Rensberger fans 15 as Lady Zs stay unbeaten in TRC

Hunter, Heinzmann have 2 hits each; Medina, Strasser have 2 RBIs each vs. Mac

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Bria Rensberger Darah Strasser

Rochester sophomore pitcher Bria Rensberger’s standards have become so high that pitching a three-hitter with 15 strikeouts left her wanting more.

Still, it was more than enough as the Lady Z softball team beat visiting Maconaquah 9-2 in a Three Rivers Conference home game at Fansler Field Wednesday.

Rochester improved to 12-4 overall and 4-0 in the TRC. Maconaquah dropped to 2-9, 0-4.

All nine batters in the Rochester starting lineup had at least one hit off Maconaquah senior pitcher Blayklee Buman, and the Lady Zs did not strike out.

Brailyn Hunter and Mylee Heinzmann, the Nos. 6 and 7 batters in the lineup, respectively, had two hits and two runs scored each. Gabby Medina and Darah Strasser, the Nos. 8 and 9 batters, respectively, each had two RBIs in Rochester’s six-run fifth.

“Anytime we can get the bottom portion to feed our top portion, but our bottom portion carried us tonight,” Rochester coach Jim Coleman said. “You know, Darah’s been hard on herself, so to see her make some good contact tonight was good to see. She’s been putting in some extra work, and tonight, it definitely showed. And Mylee, just fighting back from injury, so getting her bat back in the lineup and being more consistent, and Medina, she just seems to hit well in big situations. She had a big hit for us tonight that really opened up the game.”

Rensberger, Jadyn Field and Aubrey Miller each contributed a hit and an RBI.

Rensberger’s two-out RBI double to the left-center gap in the first made it 1-0.

Then, Hunter led off the second with a double and advanced to third on Heinzmann’s bunt single.

Two batters later, Strasser fouled out to left, scoring Hunter. Heinzmann would later advance to third when Miller reached on an error and eventually scored on a wild pitch.

Buman, who has pitched every inning this season for Maconaquah, retired five in a row going into the fifth, but Wilson hustled out a grounder to third and beat the throw to first for an infield hit.

Wilson then stole second and advanced to third on Rensberger’s groundout. Field then hit a sinking liner to right. Right fielder Kitalynn Miller could not make a shoestring catch, and the ball bounced behind her for an RBI double.

Hunter scorched a grounder down the third baseline, but it was missed for an error. Field advanced to third and Hunter reached second on the play. Heinzmann walked on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases.

Medina then cranked a liner to the left-center field fence for a double that scored Field and Hunter and moved Heinzmann to third.

“She was OK,” Medina said of Buman. “She really knows how to work the zone. Offensively, I think we worked as a team, and that’s something we’ve struggled with. I also feel when we work as a team, we play together and just do great things like Jim expects us to do. … We all come together, and we have fun. And when we have fun, we play the game.”

Strasser then crushed her triple to deep right-center to score Heinzmann and Medina. In two swings, the lead had gone from 4-0 to 8-0.

Miller lined an opposite field RBI single to left to make it 9-0.

Meanwhile, Rensberger bore down against a Maconaquah lineup that came in with a .349 team batting average. She struck out every Maconaquah starter at least once. That included cleanup hitter Shaela Brazzel, who had struck out only twice this season and who came in with a .586 average and five home runs.

Brazzel and Ireland Kile drew back-to-back walks to start the second, but Rensberger fanned the next five batters and retired 11 of the next 12 batters.

Eleanor Boshears broke up Rensberger’s no-hit bid after 4 ⅔ innings on an infield single, but Rensberger threw out Buman trying to bunt her way on.

Trailing 9-0, Haylee Scarlett walked to lead off the sixth and went to second on Kasey Murry’s single. The runners moved to second and third on a passed ball and scored on Kile’s two-run single to right.

But strikeouts of Fuller and Peterson followed. In the seventh, Rensberger eventually ended the game by striking out Scarlett with a runner in scoring position.

Coleman said Rensberger was frustrated during the game. She walked four and hit a batter.

“She demands better control, and you know, you’ll see that on her face more so than us coaches,” Coleman said. “She would be the first to admit that she wasn’t on tonight. She was missing spots. The one hit batsman was one that she was supposed to be inside and just missed seven, eight inches further in. Like I told her after the game, everybody can’t be at their best every game. So learn from it, and the big thing for her is understanding she wasn’t at her best, and she made some adjustments… and she still had 15 (strikeouts). A lot of pitchers would be excited to strike out 15. Bria, being the competitor that she is, wants to be perfect every night. Hopefully, she’ll bounce back and be ready for us tomorrow.”

Bunt defense could also be a key. With a pitcher like Rensberger capable of copious amounts of strikeouts, teams might be creative in trying to get baserunners.

“With Bria in the circle, it’s hard to decide who’s going in on the bunt,” third baseman Medina explained. “Because if there’s a runner on one (first base), Mia (Howdeshell, the first baseman) will stay back, and I’ll go in and Bria will cover the first baseline. But if we have a runner on first and second, I stay back, and Bria takes my line, so we have to communicate. … We did pretty good. They pretty much bunted when there was only a runner on first, so then Bria knew she had Mia’s line, and I took mine, and then when there were runners on first and second, she knew she had my line.”

Rochester 9, Maconaquah 2

Maconaquah 000 002 0 – 2 3 3

Rochester 120 060 X – 9 11 0

WP – Bria Rensberger (7 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 1 HBP, 15 K)

LP – Blayklee Buman (6 IP, 11 H, 9 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 1 HBP, 0 K)

2B – Bria Rensberger (RHS), Brailyn Hunter (RHS), Jadyn Field (RHS), Gabby Medina (RHS)

3B – Darah Strasser (RHS)