Batavia’s power too much for Rosary

If a pitcher’s best friend is a double play, the 3-run home run must be next in line.

Batavia starter Katie Coleman sure appreciated not one but two of those 3-run homers in the Bulldogs’ 10-0 victory over Rosary Friday in 5 innings in Batavia.

Coleman supplied the first 3-run shot herself, a blast over the fence in left field that put Batavia ahead 4-0 in the third inning.

Selena Kweder hammered the second 3-run homer with her drive that went high into the tree behind the left-field fence. That home run gave Batavia a 9-0 lead, and moments later Katie Ryan drove in Meghan Fabian with the 10th run that ended the game early.

“It helps me a lot on the mound to keep focused because I know I have runs on the board,” Coleman said. “I can calm down and focus more.”

The long ball is nothing new for Batavia (4-3) who socked 39 homers a year ago. But the power has not been on display as much this week including a doubleheader loss to Glenbard North on Wednesday when the Bulldogs scored 2 runs in 2 games.

“We haven’t been doing that so it was nice to see it come back a little today,” Batavia coach Ashley Szymski said. “We’ve actually been doing pretty well with the small ball so it’s nice to have both gadgets to work with.”

Rosary (1-6) had its best chance to score against Coleman in the first inning but stranded two. Coleman (2-2) pitched the first four innings before Katie Neubauer worked a 1-2-3 fifth.

Coleman said her screw ball and curve ball were both working well and liked how her team rebounded from Wednesday’s losses.

“We came back really strong and we all really focused and our defense played strong,” Coleman said.

Sami Villarreal led off the first inning with an infield single and eventually scored on a two-out error.

Freshman Ryanne Rokos bunted for a single to start Batavia’s third inning. Ryan singled and Coleman brought them both in with her homer.

After an unearned run in the fourth, Batavia scored five times in the fifth. A Rosary throwing error on Lauren Mueller’s bunt brought in the first run before Batavia again flexed its muscle, this time on Kweder’s towering blast.

Lexi Lovetere, who picked up Rosary’s first win of the year earlier this week against Newark, took the loss.

“If I’m going to say a positive we definitely played better than yesterday and Lexi did a great job today,” Rosary coach John Kazmierczak said. “She kept her (Katie Ryan) in the ballpark but they obviously have some other weapons.”

Like Batavia, Rosary also was happy to improve from its last game, a 15-2 loss to Sandwich.

“None of us were happy about that,” Kazmierczak said. “Definitely pleased about today’s performance. You take two swings of the bat away and that’s six runs.”

Villarreal, Rokos and Coleman all had 2 hits for Batavia.

“I’d like to see us do that against strong pitching,” said Szymski whose team plays Bartlett and Metea Valley next week. “I want to see us do the same thing but against stronger pitching which I know we can.”