I was extremely happy with the way we hit,” L-P coach Randy Huebbe said. “I think we can outslug people. I’d rather not. We do have good pitching, so we the combination of (a potent offense and strong pitching).
“Our approach was good today. We were selective. The girls were getting to the point where they know their spot on the plate to hit the ball. They’ll take a strike to wait for that one. They’re getting better at that and are not being as anxious I think that’s starting to pay off.”
L-P leadoff hitter Avah Moriarty set the tone for the Cavs’ strong offensive day as she started the game by ripping a line drive off Morris pitcher Maddie Noon.
Taylor Martyn followed with a bunt single and Paige Kirkman and Maddy Pangrcic delivered RBIs to give L-P a 2-0 lead.
“I think we did really well,” said Moriarty, who went 3 for 4 with three runs. “We hit the ball well.”
After Morris tied it with two runs in the top of the third inning, the Cavs responded with four in the bottom half.
The inning started with back-to-back infield miscues before Morris recorded two outs.
Evin Becker then smashed a two-strike home run to left field and Addison Duttlinger later hit an RBI single up the middle.
“We made lots of mistake early and had just really ugly play pretty much throughout the majority of the game and they capitalized,” Morris coach Jennifer Bamonte said. “We gave up too many base runners and seemed to be lazy moving to spots and they took advantage of it.”
Morris (11-6, 2-2 I8) had a big inning of its own in the fourth, scoring five runs on four hits and a pair of L-P errors.
Jaelyn Wiers hit a two-run single and Kylee Claypool delivered an RBI double before Huebbe brought Chloe Mitchell on in relief.
“It was just little things — just poking it through instead of trying to kill the ball,” Bamonte said. “On a day the wind is holding it up, you want to hit it down and hard and find holes, and that’s exactly what we were able to do. They made a few mistakes and we were able to capitalize.”
After Morris’ big inning, the Cavs responded again with another four-spot in the fourth with Pangrcic hitting a two-run double and Mitchell hitting a two-RBI single.
“We had more energy and we hit the ball,” Moriarty said about the key to L-P responding.
While L-P continued to add runs with three more in the fifth — highlighted by a two-run single by Kirkman — Mitchell shut down the Morris offense.
Mitchell entered with two outs in the fourth and struck out the first batter she faced.
She pitched three more scoreless innings, finishing with six strikeouts and allowing just one base runner on an error.
“She just hits her spots and she’s got good movement,” Huebbe said. “That riseball is hard to lay off. She also gets a lot of called thirds on that backdoor curve. She’s really good at that. She’s got very good control. I had all the confidence in her. It helps that she misses bats, so it gives our defense a chance when they’re in a funk like they were today not to stay in that funk.”
L-P improved to 8-0 and 4-0 in the conference with the win in the highly-anticipated game for the Cavs, who lost twice to Morris last season, which cost L-P a shot at the league title.
“They’re a good team,” Huebbe said. “I think they caught us at the right time last year. The girls were looking forward to this. It felt good. I’m not going to lie and say it didn’t.”