BRODHEAD — With the help of her defense, senior pitcher Mckenna Young threw a no-hitter against Beloit Turner on Thursday, March 30 to improve to 3-0 on the season.
“I honestly didn’t know that I had a no-hitter. My dad told me at the end of the game,” Young said. “I was surprised. Tuner is a great hitting team overall. Their defensive is impeccable. Their pitcher is great. They are such a fun team to play because they are so competitive.”
After a clean top half of the inning, Taetum Hoesly drove in the only run Brodhead would need on the first pitch of her at-bat. The single to center drove in Ava Risum, who doubled to lead off the inning.
“It felt really nice to jump on them early. In the past years, hitting has been where we’ve fallen off,” Hoesly said. “With it being colder, we had a lot of ground balls on the left side that they ate up. Getting that RBI felt good.”
Young struck out the side in top of the second inning.
Jerrica Schwartz then singled in the bottom half of the frame, and Tatum Ceslock moved her into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. Turner’s starting pitcher Ryleigh Rose got out of the inning with a groundout.
Young issued a five-pitch walk to Cacee Carl to start the third inning, but the Cardinal defense stepped up. Sammi Schleis attempted to bunt Carl into scoring position but too much air under the ball. First baseman Alexis Kammerer charged and caught the ball and threw Carl out at one. Young then ended the inning with another strikeout.
“Having a defense that can back me up is one of the best feelings because I know that I can trust them,” Young said. “I can do my job and they will also do their job. I’m not putting pressure on myself to be perfect, knowing that no matter what happens they will have my back.”
In the bottom half of the fourth inning, struck out Taylor Viens. Maddy Hoenig then lined out to Allie Dahl, followed by another strikeout from Autumn Meris. She swung at strike three in the dirt, but Hoesly blocked the ball and threw down to Kammerer to secure the out.
“She [Hoesly] blocked a lot of pitches in the dirt that could have been runners,” Brodhead head coach Steve Krupke said. “We did a nice job of not letting runners get on base because when they do, it changes things. It puts pressure on the defense.”
The next three innings went three-up three-down for Turner.
Young and the defense recorded a no-hitter and didn’t commit an error. Young walked just two batters and struck out 16. Her strikeout to walk ratio is 12:1.
The Cardinals recorded just three hits — one each from Hoesly, Risum and Schwartz. Brodhead struck out just once, as the rest of the balls were put in play for outs.
“She [Rose] is one of those pitchers who puts it in places where it’s hard to barrel up the ball,” Krupke said. “She moves the ball down and away. With her, she pitches to weak contact. She does a good job of hitting her spots. Everyone falls in love with these hard throwers, and that’s great, but if you hit your spots, it is effective.”
