Geneva plays error free, blanks Batavia
It wasn't the reason Geneva sophomore Rylie Porretto ran down balls in right field like a 10-time Gold Glover on Tuesday, but it turned out to be a pretty sweet bonus.
"They are a very rowdy team, very talkative, talking with everything they do, doesn't matter what the situation is," Porretto said of Geneva's opponent, Batavia. "Kind of felt good to keep them quiet for a little bit."
Porretto made two web gem worthy catches, one in the first inning and the other in the last, serving as bookends in Geneva's 6-0 Upstate Eight Conference River Division win.
Natalie Offutt was the first Bulldog Porretto robbed, racing back to snare the ball in deep right field. Porretto made a nearly identical catch to take extra bases away from Rachael Lovestrand in the seventh.
"She does a great job out there," Geneva coach Greg Dierks said. "She's a great defender and she's real comfortable going back on the ball. The balls that were hit, especially the second one, I thought got her but she tracks well and runs through the ball."
Batavia (10-9, 5-6) only managed 2 singles against winning pitcher Emily Plocinski. She walked 1 batter and had 1 strikeout as her defense played error-free softball behind her - Geneva's first game this year without an error.
"Emily was doing a great job inducing balls to me which I felt I needed to get for her," Porretto said. "I felt like I was seeing the ball really well today. We've been working a lot in practice of just getting back to balls and if we need to come back in."
Through three innings Geneva (12-4, 8-2) didn't get anything going either. Batavia starter Lovestrand stranded runners in scoring position in the second and third to keep the game scoreless.
After Annika Radabaugh walked to start the fourth, the Vikings capitalized on Batavia dropping a throw to first on Kaitlyn Plocinski's sacrifice bunt.
Radabaugh scored the first run on a passed ball, and Madison Keith launched a triple to deep right field for a 2-0 lead on a pair of unearned runs.
Geneva broke the game open with 3 runs in the fifth, a rally started with 2 outs and nobody on when Sarah Baurer walked. She stole second and scored on Radabaugh's hard single to center.
After Kaitlyn Plocinski walked, she and Radabaugh both scored when Porretto lined a 2-run single down the left-field line.
"She (Lovestrand) was throwing a lot of inside fastballs and we picked up on that," Porretto said. "We had to keep our noses in and pull them. If she did go outside that's perfect too, move some runners, hit it to the right side. I think we did a really good job today."
Geneva scored its final run in the sixth. Kate Geary singled to right to score Molly Wrenn who had opened the inning with a single.
"I thought we had a lot of quality at-bats," Dierks said. "We made her throw a lot of pitches. We kept fighting up there. Five of our 6 runs came with 2 outs. We had some clutch hits and I was real happy we added on."
Tara Zufan and Christina Karius had Batavia's only 2 hits.
"She did a nice job of moving it in and out," Batavia coach Lupe Castellanos said of Emily Plocinski. "She jammed us. We had no offense today. I have to give her a lot of credit. We weren't able to barrel up many balls. She got the ball in on our hands and we weren't able to extend the barrel."
Tuesday's win started a week of key games for Geneva against Tri-Cities rivals. Next comes road games at St. Charles North on Wednesday and St. Charles East on Friday.
Both the Saints and North Stars, like the Vikings, have 2 conference losses.
"These are the biggest games we've had in awhile," Dierks said. "It will be exciting for us."
"This week is our main goal of the season facing all these great teams," Porretto said. "It's going to be a great challenge. We started off good."