Montbriand pitches Bartlett past S. Elgin
Amanda Montbriand may not be the “featured” pitcher on Bartlett’s softball team this year, but Hawks’ opponents might not want to think they’re getting a “No. 2” if Montbriand heads to the circle against them.
The senior right-hander showed her effectiveness again on Wednesday, carrying a no-hitter into the seventh inning before settling on a 3-hitter in her team’s 8-1 Upstate Eight Valley win at South Elgin.
The win was the fourth straight and 13th in the last 14 games for No. 10 Bartlett (17-3, 10-0), the only undefeated team in the Upstate Eight.
Montbriand (6-0) struck out 4 and didn’t walk a batter. She got 13 groundball outs. The Hawks also made two sensational plays that helped her take the no-hitter into the seventh.
“My defense behind me was working hard today,” Montbriand said. “I’m not a strikeout pitcher by any means.”
The Hawks took a 2-0 lead in the second when Montbriand singled and scored on Kayla Haberstich’s blast over the left-field fence. The scored an unearned run in the third inning as Alex Morales reached on an error, Holly Pagan beat out an infield hit and Montbriand singled to left to drive home Morales.
That score stood until the seventh inning as South Elgin senior Sam Bolin (6-8) buckled down and held the Hawks to just 2 hits in the middle innings, aided as well by some stellar defense from a revamped South Elgin infield that had junior Kara Rodriguez at shortstop and junior Victoria Watt at second base. Rodriguez had been playing center field and Watt shortstop.
But for as clean as the game was through six innings, the wheels fell off for the Storm (8-15, 5-5) in the seventh. Bolin, who struck out 8 and walked 2, hit Kaylyn Zierke with a pitch to open the inning. Morales beat out a bunt and Pagan sacrificed the runners to second and third. Then, South Elgin committed 4 straight errors on the next four batters and by the time Andrea Taormina drove in the last run of the inning, Bartlett led 8-0.
“I just thought we wore them down in the seventh with our pressure,” said Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith. “Eventually that pressure gets to you and it got to them. I give our girls a lot of credit for their baserunning today.
“But until the seventh that was a good ballgame. It wasn’t an 8-1 game. (South Elgin) really played some nice defense. (Watt) made some beautiful plays up the middle.”
Watt also broke up Montbriand’s no-hit bid with a clean single through the 5-6 hole to lead off the bottom of the seventh. Sophomore Alyssa Buddle then launched an RBI double to left and Bolin followed with a solid single to the left side before Montbriand got out of it with a groundout and a strikeout sandwiched between an infield error.
“After they got those hits I just trusted my defense. I knew we’d get out of it,” said Montbriand, who said she realized going into the fifth inning she was bidding for her first varsity no-hitter.
“Amanda pitched a great game today,” said Wolfsmith. “She’s a groundball pitcher and she got groundball outs.
South Elgin coach Jason Schaal credited Montbriand as well, but lamented his team’s continued struggles to be consistent.
“She pitched a great game,” he said. “We just weren’t getting the hits and then the wheels fell off in the seventh. We’re trying to mix things up a little and get a little fire going into the second round of conference and into the postseason.
“For six innings you saw two good defensive teams. Kara and Victoria are pretty good friends. They have this thing about working together and they both made some nice plays today. But we have things to fix.