When Olivia Hemmerle starts in the pitching circle, good things have been happening for the Belleville East softball team this spring.
Hemmerle, a hard-throwing junior righthander took the ball again for the Lancers on Wednesday and, with a little help, did not dissappoint.
Thanks to some timely hitting and another dominating pitching outing from Hemmerle, Belleville East posted a 4-2 nonconference victory over Highland at Highland High School.
It was a nice early season road win for Coach Natalie Peters young and developing Lancers club.
“I thought it was a very competitive game between two good teams and I’m proud of our team and I think they did the little things right today,” Peters said. “We got our bunts down, we moved runners over and had some good situational hitting.”
Belleville East (3-2) used good situational hitting in the top of the third to get the lead. A base hit by Ari Monroe and error on the throw home allowed Maddie Mueller, who reached base to lead off, and Monroe to score.
“The ball got past the catcher and and one runners was sent home and our just kept running and she’s pretty speedy and really aggressive an it allowed us to score two runs,” Peters said.
East added added insurance runs in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Emma Fetters and in the seventh on Monroe’s RBI groundout which plated Aby Kohler from third.
That cushion gave Hemmerle plenty of breathing room to deal in the circle.
Hemmerle was strong all day in the circle as she silenced the Bulldogs bats for six inning carrying a shutout into the seventh inning.
“Everything was working today and I couldn’t have done with without my team,” Hemmerle said. “My team was behind me and they were making every play that they needed to.”
Highland finally got on the board in he bottom of the seventh as pitcher Kaitlyn Wilson’s two-run single to right cut the ed to 4-2 with one out.
Hemmerle, however, settled back down and retired the next two Highland hitters to pick up the complete-game victory.
“You’ve just got to stay focused and my team helps me with that like remind how many outs there and little stuff and I have to remind myself to calm down too and my coaches tell me to breathe,” Hemmerle said.
Hemmerle gave up two runs on two hits, struck out six and walked two to get the win.
