Kaneland's Davis no-hits Burlington Central
Despite the fact that both teams have new coaches, there was a familiar ring to Thursday's softball season opener between Burlington Central and Kaneland.
A year ago, the Rockets ended the Knights' season with a walk-off 6-5 victory in the Class 3A regional championship.
This one wasn't nearly as close.
Kaneland (1-0) received offensive production throughout its lineup while junior pitcher Courtney Davis tossed a no-hitter with 5 strikeouts during the Knights' 11-0, 5-inning nonconference triumph over the Rockets (0-1) in Maple Park.
"We ended our season with them and we started this one with a win," said Davis, who walked 2 and struck out 5 in 5 innings. "It (last year's loss) definitely was in the back of our minds. It was nice to come out and beat them."
The Knights wasted little time giving Davis a decent cushion to work with by scoring 2 first-inning runs on a pair of 2-out RBI base hits.
Meg Cohrs launched a triple to deep right field to drive in Rachel Goress with the game's first run and Alexsis Mullins delivered a 2-strike RBI single to give the Knights an early 2-0 lead.
In the second, the Knights continued with clutch hitting. Sophomore Morgan Weber knocked a 3-0 pitch from Rockets junior Emily Kisch for a 2-out, run-producing triple. Goress (2-for-2, RBI) drove in Weber with a single and senior catcher Paige Kuefler (2-for-2, 2 RBI) added an RBI double as the Knights extended their lead to 5-0.
Kaneland's first 5 runs came across on 2-out hits.
"How many of them came with two strikes (2)?" asked Knights coach Peter Goff. "That was another thing I was really happy about."
Davis (2-for-2) and Samantha Payton each added RBI hits in the third inning as the Knights built a 7-0 advantage.
Kuefler and Mullins recorded RBI singles in the fourth while Mary Clausen (2-for-3) capped the scoring with a 2-run double down the left-field line.
Kaneland finished with 13 base hits, including extra-base knocks from Cohrs, Weber, Kuefler, Davis, Goress and Clausen.
"I think one good thing is that we haven't hit off the machine (in practice)," said Goff. "Either a coach was throwing at them or we threw live pitchers at them."
Davis did the rest as she faced the minimum 15 batters thanks in part to Kuefler, who picked a runner off first in the second before gunning down a would-be base stealer at second in the fourth.
"It's nice having a catcher like Paige," Davis said of Kuefler.
"She had good control of the ball today and her placement," said Goff. "She kept it to the outside and they tried to pull the ball."
It wasn't the start Rockets first-year coach Kyle Molik envisioned.
"We obviously didn't hit," said Molik. "You're not going to get much offensive production when you're not getting runners on base."
Molik knows better things are ahead for the Rockets, who return 4 seniors - Courtni Neubauer, Amanda Ratliff, Alyssa Mish and Kassidy Gaylord.
"This doesn't reflect who we are," said the coach. "It's March 19th. The fact that we're playing is a good thing. March is not what you're playing for - you're playing for May. We will get things corrected.
"We'll all recover from this."