Geneva has all the right moves in triumph over Batavia

Sometimes a coach pushes all the right buttons which yields a result they wish they could bottle and use over and over again.

Like the day Geneva softball coach Greg Dierks enjoyed Thursday in a 4-2 win over Batavia.

From the first inning to the Vikings' last at-bat, all Dierks' moves seemed to work to perfection, allowing Geneva to win a game despite getting outhit 10-5 and committing 3 errors.

This week in practice the Vikings practiced a pickoff play designed to use with runners at first and third.

Batavia put runners at first and third in the first inning. When Katie Luetkens took off to steal second, Geneva catcher Clare Stribling came up firing - right back to pitcher Kristyn Ruitenberg, who turned and threw to third baseman Kirsten Searcy who tagged out Batavia's runner at third to kill the rally.

"That might be one of the first times it has ever worked," Ruitenberg smiled. "I was worried I was going to make a really bad throw. It worked exactly like it was supposed to."

Batavia (6-7, 2-2) continued putting runners on base every inning - 7 hits through 4 innings - yet couldn't score. Geneva (5-8, 3-1) didn't have a single hit off Batavia starter Brooke Nelson in that same stretch yet remained tied 0-0.

"The pickoff at third was a great way to escape so we aren't behind when we came up to bat," Dierks said.

Batavia finally broke through on Luetkens' RBI single in the fifth. But another baserunning mistake kept the Bulldogs from extending their 1-0 lead.

Geneva went ahead 2-1 in its half of the fifth inning. A leadoff single by Stacey Cladis broke up Nelson's no-hitter, and she scored the tying run on what Dierks called Geneva's "hit of the year" - Stribling's two-out RBI single to right.

Freshman Bridget Weitzel followed by surprising herself with an RBI triple off the wall in center that gave the Vikings a 2-1 lead.

"I never thought I would be able to do that compared to other girls," Weitzel said of her long blast. "I was surprised it actually went that far. When I first hit it I thought it was another pop fly to center field. After I heard everyone screaming, 'Go, go, go' I kind of realized it went further than that."

Batavia tied the game in the top of the sixth on a leadoff double by Katie Coleman, Emily Dorjath's sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly by Allyssa Bleidorn.

That's when two more moves by Dierks helped Geneva plate the game-deciding runs in the bottom of the sixth. Dori Rogers drew a four-pitch walk to start the inning and moved into scoring position on Melissa Barber's bunt.

With a 1-0 count on Searcy, Dierks called timeout to talk to her. The freshman responded by driving the next pitch just inside the third-place line for a double that scored Rogers for a 3-2 lead.

Dierks' advice? Look for an inside pitch, which is just what she got - and hit.

"He told me to look for my pitch and turn on it," Searcy said. "It was a little inside but I just turned on it."

Dierks kept the good advice coming to Julie Orwig, telling her she had a "free at-bat" because Geneva already was winning. Orwig calmly drove in an insurance run with her RBI single.

"I think our hitters got better as the game went on," Dierks said. "I think we were probably a little overanxious. I like the fact when they tied us (in the sixth) we responded right back."

Ruitenberg also got better as the game went on, retiring Batavia on four batters in the seventh with the only runner reaching on an error. She improved to 4-2, scattering 10 hits, striking out four and walking two.

Luetkens led Batavia with 3 hits while showing off her strong arm at shortstop to make several good plays. Bleidorn added 2 hits.

"We were fired up," Luetkens said. "We were ready to play. It seemed like things were going well but when things weren't going our way and we weren't scoring runs instead of keeping that positive attitude we started to get a little disheartened. Things started to unfold a little and we couldn't fold them back up."

Batavia will try to bounce back when they play in the Fox Valley tournament today at Jerico Park in Aurora. Rosary, West Aurora and Oswego also are in the tourney.

"It will be good to get back out there and play instead of sitting around and stewing about a game we lost," Batavia coach Leon Pedraza said. "We gave the game away.

"It's aggravating. It's annoying. The girls were not smart at the plate. This is one they easily could have had, should have had. We have a lot of ticked off players so we'll see what they are made of."