Burlington Central routs Hampshire

The Burlington Central softball team is learning more every day that if its bats are hot, the inexperience of its pitching and defense becomes less and less glaring.

Take Monday for example.

The Rockets spotted Hampshire a 2-0 lead after one inning, then scored 17 runs in the next four innings to rout the Whip-Purs 17-3 in a Big Northern East game at Hampshire.

Central (9-8, 3-1) has now scored 45 runs in its three conference wins this season.

“We started going up the middle in the second inning and you could see our timing and our rhythm was much better,” said BC coach Cray Allen.

And no Rocket had better timing and rhythm than junior first baseman Emily Bell, who was 4-for-4 with 2 doubles, a triple, a home run and 5 RBI.

“My first at-bat was not that good,” said Bell, who lofted a pop fly down the right-field line that bounced away from Hampshire’s right fielder and ended up a triple. “I just went back in and thought about it and I had a better approach the rest of the day.”

Hampshire (3-12, 1-3) touched BC sophomore Rebecca Roscher (5-2) for 2 runs in the bottom of the first but Roscher allowed just 1 hit over the next three innings before giving way to Kelsey Johnson for the bottom of the fifth and final inning of the slaughter rule win.

“Rebecca does everything we ask of her,” said Allen. “Her and Lauren King ... neither one of them are going to be that fantastic spectacular player. They just come out here and do everything we ask them to do.”

Christina Potempa and Becca Vodraska opened Hampshire’s first inning with singles, Potempa reaching second on a single and a throwing error and Vodraska beating out a bunt that allowed Potempa to go to third. Potempa scored on a successful double steal and Vodraska came home on an infield error on Tiffany Bentley’s grounder.

But then the Rockets hit Hampshire like an out-of-control freight train. BC scored 4 runs in the second, Bell’s leadoff triple and Bekah Harnish’s 3-run triple with two outs being the big blows. The Rockets added 3 runs in the third as Bell had an RBI double and Brooke Gaylord and Roscher RBI singles.

Bell’s 2-run bomb and Emily Orals’ RBI single highlighted the 4-run fourth and the Rockets put the game totally out of reach with a 6-run fifth that included a 2-run double from Bell, an RBI double from Roscher, a 2-run home run from Sarah Kisch that went about 230 feet, and a hard RBI groundout from Haley Albamonte. The Rockets totaled 15 hits on the day. Roscher had three, Harnish two and Albamonte added a double.

Sophomore Jen Hurst (2-7) suffered the loss for the Whips in her first game back after missing a week with an ankle injury.

“She doesn’t have her velocity back but (BC) flat-out hit the ball, “ said Hampshire coach Ken Bram. “That’s the best hitting team we’ve seen this season. Every swing is just picture perfect. We made some mistakes early with a couple fly balls that could have been caught but they flat-out beat us.”

Bram was pleased that his team came back and scored in the fifth, when Vodraska’s single brought home Kendall Walker, who led off the inning with a single.

“We never quit,” Bram said. “We made some good plays today. Grace Jakubowski threw two runners out trying to steal, Tiffany Bentley made a real nice play at shortstop and Vodraska made a real nice catch in center. We’re getting better.”

Allen would like to see his team’s record stay on the positive side of .500 from here on in. The Rockets are off until Thursday when they travel to Marengo in a game between two of the three teams currently tied for first place in the BN-East.

“We’ve been talking to the girls about what it’s going to take to make our season special,” Allen said. “I think we’ve got the talent here to make something happen and I’m excited to see when it’s going to happen.”