Softball: Mylie Hughes leads Morris past Rochelle

MORRIS – Mylie Hughes had a bit of revenge on her mind when she came to bat in the bottom of the first inning Monday.

The Morris pitcher had surrendered a two-run home run to Rochelle pitcher Emma Heller in the top of the first, giving the Hubs an early 2-0 lead.

Hughes, however, got her revenge. The first three hitters in the Morris order – freshman Cami Pfeifer, junior Karson Dransfeldt and freshman Haylie Olson, all singled to load the bases for cleanup hitter Hughes.

With a stiff wind blowing out to center field, Hughes connected on a 3-2 pitch and sent it over the center field fence to kick things off for Morris in a 12-2 Interstate Eight Conference win.

“I was hoping to get those runs back when I came up,” said Hughes, who drove in five runs in the win. “I wasn’t thinking about a home run. I just wanted to hit it hard because a base hit would have scored two and tied it. But the wind helped and it got out of the park.”

Before they were done, Morris scored six runs in the bottom of the first, later getting a two-run single by Pfeifer (4 for 4, 3 RBIs). Morris continued to score, getting single runs in the second and third innings before scoring four in the bottom of the fourth.

After allowing two hits in the top of the first – the other a Camryn Metzger double – to Rochelle (4-9, 0-5), Hughes allowed just one hit in the other four innings she pitched. Phelisity Lopez’s single with one out in the second was the only other offense against Hughes, who retired 10 of the last 11 batters she faced, nine by strikeout.

“My change-up was working really well today,” Hughes said. “I threw it often enough to let them know I would.

“Also, it’s a lot easier to pitch with a big lead like I had. I knew I could just go out there and throw strikes. Our offense has been hitting really well lately, so I know we are going to score.”

Her teammates gave Hughes plenty of support, collecting 16 hits. Besides Pfeifer’s four hits, Hughes, Olson, Addy Hackett and Macie Ferguson each had two hits, while Jepson, Hackett and Makenna Boyle each had an RBI.

Olson led off the bottom of the second inning with a single and stole second. One out later, Jepson was hit by a pitch. The two then took off for a double steal, and Olson scored when the throw got past the third baseman. Abby Hougas led off the third with a single and stole second before scoring on a single by Pfeifer.

In the fourth, Olson led off with a walk and came home on a double to right by Hughs. Courtesy runner Boyle scored on a single by Jepson. The ball got past the left fielder, allowing Jepson to reach third, and she scored on a single by Hackett. Ferguson singled, and an out later Boyle hit a pinch-hit single to score Hackett for a 12-2 lead. Relief pitcher Alaina Valdes gave up a one-out single to Briel Metzger, but struck out the final two batters to end the game by the 10-run rule.

“Mylie threw a great game, especially with the wind howling out like it was,” Morris coach Jen Bamonte said. “It’s not like she made a bad pitch on the home run. Their girl just got it up in the jet stream and it carried out.

“This was the way I want to see our offense play. We hit the ball hard and had a lot of solid contact. When we are trying to kill it and hit home runs, we struggle. I think we have finally figured out our lineup, and the girls are buying into us telling them, ‘Why don’t we just single teams to death?’ I think this is the sixth game this year when we have batted around in an inning. We didn’t have to do a lot defensively with the way Mylie was throwing, but we made the plays we had to make.”