Saints latest to be no-hit by BC's Scott
Some Spring Break it was for the St. Charles East softball team.
The only thing more inhospitable than the conditions Thursday morning was the right arm of Burlington Central hurler Mackenzie Scott.
The junior had her second no-hitter in as many days, blanking the Saints with a 17-strikeout gem in St. Charles Thursday morning.
Scott has recorded 35 strikeouts without allowing a hit in two games, and the Rockets improved to 3-0 on the young season with a 6-0 victory.
St. Charles East fell to 1-3.
Central collected 8 hits in the frigid conditions, scoring three times in the first to give Scott all the offense she would need.
The second game of the doubleheader was postponed by snow and freezing temperatures.
"Everything was really working," said Scott, who recorded her fourth strikeout of the seventh inning to seal her second straight no-no. "It (the weather) really wasn't that bad. The girls got the lead early and that really helped."
Kayla Oranger, Ashley Scheffler and Sam Gruner all reached safely for the Rockets to begin the first, and the Saints' bases-loaded, nobody-out jam soon led to a 3-0 deficit.
Brooke Porto delivered the first run with a single, and two more followed on a late throw to the plate and an error.
Scott was in the groove for the get-go, striking out eight consecutive batters after retiring the Saints' leadoff hitter to start the game.
Lindsay Lange scampered home on a shortstop-to-first grounder in extend the Rockets' lead in the fourth, and Gruener closed out the scoring with two-out, run-scoring singles, the final one coming in the sixth.
It was all Scott the rest of the way.
The imposing right-hander did allow four walks, and a dropped third strike extended the game with two outs in the seventh, but the Saints' balls put in play were routinely fielded for outs.
"She threw a gem," St. Charles East coach Eric Ray said. "A credit to her, but we need to swing the bat. Until we go up there and start getting aggressive, we're not going to hit."
"She was really fast (with her pitches), and her riseball was very tough," St. Charles East sophomore Jenny Niemiec said.
The Saints' fourth was the only inning in which Scott did not chalk up a strikeout.
"She pitched even better than she did (on Wednesday)," Central coach Scot Sutherland said. "Offensively, I liked the way we started the game. We had base runners in almost every inning."