Grounders all St. Francis gets against Benet's Staats
Under the bright lights at Benedictine University on Friday night, Benet pitcher Allyson Staats shined.
The junior no-hit St. Francis for five innings before finising with a 3-hit shutout in an 8-0 victory over the Spartans in Lisle.
"She was on," Benet coach Jerry Schilf said. "They had a couple of bloop hits off her, but that was by far the best she's pitched all year long, and it was the kind of pitching we were looking for going into this season. It just hadn't been there."
Staats kept her infielders busy against St. Francis (10-6).
"There were a lot of weak groundballs hit to second base or first base," Schilf said. "They were hitting her curveball. She kept them off-balance just enough, and then when we needed outs when she had runners on base, she got the outs. By far her best game of the year."
"I honestly didn't think anybody was going to shut our team out this year," added St. Francis coach Ralph Remus. "We've got a good-hitting lineup. She did a very nice job. She was always around the plate, forcing a lot of weak grounders out of us. So I give her a lot of credit."
Staats (5-5) passed along the credit to the girls standing behind her on the field.
"I really like using my drop-curve because they can hit it on the ground and I know I have my defense behind me to back me up," she said. "They're awesome."
St. Francis broke up the no-hitter when Therese Kerr led off the bottom of the sixth with an infield hit. Paige Davis followed with a bloop hit to left, the first ball to reach the outfield against Staats. But a couple of fielder's choices and a grounder to shortstop kept the shutout intact.
St. Francis threatened again in the seventh on a walk and an infield hit. But a grounder and a popup to second baseman Shellie Schaffer ended the game.
"I knew that we weren't going to let them score," Staats said.
The victory broke a six-game losing streak for Benet (5-7).
Benet took a lead in the first inning, pushing across 3 runs. The Redwings matched that number in the third inning, and padded on two more runs in the sixth, taking advantage of some sloppy fielding along the way.
"Looking at the board during the game and I see the big 4 errors up there for us, that was huge," Remus said. "In addition to those I thought there were a couple of other plays we didn't get errors on, but those were plays we should have made. If we play a clean game they probably beat us 2-0 or 3-0 rather than 8-0. I'm disappointed in the fact that we didn't play a clean game."
"St. Francis is a very, very good team," Schilf added. "That score is not an indication of how much better we are than them. We just happened to play well tonight. They're a very, very solid team. They're going to do well."