Burlington Central’s Morrow no-hits Hampshire
Monday’s pitching lesson turned into Wednesday glory for Burlington Central freshman Angie Morrow.
Working the outer half of the plate as well as she has all season, the Rocket right-hander came a walk away from a 5-inning perfect game and her team scored all of its runs with two outs in a 10-0 nonconference softball win at Hampshire.
The win is the 10th straight for No. 18 Burlington Central (19-7) and the Rockets’ 13th win in their last 14 games.
“I had a pitching lesson Monday and I’ve been working on getting my pitches out there more and not jamming them inside all the time,” said Morrow, who struck out 10 of the 15 batters she faced and didn’t allow a ball to be hit out of the infield.
While the game was important to the Rockets as they surge toward the No. 1 seed in their own upcoming Class 3A regional, Morrow (8-3), who threw her first high school no-hitter, also stressed the rivalry between Hampshire and Central added to the adrenaline some, despite the fact Hampshire is now in the Fox Valley Conference.
“Through the years they were in our conference and our seniors wanted to beat them as bad as ever,” she said.
Rockets’ coach Cray Allen was impressed with his freshman’s continued growth.
“She knows she’s not going to blow things by people and she lives on her corner spots,” Allen said. “We preach it, she understands it and she knows how important it is.”
The Rockets had their share of problems with Hampshire (10-17) freshman Haley Widmayer one time through the order, but then they exploded.
BC broke a scoreless tie in the top of the third when Bekah Harnish (2-for-3) doubled in Emily Bell, who had reached on a fielder’s choice.
Then came the big inning as the Rockets plated 7 runs in the fourth inning, all with two outs. After two outs and three straight walks, Cortni Neubauer singled home Lauren King and courtesy runner Mackenzie Paschke, Bell (3-for-4) doubled in Rebecca Roscher and Neubauer, and Harnish, Haley Albamonte and Brooke Gaylord all followed with run-scoring singles.
“We didn’t start off as well as we had hoped but with two outs, to score that much, you’re happy as a coach,” Allen said.
The Rockets finished things off in the fifth as Roscher drew a two-out walk, Neubauer singled and Bell doubled them both home. Morrow struck out two of Hampshire’s three batters in the bottom of the inning.
“She might be the best pitcher we’ve faced all year,” said Hampshire coach Ken Bram of Morrow. “She had a good fastball with good location and she works the changeup in. They didn’t hit all that hard but we made some mistakes and you can’t do that against a decent hitting team.
The win should go a long way toward BC solidifying the No. 1 regional seed. The Rockets beat Kaneland, which beat DeKalb. Hampshire is also in the 4-team field, so Wednesday was not a game BC could overlook.
“Hampshire’s beaten some pretty good teams and their coach does a nice job,” Allen said. “We weren’t taking this game lightly at all. We came out and took care of business.”