Morrow no-hits Geneva in spit doubleheader
Geneva scored 9 runs in the second game of a doubleheader against Kaneland Saturday, and in its previous game this week the Vikings blasted 10 hits against one of the best pitchers they'll see this year, Shannon Hohman from Waubonsie Valley.
Which should tell you just how good Kaneland junior Angie Morrow pitched in the opener Saturday.
Morrow no-hit those hard-hitting Vikings, striking out six and walking one in a 3-0 victory.
"That was as clean of a no-hitter as I think I've ever seen," Geneva coach Greg Dierks said. "She mowed us down."
Kaneland (7-7) scored the only run Morrow needed in the first. Meg Cohrs, who handled several tough chances flawlessly at third base, ripped a double to right center to score Lanie Callaghan.
Morrow did the rest, retiring the side in every inning but the second. She retired Geneva's last 16 batters, getting a soft liner to second, a strikeout and then a groundout to second for the final three outs in the seventh.
"My drop ball was working well and created ground balls to the left side of the field," Morrow said.
It was the second career no-hitter for Morrow, whose first came two years ago against Hampshire when she was a freshman at Burlington Central.
Morrow missed last second with a shoulder injury, which made this no-hitter all the sweeter.
"One of the hardest things I think I'll ever face in my life because you just don't know what's going to happen," Morrow said. "I had so many people along the way saying everything is gong to be OK so I think that helped.
"Today felt more like 100 percent to me. We've been working on strength with everything with my legs, with my arm, getting back to where I was before surgery. I feel like I'm almost there."
Geneva's only scoring chance came in the second. Keith walked with one out, then after Morrow recorded her third strikeout looking, she hit both McKenna Schimmel and Emily Plocinski to load the bases.
Morrow got out of the inning when Sarah Baurer lined out to Cohrs at third.
"She said they were out of the box and crowding the plate and trying to get hit or at least trying to put pressure on Angie not to come inside," Willis said. "Maybe she went too far inside. She adjusted to their batter's stance the next times they were up."
Kaneland plated two insurance runs in the seventh against Plocinski. Morrow and Morgan Sikon singled, and Sikon and courtesy runner Courtney Davis both scored when Geneva threw away a little dribbler hit by speedy Lexi Roach.
"We played well defensively, we made every play we needed to make, she (Morrow) pitched outstanding," Willis said. "She didn't shut down a little 1A school, she shut down a solid 4A school.
"She's getting stronger as the season goes on. She's still not even a year out from surgery. She's thrown some decent games but that's the best she's looked."
Plocinski also looked good with 7 strikeouts and just 5 hits, 1 earned run and 1 walk allowed.
"Emily pitched a real nice game," Dierks said. "She didn't have any margin for error today. She had pretty good command of what she was doing."
Geneva (6-4) rallied from a 7-1 deficit to win Game 2, 9-8. The Vikings scored 4 runs in both the sixth and seventh innings.
Madison Keith capped the comeback with a 3-run home run in the bottom of the seventh to counter an earlier home run from Kaneland freshman Morgan Weber. Porretto singled, Kaitlyn Plocinski singled and Molly Wrenn doubled to set up Keith's walk-off homer.
Wrenn added 4 hits and 3 RBI for Geneva. Weber was 3-for-3 for Kaneland with a double and her third home run of the season.
Rachel Fanella pitched the first 6 and 2/3 innings for Geneva, and Wrenn got the last out in relief to pick up the win.