Rosary reverses St. Francis loss

Rosary's second chance to play St. Francis couldn't come soon enough.

The Royals played their worst game of the season in the first meeting; St. Francis swung its big bats and thumped Rosary 20-1.

Instead of erasing that ugly defeat from his team's minds, Rosary coach John Kazmierczak made sure they didn't forget it.

"I told the girls to take a good long look at the scoreboard before we left Wheaton the last time we were in town there," Kazmierczak said. "The girls have been marking this day on the calendar. Not to say this was a revenge game but they knew that wasn't our game when we played up there."

Rosary has been playing better ever since and got its chance to show the Spartans just that on Friday. The Royals jumped to an early lead with a pair of runs in the first two innings on their way to a 7-4 victory in Aurora.

"It definitely fueled the fire," Rosary center fielder Cassi Zachmann said of the 20-1 loss. "It only made it more intense.

"We pulled it together a lot better than the last time we played them. It was a real big confidence booster."

Rosary (13-9, 7-4) capitalized on a rare wild day from St. Francis starter Taylor Ronchetto (13-6). The Royals scored 2 of their runs on wild pitches and 2 more on bases-loaded walks.

St. Francis (15-8, 6-4) outhit Rosary 10-7 but couldn't overcome 7 walks and 3 errors.

"That is twice as many walks as she's had all season," St. Francis coach Ralph Remus said. "We knew that (first game) was an aberration. We knew they were a better team than that. They played a tough game today. I thought they put pressure on us and we made too mistakes in the field and had too many walks."

Emily Meyer singled home Rosary's first run, then Chelsey Frieders hustled home on a wild pitch for a 2-0 lead.

The Royals made it 4-0 in the second on Frieders' run-scoring single and Meyer's walk with the bases loaded.

St. Francis got right back into the game with a 3-run third inning. Brie Pasquale's second of her 3 hits drove in the first run, and Emily Karpinski brought in two more with a triple to deep right field.

Leading 5-3 in the fourth inning, Kazmierczak pulled starter Tara Pfeiffer and went with Audrey Ruddy. The move worked, with Ruddy holding the Spartans to 1 run in her 3 2/3 innings of relief.

Ruddy got plenty of help from her defense, especially Danielle Reder behind the plate and Zachmann in center field.

Zachmann made the play of the game in the fifth inning. Even after Reder threw out a runner trying to steal second, St. Francis threatened with runners at first and second and two outs.

Lauren Gorski singled to center, and Laura Behnke motored around third. Only a perfect throw had a chance, and Zachmann did just that.

Reder blocked the plate - just as she did in the third inning on another out at the plate - to get Behnke and preserve a 5-4 lead.

"I was really nervous," Zachmann said. "I knew where I was going I just didn't know if it would make it. Thank God it did."

The Royals turned an infield single, bunt single and 3 walks into a pair of insurance runs in the fifth. Brenda Rocha and Frieders both had 2 hits.

St. Francis hit three hard deep fly balls in the seventh but all three were caught to complete Rosary's 22-run turnaround - from a 19-run loss to a 3-run win.

"We're a good hitting team," Remus said. "Too many balls in the air. The wind held them up and they were able to run under them. Give them credit."