Bartlett’s Burke blanks St. Charles East
With as many runners St. Charles East put on base Tuesday against Bartlett, it’s a good thing for the Hawks they have a pitcher who “lives for those situations.”
Bartlett senior Tori Burke stranded 9 Saints baserunners including 6 in scoring position and 3 in a pressure-packed seventh inning. The result was a 1-0 win for Bartlett (8-2, 3-0 in the Upstate Eight), the fifth in a row for the streaking Hawks.
Burke extended a streak of her own, now at 16 straight scoreless innings after also blanking Batavia last week. Unlike that game when the Bulldogs only mustered 1 hit, the Saints (7-6, 1-3) threatened Burke nearly every inning.
As it turns out, all that pressure was no big deal to Burke.
“When people get on base I know I have to start working the corners more,” Burke said. “It becomes a game of trying to get them to hit the ball where I want it. I’m also confident in my fielders. It’s those situations that I can make the pitches for them to put the ball in play I know they will back me up.
“Those pressure situations are almost what I live for. They have people on with nobody out, and I’m like, all right, let’s finish it now. The adrenaline, the rush, these games as heartbreaking as they can be, that’s what you live for.”
St. Charles East stranded a runner in scoring position in each of the first three innings. That included the second when sophomore Kate Peterburs drove a ball high into the wind that hit off the top of the center field fence and instead of bouncing over for a home run bounced back into play for a double.
While the Saints were squandering chances, Bartlett managed only 1 hit in the first 6 innings against sophomore Haley Beno as the game stayed scoreless into the seventh.
Kaylyn Zierke singled in the first inning, and Saints catcher Casey Basic threw out the courtesy runner trying to steal second. Tess Hupe also made a diving catch in deep left field during a stretch Beno retired 14 straight hitters.
Bartlett was aggressive, going down on 3 pitches in one inning and 4 pitches in another.
“She (Beno) pitched a real nice game,” Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith said. “I thought early in the game we were doing a good job being patient. I hope we learn how to adjust when a pitcher is dealing.”
Beno retired the first two hitters in the seventh. Burke singled for just Bartlett’s second hit of the game, and Alex Morales lofted a ball into right center that the Saints dropped. Courtesy runner Amanda Montbriand raced in with the game’s only run.
“Weather like this you have to defend,” Wolfsmith said. “We took advantage of an error in the outfield and when it was our turn to field we played good defense.”
St. Charles East nearly rallied in its half of the seventh. Shelby Palomares led off with a single and after Bartlett couldn’t field a bunt cleanly Burke was in a two-on, nobody-out jam.
After Burke recorded two outs on a fielder’s choice and a fly to right, Sarah Collalti singled to load the bases before Burke bore down to get the final out on a called third strike.
“Tori has been throwing up goose eggs and in a big pressure packed situation she went right at that batter,” Wolfsmith said of his ace who will play softball and volleyball next year at Cardinal Stritch University.
“That’s a sign of how much she has matured. She has great movement. She doesn’t throw the same pitch in the same location. Batters have a hard time squaring the ball up.”
The Saints scattered their six hits by six different players. Beno allowed 2 hits, 0 earned runs and just 1 walk in her 7 innings while striking out six.
“She pitched well enough to win,” Saints coach Kelly Horan said. “She hung tough. We needed to get our hits going earlier. We’re learning. At some point we’re going to have say we have to win now. But we will learn from this and be better for it. We just have to bust through. We needed that one person to come up with that key hit.”