Softball: Rock Falls gets rolling vs. Dixon

ROCK FALLS – After Dixon took an early lead Tuesday afternoon, Rock Falls responded.

The Rockets immediately answered the Duchesses’ two-run second inning with five runs in the bottom of frame, then Katie Thatcher retired the last 18 hitters she faced in a 9-2 Big Northern Conference victory at home.

[ Photos from Dixon vs. Rock Falls softball ]

“Definitely the momentum that we had going really got us hyped up, and it was really nice to feed off of the energy that we had,” said Thatcher, the senior Louisville recruit who struck out 10 without a walk and allowed just three baserunners in the game.

Dixon (2-5, 2-3 BNC) took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second when Delaney Bruce led off with a double and went to third on Elly Brown’s single. After a strikeout, Aly Moore hit a grounder to second base to drive in Bruce, then Brown scored when the throw from first to third after recording the out hit her helmet and bounced away.

“It definitely helped let us know that we could compete with them. Those early runs gave us some confidence, and some hope that we could play with them,” Dixon sophomore pitcher Allie Abell said.

But Rock Falls (9-2, 3-0 BNC) wasn’t down for long. Savanna Fritz led off the bottom of the second with a triple, then scored on Abby Whiles’ single. With Whiles at second and two outs, Olivia Osborne laced a double to left to drive in Whiles and tie the score, then Brooke Howard snuck a bloop double in front of the Dixon left fielder to drive in Osborne.

Rylee Johnson followed with a triple to right-center, plating Howard, then Johnson scored when Thatcher roped a single into left-center. The inning ended when Thatcher was thrown out at second trying to stretch her hit into a double.

“It’s less stressful when we can get the lead right back,” said Fritz, who had a pair of triples. “I believe in my team that we can do it. We just all have to work together, and we can’t get down on ourselves for the little things. We try and get a little more each time, and we believe in each other that we can answer their runs and score every time we’re up to bat.”

Then Thatcher went to work. After those two hits to lead off the second, she didn’t allow another baserunner for the next five innings.

The only other Dixon player to reach base was Abell, who was hit by a pitch with one out in the first inning; she was stranded at third.

“It was sort of hard to adjust to the strike zone, so once I adjusted and got into the zone, I think pitching in the zone and letting them them hit the ball and really letting my defense work behind me was key,” Thatcher said. “It was pretty hard to get them to chase when you had to throw right over the plate, so getting that contact and those weak ground balls really helped out a lot.”

While the Duchesses couldn’t get anything going at the plate, Abell was keeping the Rockets off the scoreboard as well. She pitched around two-out hits in the third and fourth innings, then escaped unscathed when Rock Falls had runners on second and third in the fifth.

“I was just hitting the spots,” said Abell, who allowed seven earned runs and 15 hits in a complete game, striking out three without a walk. “If I threw it down the middle, they were going to nail it. So I was just focusing on those corners, and I think that’s what saved us in some of those innings.”

The Rockets tacked on in the sixth. Pinch hitter Emma Skinner and Osborne led off the inning with singles, then after a flyout, each moved up a base on a wild pitch. Abell got a strikeout for the second out, but Thatcher came through with a two-out single to left to drive in Skinner and Osborne.

Zoe Morgan reached when her pop fly on the infield was dropped, then Fritz took advantage by ripping a two-run triple in almost the same spot as her earlier one to plate Thatcher and Morgan.

“I didn’t know they’d be triples, but they felt good off the bat. I just thought, ‘OK, I’m just running until they tell me to stop,’” Fritz said about her big hits. “I think we just had our confidence, and as a team, we were all 100% in.”

“It’s just the small details, those routine plays that we have to make,” Dixon coach Candi Rogers said. “We catch a couple of pop flies and we hold them down a little bit and they don’t score all those runs. We’ve just got to clean it up.”

Fritz and Howard both went 3 for 4, and Thatcher, Whiles and Osborne each had two hits. Osborne scored twice as eight different Rockets crossed the plate, and six different players finished with RBIs.

Dixon didn’t manage to get much going offensively, but the defense was solid. The Duchesses only committed one error, and besides a couple of other misplays, they were able to get the outs they needed to stay in the game.

Abell and Rogers both say they’ve seen the incremental improvement as a young, inexperienced team tries to find its way this season.

“We definitely focus on different things every game, and I think one of these games when we put it all together, we’re going to end up being a good team,” Abell said.

“I feel like we are coming along, and it’s going to come together,” Rogers agreed. “We’ve just got to keep working, stay patient, and it will all come together for us.”